Jonathan Ellis Archives - North West End UK

8Sep

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Don Giovanni – Lowther Pavilion Theatre

Whilst it’s not customary to review the same production, a couple of key cast changes, a new venue, and the omission of the supporting orchestra meant that director Sarah Helsby-Hughes would have to overcome some challenges with Flat Pack Music’s ingenious re-setting of one of Mozart’s most complete operas to La Dolce Vita of 1960’s Italy: she was not to disappoint. Don Giovanni (Richard Walshe) has seduced over two thousand women, all catalogued by servant Leporello (David Bicarregui), and he is looking to add another name with his attempted rape of Donna Anna (Carrie-Ann Williams) that results in him killing her father, the Commendatore (George Elson), and which her fiancé Don Ottavio (Joseph Buckmaster) swears to revenge. Donna Elvira (Helsby-Hughes), an earlier conquest, has come...

Don Giovanni – Flat Pack Music at Thirsk Hall

18Aug

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Don Giovanni – Flat Pack Music at Thirsk Hall

Sarah Helsby-Hughes’ direction is inspired as we embrace La Dolce Vita of 1960’s Italy in Flat Pack Music’s ingenious and comic interpretation of one of Mozart’s most complete operas as part of the De Mowbray Music Festival in Thirsk. Don Giovanni (Richard Walshe) has seduced over two thousand women, all catalogued by servant Leporello (Hamish Garrity), and he is looking to add another name with his attempted rape of Donna Anna (Carrie-Ann Williams) that results in him killing her father, the Commendatore (George Elson), and which her fiancé Don Ottavio (Joseph Buckmaster) swears to revenge. Donna Elvira (Helsby-Hughes), an earlier conquest, has come in search of Don Giovanni, although he is now trying to seduce peasant girl Zerlina (Heather Buckmaster) on her wedding day to Mase...

Cavalleria rusticana / Pagliacci – St George’s Hall, Liverpool

13May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Cavalleria rusticana / Pagliacci – St George’s Hall, Liverpool

North Wales Opera Studio’s welcome return to Liverpool to perform a one-act verismo pairing became a little disjointed as director Anne Williams-King was unable to take full advantage of the venue’s performance space. Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci or, more familiarly, Cav and Pag is an archetypal one-act opera pairing, and it’s hard to imagine two more closely matched pieces even though it was not the result of any concerted strategy on the part of the two composers, Mascagni and Leoncavallo. Composed just two years apart, these two dramas of jealousy, passion, and murder, show obvious similarities as early exponents of Italian Opera’s Verismo movement towards greater theatrical reality involving supposedly realistic settings and the dramas of ordinary people as an...

A Night at the Opera – St Mary’s Church Eastham

23Aug

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

A Night at the Opera – St Mary’s Church Eastham

Just over three years ago a friend asked a favour of me to review a young company performing an English libretto version of Così fan tutte in the backroom of a pub in Liverpool: it proved to be one of the best things I ever did as it introduced me to Flat Pack Music. Having had the pleasure of watching many of their productions since, and with the challenges and travails of a pandemic almost out of the way, it was a delight to see their return with A Night at the Opera at St Mary’s Church in Eastham, where it all began for them four years ago. Four professional soloists – Soprano Sarah Helsby Hughes, Soprano Heather Buckmaster, Tenor Joseph Buckmaster and Baritone Peter Lidbetter – were joined by Accompanist Jonathan Ellis to serve up some of operas most famous works as they performe...