2016 – 2017Der Rosenkavalier Richard Strauss

Il tabarro Giacomo Puccini

Suor Angelica Giacomo Puccini

Billy Budd Benjamin Britten

The Snow Maiden Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Hansel and Gretel Engelbert Humperdinck

Cinderella Gioachino Rossini

Turandot Giacomo Puccini

AUTUMN

WINTER /SPRING

The coming year is an especially exciting time in the life of Opera North. Not only do we present five brand new main stage productions, we also welcome to the Company our new Music Director, Aleksandar Markovic, who joins us as Richard Farnes steps down after twelve illustrious years at the helm.

As I write these words, rehearsals are in full swing for Richard’s final performances as Music Director in complete cycles of the Opera North Ring. So there could hardly be a more fitting way for Aleksandar to begin his tenure here than with a great work by Richard Strauss, a composer who, perhaps more than any other, embraced the Wagnerian example in his operas whilst fashioning an idiom all his own. It is fourteen years since we last performed Der Rosenkavalier, so it is with great relish that we look forward to Aleksandar’s debut performances in his new post this autumn.

It is even longer – some twenty years – since the Company last staged Britten’s Billy Budd. We have, I believe, assembled a truly exceptional cast for this new production of a work that, for some, ranks as Britten’s greatest achievement for the stage. Completing the autumn season is a double bill of two of Puccini’s one-act Trittico operas: a revival of our 2004 production of Il tabarro, originally part of our legendary ‘Eight Little Greats’ season, paired with a new production of Suor Angelica. Both are works that offer the best of Puccini in compact form.

Opera is all about the telling of great stories about life, amplified by some of the most powerful music ever written. So it’s no surprise that fairy-tales, which embody our deepest fears, joys and desires, have provided fertile territory for opera composers. We felt that it would be fascinating to bring together three tales from contrasting European traditions in a single season: from Russia, Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden; from Germany, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel; and from Italy, Rossini’s version of Cinderella. All three are presented in new productions which will share basic elements of a highly adaptable set; and all three creative teams will, in their different ways, utilise modern stage technology to bring the tales to life for audiences today. The adaptability of the design also enables us to offer Saturday matinee performances of Cinderella, as well as special schools’ performances of Hansel and Gretel as part of an extensive education and community engagement programme in Leeds and on tour.

A pioneering aspect of Opera North’s work over the past decade has been its dramatic concert performances of several large-scale works, culminating in our complete cycles of the Ring in 2016. We continue to mine this rich seam of work in 2017 with a concert staging of Puccini’s mighty last opera Turandot, which Aleksandar Markovic conducts to close the season.

Such a rich and diverse programme is only sustainable through the continued investment of Arts Council England and Leeds City Council, the generosity of our individual and corporate supporters, and, of course, the passion and adventurous spirit of our audiences. Please join us as often as you can in the year ahead as we embark on the next enthralling chapter in the Opera North story.

Life amplified

Richard Mantle General Director

The coming year is an especially exciting time in the life of Opera North. Not only do we present five brand new main stage productions, we also welcome to the Company our new Music Director, Aleksandar Markovic, who joins us as Richard Farnes steps down after twelve illustrious years at the helm.

As I write these words, rehearsals are in full swing for Richard’s final performances as Music Director in complete cycles of the Opera North Ring. So there could hardly be a more fitting way for Aleksandar to begin his tenure here than with a great work by Richard Strauss, a composer who, perhaps more than any other, embraced the Wagnerian example in his operas whilst fashioning an idiom all his own. It is fourteen years since we last performed Der Rosenkavalier, so it is with great relish that we look forward to Aleksandar’s debut performances in his new post this autumn.

It is even longer – some twenty years – since the Company last staged Britten’s Billy Budd. We have, I believe, assembled a truly exceptional cast for this new production of a work that, for some, ranks as Britten’s greatest achievement for the stage. Completing the autumn season is a double bill of two of Puccini’s one-act Trittico operas: a revival of our 2004 production of Il tabarro, originally part of our legendary ‘Eight Little Greats’ season, paired with a new production of Suor Angelica. Both are works that offer the best of Puccini in compact form.

