Giulio Cesare at the Grange: superb music performances compensate for David Alden's scattershot approach to Handel's masterpiece

Handel: Giulio Cesare - Zheng Jiang, Owen Willetts, Jess Dandy - The Grange Festival (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto; Tim Mead, Sarah Brady, Jess Dandy, Zheng Jiang, James Atkinson, director: David Alder, Early Opera Company, conductor Christian Curnyn; The Grange Festival
Reviewed 25 June 2026

Superbly satisfying musical performances all round from a cast who enter with a will into director David Alden's eclectic vision, clearly responding to his approach no matter how scattershot the ideas. 

When watching modern productions of Handel's Giulio Cesare it is easy to get a bit blazé. But it is worth remembering quite how far we have come. New York City Opera's ground-breaking production of the work with Beverly Sills dazzling as Cleopatra and a bass Cesare (Norman Treigle), came in 1966, the first uncut performance (in modern times) with voices at the correct pitch was at the Barber Institute in Birmingham in 1972, then English National Opera's production directed by John Copley, conducted by Charles Mackerras with Janet Baker and Valerie Masterson came in 1978. This was cut, but sympathetically, and Copley's production was rather stately yet it demonstrated that this type of opera belonged in the modern opera house. By 2005, at Glyndebourne, David McVicar's production had the confidence to reinvent the work without doing it violence and we now had period instruments in the pit.

Veteran director David Alden's career has paralleled much of this timeline. He began directing at Opera Omaha in the 1970s and his first European production was Verdi's Rigoletto for Scottish Opera in the late 1970s (and yes, I was there). He became famous (infamous) for his productions at ENO during the powerhouse era and I remember his production of Handel's Ariodante as being a powerful example of the way modern theatre direction could be brought to Handel.

Alden's enthusiasm for Handel seems undimmed and the Grange Festival invited him to direct a new production of Handel's Giulio Cesare at this year's festival. It turns out to be the first time Alden has directed by work. We caught the final performance on 25 June 2026. Christian Curnyn conducted the Early Opera Company with Tim Mead as Giulio Cesare, Sarah Brady as Cleopatra, Hugh Cutting as Tolomeo, Jess Dandy as Cornelia, Zheng Jiang as Sesto, James Atkinson as Achilla, Owen Willetts as Nireno, and Tristan Hambleton as Curio. Designs were by Jon Morrell, movement by Tim Claydon and lighting by Matthew Richardson. There was no chorus (the choral numbers were sung by the ensemble), but there was a movement group of five. Continuo was provided by Oliver John Ruthven (harpsichord), Eligio Quinteiro (theorbo) and Andrew Skidmore (cello).

Giulio Cesare is a long opera. When English Touring Opera performed it uncut in 2017 they spread it over two evenings (a brave experiment, see my review). At the Grange it was performed cut (of course) with one interval, mid-way through Act Two.

Alden and Morrell's approach to the work seems to have involved a lot of free association. Egypt, right? So Nireno (Owen Willetts) was a mummy, there were lots of Ancient Egyptian symbols, Tolomeo's (Hugh Cutting) garden was full of oppressive plants and dangerous animals (including snakes). When, at the end of Act Two, Sarah Brady's Cleopatra says she's dying (a metaphorical turn of phrase), the jackal-headed god appeared to row her to the underworld, and elsewhere in the opera she had a fascination with asps! Costumes were similarly eclectic with different frames of reference. Curio (Owen Willetts) was a real Roman centurion, but Cesare (Tim Mead) seemed stuck in the mid-20th century, whilst Sesto (Zheng Jiang) was a schoolboy who when girding himself for action, dressed as an American footballer!

The whole approach felt a bit scattershot, and rather reminded me of the worst of 1980s and 1990s opera direction. Some scenes were (deliberately) funny such as the musical chairs during Tolomeo and Cesare's first meeting. Other moments were found funny by the audience but I was unclear whether Alden intended this. The result was busy, with the stage nearly always full of colour and movement. The hardworking movement group were constantly used. Some decisions were clearly practical: the opening scenes of Act Three were played in front of the curtain because the set for Cesare's emergence from the sea was complex. Yet, given the curtain, Alden could not resist a series of gags with singers crawling under it and failing to find the split in the curtains. Not for the first time, I felt that non-English directors should be given a crash course in English humorous references (curtain gags are pure Morecambe & Wise).

