Tag Archives: Nicholas Watts

Writer: Music by Franz Lehár Book/Lyrics: Victor Léon and Leo Stein  Adaptor: Kit Hesketh-Harvey and Giles Havergala Director: Giles Havergal Conductor: Martin Andre Reviewer: Dave Cunningham For their current visit to The Lowry opera North seem to have discovered relevance. A highly contemporary interpretation of Tosca is followed by a sharply up-to-date adaptation of Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow by Kit ...

Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Libretto: Lorenzo da Ponte Director: Alessandro Talevi Reviewer: Dawn Smallwood Completing the bill of the Fatal Passions season this winter is Mozart’s Don Giovanni.  It is one of Mozart’s most popular operas, and the audience has the opportunity to re-evaluate the title character, Don Giovanni. He is particularly relevent today, especially with what has come to light recently via ...

Cavalleria rusticana Music: Pietro Mascagni Libretto: Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci Director: Karolina Sofulak Trial by Jury Music: Arthur Sullivan Libretto: William Schwenck Gilbert Director: John Savournin Reviewer: Dawn Smallwood Both Cavalleria rusticana and Trial by Jury are part of The Little Greats festival which Opera North is presenting this autumn.  The double bill of short operas makes up the evening’s lineup and both productions make their ...

Presenter: Pui Fan Lee Conductor: Martin Pickard Soloist: Nicholas Watts (tenor) Reviewer: Ron Simpson The Orchestra of Opera North’s How it Works concert attracted a youthful audience, stretching to the occasional babe in arms. The programme, including some challenging 20th Century works, seemed aimed at a rather older age-group, but the gap was bridged by the introductions of Pui Fan ...

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Librettist: Lorenzo da Ponte Director: Tim Albery Conductor: Anthony Kraus Reviewer: Charlotte Broadbent Opera North's latest production of Cosi Fan Tutte is both light hearted and fun but morally and intellectually probing. In a show that's so unavoidably misogynistic it makes sense not to avoid it. Director, Tim Albery has found a way to remain faithful ...

Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Libretto: Lorenzo da Ponte Director: Tim Albery Conductor: Jac van Steen Reviewer: Rich Jevons Così Fan Tutte is translated into the rather misogynistic ‘Thus Do All Women’ or more contemporarily, ‘Women – They’re All Like For That’. But really, Mozart’s masterpiece is more accurately translated as ‘The School for Lovers’, as both men and women alike ...

Music: Gioachino Rossini Libretto: Cesare Sterbini Writer: Pierre Canon de Beaumarchais English Translation: Robert David MacDonald Director: Giles Havergal Conductor: Stuart Stratford Reviewer: Malcolm Wallace For opera lovers Rossini’s Barber of Seville is one of the greats. An enduring classic that features regularly in every opera company’s programme that offers a hugely entertaining evening and rarely fails to fill the ...

Music: Bedřich Smetana Libretto: Karel Sabina, Translator: Leonard Hancock and David Pountney with dialogue by Daniel Slater Director: Daniel Slater Conductor: James Holmes Reviewer: Laura Maley Opera North bring Spring to The Lowry with Daniel Slater’s 1998 version of Bedřich Smetana’s opera The Bartered Bride. Described as an excellent introduction for opera newcomers, on this showing it certainly seems apt. ...