Opera North summer season

Opera North have announced the operas for their Summer 2013 season. Charles Edwards with be directing and designing Handel's Joshua, conducted by Stephen Layton with Fflur Wyn, Jake Arditti and Henry Waddington. More staged oratorio (see my article on staging Jephtha). Will be interesting to see what Edwards makes of Joshua. It is frankly, not one of Handel's most operatic works, being a rather bloodthirsty series of victories with minimal characterisation. He and librettist Thomas Morrell were evidently trying to re-capture the success of Judas Maccabeus.

Then Giles Havergal is directing a new production of Albert Herring with Josephine Barstow as Lady Billows. The production will not be in the Leeds Grand Theatre but in the smaller Howard Assembly Rooms, which should make for an interesting re-balancing of the opera, which Britten wrote for small scale touring. Conductor Richard Farnes will be at the helm for the concert stagings of Wagner's Siegfried at Leeds Town Hall with Estonian tenor Mati Turi and Swedish soprano Annalena Persson with Michael Druiett as the Wanderer.  Further details from the Opera North website.