Handel: Giulio Cesare - Hugh Cutting, Sarah Brady - The Grange Festival (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

La Clemenza di Tito: despite a lack of staging, Christopher Rousset & Les Talens Lyriques light up the stage in Mozart's great final opera at The Grange Festival

Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito - Aphrodite Patoulidou, Christophe Rousset, Les Talens Lyriques - The Grange Festival (Photo: Connor Apps)

Mozart: La clemenza di Tito: Jeremy Ovenden, Aphrodite Patoulidou, Maite Beaumont, Anna El-Khashem,  Ambroisine Bré, Adrien Fournaison, Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset; The Grange Festival
Reviewed 9 June 2026

A welcome opportunity to hear Mozart's great last opera in vividly dramatic performances that really reached over the footlights along with the sophisticated sounds of Les Talens Lyriques 

Mozart's great final opera, La clemenza di Tito has never had the regular place in the repertoire that it deserves. Coming after the three great Da Ponte operas and Die Zauberflöte the opera can seem something of a step backwards, towards the type of opera Mozart was writing in his teens. Following the premiere of Idomeneo in 1781, Mozart had a wish (unfulfilled) to rework the opera in a more Gluckian cast and something of this survives in the changes he made for the 1786 performance in Vienna with a tenor Idamante. The fascination with reworking traditional opera seria did not go away and whilst La clemenza di Tito seems a world away from Don Giovanni (both premiered in the same theatre in Prague), the libretto makes definitive moves away from Metastasio.

The opera remained popular after Mozart's death and was the first of his operas to reach London, in 1806, but in all probability it was not performed there again until the St Pancras Festival in 1957! Anthony Besch's 1974 production at Covent Garden played an important role in the rediscovery of the opera and this remained in production until 1989. Richard Jones's 2021 production there [see my review] does not seem set to take classic status. The work has been performed by English National Opera and by English Touring Opera but only Glyndebourne seems to keep the faith (their most recent outing was 2017, see my review). Otherwise, it is a festival work. Performed at the Edinburgh Festival last year, this year there are two different outings. Buxton Festival will be presenting two performances in July, and the Grange Festival has invited Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques to perform the work.

Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques were giving two performances at the Grange Festival (we caught the first on 9 June 2026) in association with Mozartfest Würzburg where they perform the work later this week. Rousset had assembled a very international cast. English tenor Jeremy Ovenden was Tito, Greek soprano Aphrodite Patoulidou was Vitellia, Russian-Lebanese soprano Anna El-Khashem was Servilia, Spanish mezzo-soprano Maite Beaumont was Sesto, French mezzo-soprano Ambroisine Bré was Annio and French bass-baritone Adrien Fournaison was Publio, with the Mozartfest Würzburg Choir.

Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito - Christophe Rousset, Les Talens Lyriques - The Grange Festival (Photo: Connor Apps)

The orchestra was on stage, which was a real treat, with Rousset also providing continuo piano. The backdrop, however, was a simple black curtain and the sound sometimes felt a little recessed, particularly when it came to the woodwind. The soloists were along the front stage, with scores and music stands. Thankfully these were hardly used and there was a drama and freedom to the presentation. Jeremy Ovenden barely used a score whilst Aphrodite Patoulidou's Vitellia prowled around the stage in a dramatically intense manner.

A vivid theatricality that a more conventional treatment might have missed: Bintou Dembélé & Leonardo García-Alarcón collaborate on a remarkable reinvention of Rameau's Les Indes Galantes

Rameau: Les Indes Galantes - Andreas Wolf, Cappella Mediterranea, Chœur de chambre de Namur, Structure Rualité, Leonardo García-Alarcón - The Grange Festival (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

Rameau: Les Indes Galantes; Laurène Paternò, Ana Quintans, Alasdair Kent, Andreas Wolf, Cappella Mediterranea, Chœur de chambre de Namur, Structure Rualité, director: Bintou Dembélé, Leonardo García-Alarcón; The Grange Festival
Reviewed 1 July 2025

Rameau's ballet héroïque reinvented as vivid music theatre in a collaboration between period performance and hip-hop-inspired dance at, astonishingly, the works first major UK staging

Full-scale productions of Rameau's major operas in the UK remain vanishingly small. Garsington Opera did Platée last year and Glyndebourne Opera presented Hippolite et Aricie in 2013. With Castor et Pollux making an appearance at ENO in 2011, and Dardanus at ETO in 2017. That's not a lot.

