Saturday 20 September 2014

Opera Holland Park 2015

Montemezzi's L'amore dei tre at Opera Holland Park in 2007 - photo Alastair Muir
Montemezzi's L'amore dei tre
at Opera Holland Park in 2007
photo Alastair Muir
The good news is that Opera Holland Park is reviving its 2007 production of Montemezzi's L'amore dei tre re in 2015. Having wowed everyone in last year's Wolf-Ferrari rarity, Natalya Romaniw is returning in the Montemezzi. Montemezzi's opera had its premiere in 1913 and its success launched Montemezzi's career but the failure of his next opera La nave turned him away from operatic composition.

Also being revived is the 2012 production of Puccini's Gianni Schicchi which will be joining new productions of Suor Angelica and Il tabarro to make a complete Il trittico, with Anne Sophie Duprels singing Giorgetta and Angela.

There are three more new productions - Jonathan Dove's Flight, Leo Delibes' Lakme and Verdi's Aida. Flight was premiered by Glyndebourne in 1998 with a libretto by April de Angelis, initially on tour and then at the main festival in 1999. It is still, I think, Dove's best opera and was last seen in London in 2008 when British Youth Opera staged it. Delibes's Lakme is a slice of French orientalism that rarely makes the operatic stage nowadays. It was premiered in 1883 at the Opera Comique and the title role was one of Joan Sutherland's signature roles. It was last seen in London when Chelsea Opera Group gave the work in concert in 2002. As for Aida, well for all its popularity the opera is something of a graveyard. I have seen few if any non-traditional productions which work. Just about the only production that stays in the memory is the one David Prowse (I think) did for Opera North which was set in Egypt in the 19th century at the time of the Khedive.

1 comment:

  1. It was Philip Prowse - and very good too. Even better is a Zurich production on DVD set in the same milieu and with a splendid cast headed by the young Nina Stemme. Highly recommended.

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