World-renowned expert to lead Dorset Opera Festival production (From Dorset Echo)
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World-renowned expert to lead Dorset Opera Festival production
3:30pm Friday 15th February 2013 in News By Rachael Burnett
CAST: The chorus from a previous Dorset Opera production
DORSET Opera has announced that its 2013 festival will be directed by television presenter and opera director Sir Jonathan Miller.
The annual event, which will take place from July 24 to 27, will feature La Traviata and The Flying Dutchman to celebrate the bicentenary of composers Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner.
The performances will take place in the Coade Theatre at Bryanston School near Blandford Forum.
La traviata will be directed by the world-renowned director Sir Jonathan Miller.
Roderick Kennedy, Dorset Opera Festival artistic director, said he is thrilled that Sir Jonathan will be directing the production this year.
He said: “We are delighted that possibly Britain’s greatest living polymath has agreed to direct our new production of La traviata.
“Many of Jonathan Miller’s works are repertoire mainstays for Britain’s major opera companies.
“Who will ever forget his Barber of Seville and brilliant Mikado, both of which form the basis of the current English National Opera season, along with his infamous mafia Rigoletto.
“La traviata will be conducted by Phillip Thomas, an old English National Opera colleague of Jonathan, who was responsible for Dorset Opera’s Tosca in 2011, and Il trovatore last year.”
He added: “For 39 years, the company has established a considerable reputation for staging grand opera of a quality that many larger, well-funded opera companies would be proud and this year’s operas by the two giants of the opera world, will build upon that.
“This will be the first time Dorset Opera has performed Wagner.
“Unlike his later works – especially the Ring Cycle – The Flying Dutchman is a relatively short piece and is extremely approachable.
“This is the opera you want to start with if you’re a Wagner virgin.”
The Flying Dutchman will be conducted by the company’s music director Jeremy Carnall and directed by Paul Carr whose production of Suor Angelica in 2012 was highly acclaimed by critics.
Sir Jonathan will be giving a lecture, Under the influence, under the auspices of the Dorset Opera at the Coade Theatre on Saturday, May 25 at 7.30pm.
Tickets are available by calling the box office on 01202 499199.
