Gounod's Mireille

New Sussex Opera are doing a short run of performance's of Gounod's Mireille, his Provencal based tragedy which has always had a strong following of admirers. London performances of the piece have been relatively rare. ENO mounted a production for Valerie Masterson, and then the piece popped up again during the rather curious season when the theatre was half-way through re-building and full of scaffolding. I didn't see the first, and the second did not seem to do justice to the Provencal atmosphere of Gounod's piece.

New Sussex Opera, conducted by Nicholas Jenkins, will be performing a reconstruction of Gounod's original 5-act version, which will be interesting and, we hope, illuminating. The performances are semi-staged and feature Sally Silver in the title role. Catch it at Lewes Town Hall (2/11/2011), Devonshire Park Eastbourne (6/11/2011) and at London's Cadogan Hall (8/11/2011)