Wednesday 19th June 2024 at 1.00pm Rigoletto – Guiseppe Verdi Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play Le roi s’amuse by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had control over northern Italian theatres at the time,… Read More »
Wednesday 20th December 2023 at 1.00pm Cinderella by Alma Deutscher Performed by the Opera San Jose in 2017 In this engaging version of the fairytale, Cinderella’s father is manager of a ‘little opera house at the edge of town’ who, after the death of his wife, marries an ‘ageing prima donna’. When he dies, Cinderella’s stepmother takes over… Read More »
Wednesday 21st December 2022 Christopher Wheeldon’s lively Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland transports audiences to the riotous world of Lewis Carroll’s characters, including a tap-dancing Mad Hatter and a comically wicked Queen of Hearts. Bob Crowley’s ingenious mixture of traditional and innovative stagecraft together with the pace and colour of Joby Talbot’s score make Alice a gloriously vibrant experience. Packed with clever choreography… Read More »
Wednesday 16th November 2022 Les Pecheurs De Perles – Bizet The Pearl Fishers “The spontaneous rapturous standing ovation from what looked like the entire audience at the end of this superb production says it all. “ A pearl-diving village in the Far East. As the villagers prepare for their dive, they sing of their fear of the sea.… Read More »
Opera Appreciation Group Winter 2021/22 Programme length Wednesday October 20th 1:15pm Tales of Hoffman—Offenbach A superb recording with Opera National de Lyon from 1993. It features a cast of top singers with the choir and orchestra of the Opera National directed by Kent Nagano 120 mins Wednesday November 17th 1:15pm Don Giovanni—Mozart (Zurich Opera) This is a… Read More »
December 18th 2019 Madame Butterfly – Puccini A Film by Frederic Mitterrano The story of a young geisha who falls madly in love with an american captain that travels all around the world collecting hearts. November 20th 2019 at 1:30pm Rigoletto—Verdi Domingo. Cotrubas. Levine. A brilliant performance despite it taking place as long ago as 1977. A comparatively… Read More »
December 19th 2018 at 1:30pm Porgy and Bess – Gershwin Willard White, Cynthia Haymon, Damon Evans, Cynthia Clarey Orchestra: Glyndebourne Festival Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle “This is the most complete video that I have found anywhere that has “most” of the songs from the original score in their orginal form as written musically.… Read More »