Welsh National Opera Archives - North West End UK

6May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Don Giovanni –Liverpool Empire

Welsh National Opera return to Liverpool Empire with this revival by Caroline Chaney of John Caird’s 2011 production of one of Mozart’s most complete operas, and incorporating John Napier’s original brutalist staging, inspired apparently by Rodin’s The Gates of Hell. Don Giovanni (Aaron O’Hare – a last-minute replacement due to cast indisposition) has seduced over 2,000 women, all catalogued by servant Leporello (Joshua Bloom), and our story starts with him looking to add another name with his attempted rape of Donna Anna (Linda Richardson) that results in him killing her father, the Commendatore (James Platt), and which her fiancé Don Ottavio (Trystan Llŷr Griffiths) swears to revenge. Donna Elvira (Meeta Raval), an earlier conquest who believes Giovanni to be her husband, has come...

Madam Butterfly – Liverpool Empire

If captivating story arcs of love, deception and tragedy are your thing, you don’t want to miss this. The timeless plot of Madam Butterfly takes your heart on an emotional rollercoaster and showcases the human voice in a way that must be heard to be fully appreciated. How are The Welsh National Opera delivering a production that brings this to the fore as well as evolving the interpretation of Puccini’s masterpiece? Directed by Lindy Hume, the new tour provides an altogether more gritty – more realistically raw – interpretation of an opera that has stood the test of time. Some people may feel the traditional expectations of opera shouldn’t be tampered with or be apprehensive about how such a work could be adjusted effectively; this is the mindset I held upon first seeing this revised v...

Madam Butterfly – Birmingham Hippodrome

With all the characteristic style and élan we usually associate with Welsh National Opera, “Madam Butterfly” wafted decorously and gracefully into the Birmingham Hippodrome last night, alighted with panache and, once her work was done, flitted off on the thermal undercurrents of a warm and adoring audience and was seen no more. It was a delight. A crowded, expectant and semi-masked audience sat entranced as the tale unfurled of Captain Pinkerton’s child-bride, Madam Butterfly who, after providing him with a home life and a child, is deceived and betrayed by her thoughtless husband and commits the act which all deceived and betrayed wives seem to commit in opera, but I’ll not inflict a plot-spoiler so early in proceedings suffice to say the denouement arrives inevitably but shockingly a...