Opera is all about the telling of great stories about life, amplified by some of the most powerful music ever written. So it’s no surprise that fairy-tales, which embody our deepest fears, joys and desires, have provided fertile territory for opera composers. We felt that it would be fascinating to bring together three tales from contrasting European traditions in a single season: from Russia, Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden; from Germany, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel; and from Italy, Rossini’s version of Cinderella. All three are presented in new productions which will share basic elements of a highly adaptable set; and all three creative teams will, in their different ways, utilise modern stage technology to bring the tales to life for audiences today. The adaptability of the design also enables us to offer Saturday matinee performances of Cinderella, as well as special schools’ performances of Hansel and Gretel as part of an extensive education and community engagement programme in Leeds and on tour.

A pioneering aspect of Opera North’s work over the past decade has been its dramatic concert performances of several large-scale works, culminating in our complete cycles of the Ring in 2016. We continue to mine this rich seam of work in 2017 with a concert staging of Puccini’s mighty last opera Turandot, which Aleksandar Markovic conducts to close the season.

Such a rich and diverse programme is only sustainable through the continued investment of Arts Council England and Leeds City Council, the generosity of our individual and corporate supporters, and, of course, the passion and adventurous spirit of our audiences. Please join us as often as you can in the year ahead as we embark on the next enthralling chapter in the Opera North story.

Music Richard Strauss Libretto Hugo von HofmannsthalFirst performanceDresden, 1911

Perfectly poised between comedy and pathos, Der Rosenkavalier contrasts the impulsive young love of Octavian and Sophie with the Marschallin’s acknowledgement of the passing of time. Although fearful that the 17-year-old Octavian will leave her for a younger woman, it is the Marschallin who engineers the first meeting between her lover and the young and beautiful Sophie – with inevitable consequences.

Strauss and his librettist Hofmannsthal sought to reinvent Mozartian comedy in their own terms in Der Rosenkavalier, creating an ideal marriage of words and music. The score is clearly post-Wagnerian, yet its luxuriance is balanced by an exquisite lightness of touch; and, in the closing trio especially, gives glorious expression to Strauss’s adoration of the soprano voice.

This revival of David McVicar’s sumptuous period staging marks the debut of conductor Aleksandar Markovic as Opera North’s new Music Director.

‘This is a Rosenkavalier to delight the seasoned Straussian, to convince the sceptical, and to beguile the uninitiated.’ Daily Telegraph

Cast includes:Feldmarschallin Ylva KihlbergOctavian Helen ShermanSophie von Faninal Fflur WynBaron Ochs Henry WaddingtonHerr von Faninal William Dazeley / Paul Gibson Italian Tenor Jung Soo Yun

Conductor Aleksandar MarkovicDirector David McVicarRevival Director Elaine Tyler-Hall Set Designer David McVicar Costume Designer Tanya McCallinLighting Designer Paule Constable Lasts approximately 4 hoursSung in German with English titles

Der Rosenkavalier

MusicGiacomo Puccini LibrettoGiovacchino ForzanoFirst performanceNew York, 1918

The central panel of Puccini’s Il trittico, Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica) focuses on one of the most heart-rending of human experiences, the loss of a child.

Angelica has been confined to a convent by her wealthy family as punishment for giving birth to an illegitimate son. After seven years with no word from her family, she is visited by her aunt – a princess – who tells her that her child died years ago, news which plunges Angelica into suicidal despair. But although there is darkness at the heart of Suor Angelica, there is also light. Its miraculous ending is suffused with redemptive beauty and the opera has a musical character unique in Puccini’s output. It also contains one of his greatest soprano arias, ‘Senza Mamma’.

Anne-Sophie Duprels has given some of the most beautifully sung, emotionally harrowing performances at Opera North in recent seasons in productions such as Madama Butterfly and La vida breve. She is ideal casting in the titlerole of this new production by director Michael Barker-Caven, who undertook a hugely successful revival of La Bohème for the Company in 2014.

Cast includes:Suor Angelica Anne-Sophie DuprelsLa Zia Principessa Patricia Bardon

Conductor Jac van Steen / Anthony KrausDirector Michael Barker-Caven Set and Costume Designer Hannah Clark Lighting Designer Mark Doubleday Lasts approximately 1 hour Sung in Italian with English titles

New production

Suor AngelicaPerformed in a double-bill with Il tabarro

Music Giacomo PucciniLibretto Giuseppe AdamiFirst performanceNew York, 1918

Paris, 1912. Puccini sees a one-act play called The Cloak and immediately wants to set this tough little drama – which he describes as a ‘red stain’ of a text – to music. Eventually it was to become the first panel in his ‘triptych’ of operas, Il trittico, which premiered in New York in 1918.