Partly, it is a problem of economics. Handel and Vivaldi's operas, whilst large-scale and somewhat problematic on the modern stage, were written for commercial opera houses, they usually require just a handful of major singers, an orchestra and perhaps a single set. Rameau was writing for the rather more lavishly funded opera in Paris, he presupposed a large orchestra, chorus and dancers, in addition to large-ish casts and plots that call for lavish scenic changes. Whereas in France, opera companies seem to be up to the challenge that Rameau's operas present, this is not the case in the UK.

Rather imaginatively, for its final operatic staging of the season the Grange Festival has partnered with a French company to bring their staging of Rameau's Les Indes Galantes. Amazingly this seems to be the work's first full staging in the UK.

We caught the second of three performances at the Grange Festival on 1 July 2025. Leonardo García-Alarcón directed his ensembles Cappella Mediterranea and Chœur de chambre de Namur with a staging by choreographer Bintou Dembélé featuring soloists Laurène Paternò, Ana Quintans, Alasdair Kent, Andreas Wolf, and Dembélé's dance company, Structure Rualité. Lighting was by Benjamin Nesme and Charlotte Coffinet,

Rameau: Les Indes Galantes - Cappella Mediterranea, Chœur de chambre de Namur, Structure Rualité, Leonardo García-Alarcón - The Grange Festival (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

That was quite a party! Paul Curran's production of Die Fledermaus at The Grange Festival makes for a terrific evening in the theatre thanks to a brilliant cast

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus - The Grange Festival (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith)

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus; Sylvia Schwartz, Andrew Hamilton, Ben McAteer, Ellie Laugharne, Claudia Huckle, Trystan Llŷr Griffiths, Darren Jeffery, Myra DuBois, director: Paul Curran, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Paul Daniel; The Grange Festival
Reviewed: 22 June 2025

With cross-dressing chorus, all-singing, all-dancing soloists and chorus, this was a terrific evening in the theatre 

Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus is about a party, isn't it? With productions of Strauss' best-known operetta, it is often difficult to remember that amidst the rollicking good tunes and party antics is an actual plot.

Strauss did not have much luck with his librettists. It is fascinating to discover that Offenbach was thinking about adapting the play, Le Revéillon by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, a project prevented by the Franco-Prussian war. Instead, Richard Genée and Karl Haffner adapted it as a German libretto for Johann Strauss. The best libretto that he set.

The virtue of Paul Curran's new production of Strauss' Die Fledermaus at The Grange Festival was that as well as giving us a rattling good party in Act Two, Curran never let us forget that there is actually a plot too.

We caught the 2nd performance of the production on 22 June 2025, Paul Daniel conducted the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with Sylvia Schwartz as Rosalinde, Andrew Hamilton as Eisenstein, Ben McAteer as Falke, Ellie Laugharne as Adele, Claudia Huckle as Orlofsky, Trystan Llŷr Griffiths as Alfred, Darren Jeffery as Frank, Isabelle Atkinson as Ida, John Graham-Hall as Dr Blind and Myra DuBois as Frosch. Designs were by Gary McCann.

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus - Ellie Laugharne, Andrew Hamilton, Sylvia Schwartz - The Grange Festival (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith)

Act One played out like a 1930s drawing room comedy, and after all Noel Coward did write Operette! Gary McCann's stylish circular set owed something to the Courtaulds' Eltham Palace. Act Two was a far more ritzier setting, the two-tiered circular set used to great effect by the chorus, dressed here in high gender fluid style. Yes it was one of those parties. Act Three played out against ranks of cells, but the presiding genius here, and I use the term advisedly, was Myra DuBois as Frau Frosch. Myra DuBois being the drag name of comic Gareth Joyner.

The text was given in John Mortimer's English version which was commissioned by the Royal Opera in 1989. This worked well in the first act, but the busier numbers in the remaining two acts Mortimer's limits as a lyricist showed, words and music did not always fit well. But the cast were all admirable both in making the words count and in delivering the dialogue without any hint of over-emphasis.

Proponents of this opera would have you think that the piece is a masterly take-down of late 19th century Vienna, but this rarely comes over in production as what little plot there is in Acts Two and Three evaporates in a welter of fun. Here, Curran brought an edge to the fun with elaborate cross-dressing for the chorus. This was dressing up for fun and more.

