Monday 16 January 2017

Winter and Spring season at the Howard Assembly Rooms

Howard Assembly Rooms
Howard Assembly Rooms
Opera North's activities in Leeds cover far more than just opera (see my article about the 2017/2018 season), and the Howard Assembly Rooms forms the focus of the company's smaller scale activities. The lively season there continues on 19 January 2017 with a collaboration with Leeds Lieder when soprano Anne Schwanewilms and pianist Malcolm Martineau (a former guest artistic director of Leeds Lieder) perform a programme of Strauss and Wolf songs.

Further ahead there is the chance to hear baritone Christopher Purves away from the operatic stage in a programme a centred on Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death and Schubert’s settings of Heine from Schwanengesang. Other concerts include an accessible, exuberant introduction to the rich world of classical song featuring Opera North Associate Artists Ellie Laugharne and Heather Lowell, the piano duo partnership of Peter Donohoe and Martin Roscoe, and Canadian-Ukrainian pianist Lubomyr Melnyk. In an interesting combination, Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen is joined by compatriots Trio Mediaeval for an exploration of their country’s ancient musical dialogue with Iceland.

There is an Easter celebration of Paolo Sorrentino’s film The Great Beauty and following a screening of the film (8 April), the string section and soloists of the Orchestra of Opera North will perform pieces by William Byrd, Arvo Pärt and others, which colour the bizarre, decadent life of ageing Roman playboy Jep Gambardella in the film (13 April). Further film includes Jean Cocteau’s classic La Belle et la Bête with its striking score by Georges Auric. Concerts exploring the musical exchange between Africa and Cuba will include Sahrawi singer Aziza Brahim and Senegalese legends Orchestra Baobab.

Full details from the Howard Assembly Rooms website.

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