Il tabarro is a noir-ish thriller about a wife who has taken a lover, driving her jealous husband to murderous despair. It’s full-throttle stuff, in which Puccini swiftly establishes an intensely menacing atmosphere into which he hurls his sharply-defined characters. Add to this some highly innovative orchestral scene-setting, and you have the essence of vintage Puccini in concentrated form.

‘David Pountney gives an uncomplicated staging that lets the story and Puccini’s deft score, a masterpiece of pacing and growing, measured horror, speak for themselves. This work is a marvel of atmospherics and human drama, every character brilliantly drawn, Puccini’s uncanny magic of grim rhythm and rationed hysteria silkily drawing the audience into its web before delivering the knockout.’ The Times

Cast includes:Michele Ivan InverardiGiorgetta Giselle AllenLuigi David Butt Philip

Conductor Jac van Steen / Anthony KrausDirector David PountneyRevival Director Michael Barker-Caven Set Designer Johan Engels Costume Designer Tom PyeLighting Designer Mark Doubleday Lasts approximately 1 hour Sung in Italian with English titles

Il tabarroPerformed in a double-bill with Suor Angelica

Britten’s opera is based on a novella by Herman Melville, author of Moby-Dick. It tells the tale of Billy, a young sailor who radiates beauty and goodness, provoking the envy of the Master at Arms of the HMS Indomitable, Claggart, who is bent on Billy’s destruction. The one man who has it in his power to save Billy is the Indomitable’s captain, Vere, who is haunted by his failure to do so.

Familiar Britten themes such as innocence corrupted, good destroyed by evil, and the outsider, are explored with penetrating psychological insight in a work described by its librettist E. M. Forster as ‘a grand opera grandly presented’. For many, the power of Britten’s large-scale orchestral writing, the all-male forces, and the intensity with which he responds to the work’s subject matter make this his greatest operatic achievement.

A cast of today’s leading Britten interpreters has been carefully assembled for Opera North’s first staging of Billy Budd in more than twenty years. This new production, directed by Orpha Phelan and designed by Leslie Travers, remains faithful to the opera’s period while plumbing the darkness of its emotional depths.

Cast includes:Captain Vere Alan OkeBilly Budd Roderick WilliamsJohn Claggart Alastair MilesMr. Redburn Peter SavidgeMr. Flint Adrian ClarkeLieutenant Ratcliffe Callum ThorpeRed Whiskers Daniel NormanDonald Eddie WadeDansker Stephen RichardsonNovice Oliver JohnstonNovice’s Friend Gavan Ring

Conductor Garry WalkerDirector Orpha Phelan Set and Costume Designer Leslie Travers Lighting Designer Thomas C. Hase Lasts approximately 3 hours Sung in English

New production

Billy BuddMusic Benjamin BrittenLibretto E. M. Forster and Eric CrozierFirst performanceLondon, 1951

Music Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Libretto Nikolai Rimsky-KorsakovFirst performance St. Petersburg, 1882

Opera North’s fairy-tale season is a journey across the continent: from Germany to Italy via France, and beginning in Russia with Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden.

The Snow Maiden is the daughter of Grandfather Frost and Spring Beauty. Although herself warm and beautiful, she has a heart made of ice which, if it were to be warmed by the light of human love, would melt, and she would die.

From this well-loved Russian tale Rimsky-Korsakov weaves an opera of sheer enchantment, graced with some of the composer’s most spontaneously lyrical music. He claimed that the score contains several authentic folk melodies, and his rich and colourful orchestration,in which delightful instrumental solos abound, is a gorgeous evocation of the natural world.

John Fulljames’s new production is a first for Opera North, and will make inventive use of video imagery to blend and contrast worlds of fantasy and reality. Described by its composer as ‘a spring fairy-tale’, The Snow Maiden is an opera sure to warm even the iciest of hearts.

Cast includes:The Snow Maiden Aoife MiskellyTsar Berendey Bonaventura BottoneGrandfather Frost James Creswell Spring Beauty Yvonne HowardLel Heather LoweKupava Elin PritchardMizgir Phillip Rhodes

Conductor Leo McFallDirector John Fulljames Set Designer Giles Cadle Costume Designer Christina Cunningham Lighting Designer Matthew HaskinsProjection Designer Finn RossChoreographer Lucy Hind Lasts approximately 3 hoursSung in English with English titles

New production

The Snow Maiden

Music Gioachino RossiniLibretto Giacomo FerrettiFirst performanceRome, 1817

Most of the familiar elements of the Cinderella story derive from the French author Charles Perrault’s version of the tale. Almost none of them – fairy godmother, pumpkin carriage, glass slippers – appear in Rossini’s opera, which eschews the fairy-tale in favour of sparkling romantic comedy.