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus - Ben McAteer, Isabelle Atkinson, Myra DuBois, Ellie Laugharne, Darren Jeffery - The Grange Festival (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith)

Modern resonances & musical style: Richard Farnes conducts Verdi's La traviata at the Grange Festival with Samantha Clarke & Nico Darmanin

Verdi: La Traviata - Samantha Clarke - The Grange Festival (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

Verdi: La traviata; Samantha Clarke, Nico Darmanin, Dario Solari, Annie Reilly, director: Maxine Braham, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Richard Farnes; The Grange Festival
Reviewed 21 June 2025

An impressively fully realised account of the title role from Samantha Clarke in a period production that pulled no punches, with a strongly balanced cast and terrific Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in the pit. 

Verdi intended La traviata to be a reflection of contemporary moeurs but censorship prevented that and the first performance was set in the 17th century. That the opera's plot has resonance for modern audiences is in no doubt but dramaturgically the piece works best when set in the 1859s.

At the Grange Festival, director Maxine Braham (who directed Verdi's Macbeth there in 2022, see my review) and designer Jamie Vartan kept the 1850s setting, paying the audience the complement of not underestimating their intelligence. [seen 21 June 2025]. The festival assembled a strong international cast with Australian/British soprano Samantha Clarke as Violetta [we caught her as the Countess in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at Garsington last year, see my review], Maltese tenor Nico Darmanin as Alfredo, and Uruguayan baritone Dario Solari as Giorgio Germont. Richard Farnes conducted the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

Verdi: La Traviata - Nico Darmanin - The Grange Festival (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

Musical Moves: Guy Verrall-Withers, co-founder and artistic director of Waterperry Opera Festival, becomes director of audiences & impact at The Grange Festival

Rebecca Meltzer, Bertie Baigent & Guy Verrall-Withers
with the Waterperry Opera Festival team in 2024

The arts administration world is relatively compact, which means that whenever someone moves there is a domino effect. The Grange Festival, riding on a high with record ticket sales, has announced that Guy     Verrall-Withers is joining in a new role, Director of Audiences & Impact. Which of course, means that Waterperry Opera Festival, which Verrall-Withers co-founded, is now seeking a new CEO.

The aim of Verrall-Withers' new role at The Grange Festival is to take 'strategic approach to audience development and public engagement, spearheading initiatives to expand the audience base and extend the Festival's reach'. 2025 is The Grange Festival's first season under new chief executive Tyler Stoops and the festival's diverse approach to programming, moving away from simply being an opera festival, has led to record ticket sales.

Guy Verrall-Withers is currently artistic director and CEO of Waterperry Opera Festival, and he will remain in that role until after Waterperry's 2025 season, joining The Grange Festival on a part-time basis until late August. Verrall-Withers co-founded Waterperry Opera Festival in 2017 with conductor Bertie Baigent and director Rebecca Meltzer, and both Baigent and Meltzer remain in place. Now in its 8th edition, performances take place outdoors in locations across the beautiful Waterperry Gardens and Waterperry has welcomed over 22,500 attendees since 2017, creating 36 productions while employing 600 artists.

The Grange Festival features new productions of La traviata and Die Fledermaus; the UK premiere of a new staging of Rameau’s Les Indes galantes; the return of Ballet Black in a double bill of contemporary ballet; concerts including Summertime Swing, Bernstein on Broadway, Queen at the Opera and a gala event in aid of The Meath Epilepsy Charity. The Grange Festival runs from 4 June to 6 July

Waterperry Opera Festival features new productions of Don Giovanni and Semele, Juliana Hall's A World Turned Upside Down: The Diary of Ann Frank, Winnie the Pooh's Songbook with the music of Harold Fraser-Simpson, Mozart's Gran Partita in concert, and a last night gala. Waterperry Opera Festival runs from 8-17 August 2025.

Youthfully engaging: a visually stylish new Rake's Progress at the Grange Festival made us really care for about these characters

Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress - Adam Temple-Smith, Michael Mofidian - The Grange Festival (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress; Adam Temple-Smith, Alexandra Oomens, Michael Mofidian, Rosie Aldridge, director: Antony McDonald, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Tom Primrose; The Grange Festival
23 June 2024

A combination of moral directness and engagingly youthful character gave this performance of Stravinsky's opera a particular charm

After English Touring Opera's recent eclectic production of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress [see my review], I found myself in a lively discussion with friends over the importance of an 18th-century frame of reference for the opera; Stravinsky's music, though eclectic in its sources, includes an element of 18th-century classical style to it, so does this mean that we need to reference this in the visuals?

