Ironically, Amilcare Ponchielli's opera La Gioconda is best known not for one of its arias (though Suicidio! certainly rates), but for the ballet music, The Dance of the Hours. The opera is certainly not a regular visitor to the UK opera house, I think that Opera North's production (minus The Dance of the Hours but with Rosalind Plowright in the title role) was its last major UK outing. Now Midsummer Opera is giving us a chance to experience it. David Roblou conducts semi-staged performances at St John's Church, Waterloo, on Friday 7 April and Sunday 9 April 2017, with Zoe South in the title role, plus John Upperton, Sian Woodling, Anna Loveday and Stephen Holloway.
The opera premiered in 1876 at La Scala, Milan, and was in fact the most successful Italian opera between Verdi's Aida (1871) and Verdi's Otello (1887). Though 20 years his junior, Ponchielli never seems to have quite been able to escape the great man's shadow. Ponchielli died in 1886, leaving a legacy of 10 operas of which only La Gioconda keeps a toe-hold in the repertoire.
Full information from the Midsummer Opera website.
Thursday 6 April 2017
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts this month
-
Septura I first became aware of the brass septet, Septura , when noting their 2017/18 concert series Kleptomania at St John's Smith...
-
Handel: Acis and Galatea - chorus - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright) Handel: Acis and Galatea ; Elizabeth Karani, Anthony Gregory, Ch...
-
2019 seemed a year for scholarship and rarity in recordings. Retrospect Opera gave us the first recording of Ethel Smyth's Fete Galan...
-
Wolf-Ferrari: Il segreto di Susanna - John Savournin - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright) Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari: Il segreto di Susanna ;...
-
Donizetti: The Elixir of Love - James Atkinson - Wild Arts 2023 (Photo: Lucy J Toms) We humans, alone on earth, are powerful enough to crea...
-
Handel: Giulio Cesare - Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, Louise Alder - Glyndebourne, 2024 (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith) Handel: Giulio Cesare in Eg...
-
Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra I get all sorts of mail, people sending my information on concerts and recordings. Everything gets gl...
-
Andrew Norman: A Trip to the Moon - Youth Company rehearsal, Garsington Opera 2024 (Photo: Julian Guidera) American composer Andrew Norman ...
-
Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro - David Ireland, Claire Lees - Garsington Opera, 2024 (Photo: Julian Guidera) Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro ; David...
-
Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin - James Baillieu, Julien Van Mellaerts, Christopher Purves - Opera in Song at Opera Holland Park, 2022 Opera ...
No comments:
Post a Comment