Rossini was as celebrated in his day for his serious as for his comic operas, and in Cinderella he combines his genius for both. Whilst Cinderella’s step-father Don Magnifico and the Prince’s servant Dandini are both marvellous comic creations, Cinderella herself emerges as a true romantic heroine, her transformation into a queen-in-waiting achieved not by magic but through the power of music.

Dance is woven into the very fabric of the opera, and into this new production of it, which is directed by Aletta Collins, whose recent work for Opera North includes much-admired productions of The Girl of the Golden West, La voix humaine and Dido and Aeneas. Combine the fun, fire and brilliance of Rossini’s music with a fresh and witty take on the opera and an evening of pure magic is in store.

Cast includes:Angelina (‘Cinderella’) Wallis GiuntaDon Ramiro Sunnyboy DladlaDandini Quirijn de LangDon Magnifico Henry WaddingtonClorinda Sky IngramTisbe Rosie AldridgeAlidoro John Savournin

Conductor Wyn Davies / David CowanDirector Aletta Collins Set Designer Giles Cadle Costume Designer Gabrielle Dalton Lighting Designer Matthew HaskinsProjection Designer Andrzej Goulding Lasts approximately 3 hoursSung in Italian with English titles

Supported by a generous gift from The Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation

New production

CinderellaLa Cenerentola

Music Engelbert HumperdinckLibretto Adelheid WetteFirst performanceWeimar, 1893

Humperdinck’s version of the tale by the Brothers Grimm is perhaps the best-loved operatic fairy-tale of all.

An unending thread of golden melody weaves its way through the score, whether it is in the dizzying excitement of the Witch’s Ride or the serene beauty of the children’s Evening Prayer. The music magically evokes the contrasting worlds of the story, from the daily struggle for survival of an impoverished family, for whom split milk is a domestic catastrophe, to the world of the forest, both idyllic and full of danger, to the supernatural realm of the Sandman, the Dew Fairy and, of course, the Witch.

In the roles of Hansel and Gretel are two young artists whose careers Opera North has been instrumental in developing over the past few years: mezzo Katie Bray and soprano Fflur Wyn. Susan Bullock sings the formidable role of the Witch, doubled here as Gertrud, the children’s mother.

Cast includes:Hansel Katie Bray Gretel Fflur WynGertrud/Witch Susan Bullock Peter Stephen Gadd / Phillip Rhodes

Conductor Christoph Altstaedt / Justin DoyleDirector Edward Dick Set Designer Giles Cadle Costume Designer Christina Cunningham Lighting Designer Matthew HaskinsProjection Designer Ian William Galloway Lasts approximately 2 hoursSung in English with English titles

New production

Hansel and Gretel

Music Giacomo PucciniLibretto Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni First performanceMilan, 1926

Cast includes:Turandot Orla BoylanCalaf Rafael RojasTimur Alastair MilesEmperor Altoum Bonaventura BottoneLiù Sunyoung SeoPing Gavan RingPang Joseph ShoveltonPong Nicholas Watts

Conductor Aleksandar Markovic

Lasts approximately 2 hours 15 minsSung in Italian with English titles

Concert staging

Turandot

Ancient Beijing. Princess Turandot decrees that she will marry the prince who can solve three riddles. Those who fail are put to death. Many accept the challenge; none survives the attempt. But when Prince Calaf arrives at the palace, so dazzled is he by Turandot’s beauty that he is determined to have her, despite the pleas of the slave girl Liù, who is secretly and selflessly in love with him.

The scale of Puccini’s musical invention in Turandot is stupendous, exceeding that of anything he had previously attempted. Teeming with exotic colour and atmosphere, the score includes music of overwhelming power, such as Turandot’s showpiece aria ‘In questa reggia’ and Calaf’s celebrated ‘Nessun dorma’.

The latest in Opera North’s acclaimed series of concert stagings, Turandot features Irish soprano Orla Boylan in the title role, Mexican tenor Rafael Rojas – who scored a sensational success as Andrea Chénier with the Company earlier this year – as Calaf, and South Korean soprano Sunyoung Seo, who makes her Company debut as Liù. Aleksandar Markovic conducts what is arguably the last great Italian opera in a thrilling conclusion to the season.

