Tuesday, May 14

Tag: Henry Waddington

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,...
The Marriage of Figaro – Royal Opera House
London

The Marriage of Figaro – Royal Opera House

Mozart’s classic four-act comic opera, an adaptation with Da Ponte of Beaumarchais’ banned 1778 play about warring masters and servants, is delightfully brought to life in director David McVicar’s own revival of his 2006 production, again conducted by Antonio Pappano, of this satirical and deeply human drama. As the day of Figaro (Riccardo Fassi) and Susanna’s (Giulia Semenzato) wedding arrives, it becomes clear that their master, Count Almaviva (Davide Luciano), is keen to exercise his ‘droit du seigneur’ – his right to bed a servant girl on her wedding night – and they conspire with the forsaken Countess (Federica Lombardi) to outwit her husband and teach him a lesson in fidelity. Plans however are thrown awry when Bartolo (Henry Waddington), seeking revenge against Figaro for thwart...