Acting both as designer and director, Antony McDonald seems to have answered a resounding 'Yes' to this question in his new production of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress which opened at The Grange Festival on Sunday 23 June 2024. Tom Primrose (the festival's former chorus master) conducted the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with Adam Temple-Smith as Tom, Alexandra Oomens as Anne, Michael Mofidian as Nick, Rosie Aldridge as Baba, Darren Jeffery as Father Trulove, John Graham-Hall as Sellem, Catherine Wyn-Rogers as Mother Goose and Armand Rabot as the Keeper of the Madhouse. Lighting was by Peter Mumford and movement by Lucy Burge. 

Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress - Alexandra Oomens - The Grange Festival (Photo: Craig Fuller)

McDonald's costumes were firmly 18th century and that was the visual frame of reference for the sets, yet there was a pared-back elegance to the designs. Everything took place in a fixed box with tiled walls that we came to understand was going to be the set for the madhouse. Each scene had enough elements to develop character but not overwhelm. The first scene revealed Adam Temple-Smith and Alexandra Oomens sitting under a (painted) tree that evoked a Gainsborough portrait, yet with flying cattle. Mother Goose's featured two geese on the walls and Last Supper-like table, whilst Tom's residence had an elaborate bed and little else. The visuals were neither eclectic nor overwhelming, yet their expressive elegance told strongly. McDonald's handling of the chorus was highly visual to , with their scenes arranged into strikingly effective, stylised tableaux.

A richly layered depiction of characters in all their fallibility: Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea at the Grange Festival

Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea - Vanessa Waldhart, Kitty Whately, Sam Furness - The Grange Festival (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Monteverdi: L';incoronazio di Poppea; Kitty Whately, Sam Furness, Christopher Lowrey, Anna Bonitatibus, Jonathan Lemalu, directed: Walter Sutcliffe, La Nuova Musica, David Bates; The Grange Festival
Reviewed 22 June 2024

A serious exploration of love triumphant amidst fallible characters in a production that focused on individuals and brought a rich depth of characterisation and refocusing to Monteverdi's opera

Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea exists in a state that gives directors and music directors great creative freedom. With no definitive composer's manuscript, scores surviving for later performances and an early libretto, none of which quite present the same version, and a score itself with a bare minimum of information, there are plenty of decisions to be made. 

The work was premiered in Venice in 1643 in a tiny theatre as part of Venice's burgeoning commercial theatre scene. Though the opera's only surviving scores date from the 1650s, that first performance seems to have had around a whopping 28 roles played by a cast of around 11 which entailed some pretty radical doubling; one putative cast list has the same singer doubling Virtu, Ottavia and Drusilla. This version alternates tragedy and comedy, teeming with life in a way that would typify the Venetian opera of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, written for the commercial opera house rather than an aristocratic or royal patron. I suspect that the work's extensive recitatives would have been delivered at a rattling rate, this would have been a terrific show.

At the Grange Festival on Saturday 22 June 2023 we caught the last night of Walter Sutcliffe's production of Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea [Sutcliffe, the former artistic director of Northern Ireland Opera, is artistic director of Halle Opera, and directed Handel's Agrippina at the Grange in 2018, see my review]. La nuova musica was in the pit, directed from the harpsichord by David Bates. Kitty Whately was Poppea, Sam Furness was Nerone, Christopher Lowrey was Ottone, Jonathan Lemalu was Seneca, Anna Bonitatibus was Ottavia, Vanessa Waldhart was Drusilla, Frances Gregory was Arnalta, with Gwilym Bowen, Jorge Navarro Colorado and Armand Rabot. Designs were by Jon Bausor.

Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea - Jonathan Lemalu, , Sam Furness - The Grange Festival (Photo: Craig Fuller)

The version used was one with the Prologue for Fortuna, Amore and Virtu (Kitty Whately, Vanessa Waldhart and Anna Bonitatibus) but without the interventions of the gods or all the extra servants, so no Valetto threatening to burn Seneca's beard. It was a very serious approach, so the comic elements on the scenes with the older women, Arnalta and Nutrice, was played down. As Arnalta, Frances Gregory's suave PA was a long was from Alexander Oliver's masterful balance of comedy and tragedy in the role.