Leeds Grand TheatreSat 17 Sep Der Rosenkavalier 6.30pm Sat 24 Sep Der Rosenkavalier 4.00pm

Fri 30 Sep Der Rosenkavalier 6.30pm Sat 1 Oct Il tabarro / Suor AngelicaSat 8 Oct Il tabarro / Suor Angelica Fri 14 Oct Il tabarro / Suor AngelicaTue 18 Oct Billy BuddThu 20 Oct Il tabarro / Suor AngelicaFri 21 Oct Billy Budd Sat 22 Oct Der Rosenkavalier 6.30pm

Wed 26 Oct Il tabarro / Suor AngelicaThu 27 Oct Billy BuddFri 28 Oct Der Rosenkavalier 6.30pm

Sat 29 Oct Billy Budd

Theatre Royal NewcastleWed 2 Nov Der Rosenkavalier 6.30pm

Thu 3 Nov Billy BuddFri 4 Nov Il tabarro / Suor AngelicaSat 5 Nov Der Rosenkavalier 6.30pm

The Lowry, Salford QuaysWed 9 Nov Der Rosenkavalier 6.30pm

Thu 10 Nov Billy BuddFri 11 Nov Il tabarro / Suor AngelicaSat 12 Nov Der Rosenkavalier 6.30pm

Theatre Royal NottinghamWed 16 Nov Der Rosenkavalier 6.30pm

Thu 17 Nov Billy BuddFri 18 Nov Il tabarro / Suor AngelicaSat 19 Nov Der Rosenkavalier 6.30pm

Edinburgh Festival TheatreWed 30 Nov Il tabarro / Suor Angelica 7.15pm

Thu 1 Dec Billy Budd 7.15pm

Fri 2 Dec Il tabarro / Suor Angelica 7.15pm

Sat 3 Dec Billy Budd 7.15pm

January – March 2017All performances start at 7.00pm unless otherwise stated.

Leeds Grand TheatreSat 21 Jan The Snow Maiden Sat 28 Jan The Snow MaidenThu 2 Feb Hansel and GretelFri 3 Feb The Snow MaidenSat 4 Feb Hansel and GretelWed 15 Feb Hansel and GretelThu 16 Feb CinderellaFri 17 Feb The Snow MaidenSat 18 Feb Cinderella 2.00pm

Sat 18 Feb Hansel and GretelTue 21 Feb CinderellaThu 23 Feb CinderellaFri 24 Feb The Snow MaidenSat 25 Feb Hansel and Gretel 2.00pm

Sat 25 Feb Cinderella

Theatre Royal NewcastleWed 1 Mar Hansel and Gretel Thu 2 Mar CinderellaFri 3 Mar The Snow MaidenSat 4 Mar Cinderella 2.00pm

Sat 4 Mar Hansel and Gretel

The Lowry, Salford QuaysWed 8 Mar Hansel and Gretel Thu 9 Mar CinderellaFri 10 Mar The Snow MaidenSat 11 Mar Cinderella 2.00pm

Sat 11 Mar Hansel and Gretel

Grand Opera House, BelfastWed 15 Mar Hansel and Gretel Thu 16 Mar CinderellaFri 17 Mar The Snow MaidenSat 18 Mar Cinderella 2.00pm

Sat 18 Mar Hansel and Gretel

Theatre Royal NottinghamWed 22 Mar Hansel and Gretel Thu 23 Mar CinderellaFri 24 Mar The Snow MaidenSat 25 Mar Cinderella 2.00pm

Sat 25 Mar Hansel and Gretel

September – December 2016All performances start at 7.00pm unless otherwise stated.

Performance Diary

Leeds Town HallFri 28 Apr Turandot Sun 30 Apr Turandot 4.00pm

Fri 12 May Turandot

Royal Concert Hall, NottinghamFri 5 May Turandot

Liverpool Philharmonic HallThu 18 May Turandot

Sage GatesheadSat 20 May Turandot

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Performance Diary

April – May 2017All performances start at 7.30pm unless otherwise stated.

How to bookVisit operanorth.co.uk

Season Packages From 17 May*

Public booking From Monday 13 June*

*Booking dates may vary by venue

PhotographsYorkshire-based photographer Tom Arber spent a week in residence at Opera North in September 2014, during preparations for a new production of Verdi’s La traviata. Granted full backstage access for the project, his images detail the final stage rehearsals in the run up to opening night, giving a glimpse of rarely-seen moments both on and off stage.

The information in this brochure is published in good faith, and is correct at the time of going to print (April 2016), but changes may occasionally be necessary. In the event of unforeseen circumstances, Opera North reserves the right to change casts or performances.

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