Friday, December 5

Tag: Garry Walker

La Bohème – The Lowry
North West

La Bohème – The Lowry

Phyllida Lord’s classic production, designed by Anthony Ward, is one of the longest running at Opera North having been in their repertoire since 1993. James Hurley’s current revival is big on the comedy but sadly fails to hit the high notes that this staple of the operatic calendar deserves. With the action transposed to late 1950’s Paris, we meet four struggling bohemians living in a garret: a poet, Rodolfo (Anthony Ciaramitaro); a painter, Marcello (Yurly Yurchuk); a philosopher, Colline (Han Kim); and a musician, Schaunard (Seán Boylan), who arrives having had some good fortune and they agree to celebrate by dining at Café Momus. They are interrupted by their landlord, Benoît (Jeremy Peaker), but cleverly trick him into revealing he has been playing around which allows them to throw ...
Opera North: Falstaff – The Lowry
North West

Opera North: Falstaff – The Lowry

The rainbow-striped curtain rises on Opera North’s sustainable take on Verdi’s final masterpiece, a comic opera drawn from Shakespeare in director Olivia Fuchs’ re-imagined riotous and rampant romp that serves up satire, slapstick, and stags along the way. Roguish knight Falstaff (Henry Waddington) is down on his luck, residing in the car park of the Garter Inn and reliant upon its Host (Gordon D. Shaw) to keep him in good spirits of any kind! When he informs Bardolph (Colin Judson) and Pistol (Dean Robinson) that he intends to seduce Alice Ford (Kate Royal) and Meg Page (Helen Évora) they refuse to deliver his letters, so he throws them out, turning to his assistant Robin (Robert Gardiner) instead. When the letters are eventually received, Mistress Quigley (Louise Winter), Meg, Alice, ...