An engaging & ultimately touching evening: Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas at the Grange Festival

Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice - Caroline Blair, Heather Lowe - The Grange Festival (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice (Vienna version), Purcell: Dido and Aeneas; Heather Lowe, Alexandra Oomens, Caroline Blair, James Newby, Helen Charlston, director: Daniel Slater, The Sixteen, conductor: Harry Christophers; The Grange Festival
22 June 2023

Having collaborated with director Daniel Slater on The Grange Festival's production of Handel's Belshazzar in 2019 [see my review], Harry Christophers and The Sixteen returned to The Grange for Slater's intriguing double bill of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice (in the original 1762 Vienna version) and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. We caught the performance on 22 June 2023. Three roles were doubled, Heather Lowe was Orfeo and Dido with Alexandra Oomens as Euridice and Belinda, Caroline Blair as Amor and the Second Woman, plus James Newby as Aeneas, Helen Charlston as the Sorceress. The Grange Festival Chorus was joined by The Sixteen, with the Orchestra of the Sixteen in the pit. Designs for both operas were by Robert Innes Hopkins with choreography by Tim Claydon, lighting by Johanna Town and video by Nina Dunn for PixelLux.

The operas provide two classic arias of lament, whilst each takes a somewhat different musical approach to the sufferings of humankind at the hands of capricious gods. Both are also short, yet difficult to programme; neither was intended as a full evening in the theatre, both being entertainments - Orfeo ed Euridice was part of a wedding celebration, whilst Dido and Aeneas was probably intended as court entertainment for King Charles II.

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas - Helen Charlston - The Grange Festival (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Visually seductive and strikingly arresting: The Queen of Spades at The Grange Festival is a real study in obsession

Tchaikovsky: The Queen of Spades - Josephine Barstow, Eduard Martynyuk
The Grange Festival (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Tchaikovsky: The Queen of Spades; Anush Hovhannisyan, Eduard Martynyuk, Andrei Kymach, Ilya Kutyukhin, Josephine Barstow, director: Paul Curran, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Paul Daniel; The Grange Festival
Reviewed Friday 23 June 2023

A study in obsessions, a series of strong performances bring director Paul Curran's intriguing vision to life, in Gary McCann's profoundly beautiful, yet a-historical setting

The Grange Festival's final new production of the season was Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades, an opera which does not get as much exposure as it deserves. Paul Curran directed, with designs by Gary McCann and lighting by Johanna Town. Paul Daniel conducted the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with the Grange Festival Chorus and the Twyford Young Chorus. Eduard Martynyuk was Herman with Anush Hovhannisyan as Liza, plus Andrei Kymach as Tomsky, Ilya Kutyukhin as Yeletsky, Alexey Dolgov as Chekalinsky, Edwin Kaye as Surin, and Josephine Barstow as the Countess, plus Christopher Gillett, Armand Rabot, Arlene Belli, Lucy Schaufer and Isabel Maria Araujo.

Based on a Pushkin story, Modest Tchaikovsky's libretto for the opera significantly diverts from Pushkin's original. The result is a tale of obsession that is a long way from romantic drama, in a way Herman is a more extreme version of the anti-hero that Tchaikovsky created with Eugene Onegin. The original setting is the late 18th century, though productions are often moved to around the time of the work's composition (late 19th century). Curran and McCann set it in a highly attractive yet a-historical era. McCann's sets and costumes looked gorgeous, but the setting seemed to be an era which could not exist, Imperial Russia in the 1930s. The sets used the same basic architectural elements - glass and carved stone cornices - to create a series of striking settings, whilst costumes and moeurs were 1930s with nary a Soviet commissar in sight. But from the opening scene, we were seduced, and the opera successfully established its own setting.

Stylish performances all round in a winning account of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte at The Grange Festival that engages as well as questions

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte - Nicholas Lester, Kitty Whately, Samantha Clarke, Alessandro Fisher - The Grange Festival (Photo Craig Fuller)

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte; Samantha Clarke, Kitty Whately, Alessandro Fisher, Nicholas Lester, Carolina Lippo, Christian Senn, director: Martin Lloyd-Evans, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Kirill Karabits

An intelligent period production that engages as well as questions, with a wonderfully balanced cast and superb support from the pit. All in all, a very stylish evening

Directors tend to try and shed new light on an established classic by altering the location, either transposing it into a different, usually more recent, era or providing something semi-abstract, avoiding historicism and focusing on character. The problem with setting operas in their intended historical period is that the period detail can act as a smoke screen hiding the emotional content, we come away admiring the costumes and singing the sets.

For Mozart's Cosi fan tutte at The Grange Festival (seen 18 June 2023), director Martin Lloyd-Evans and designer Dick Bird decided to use the original setting to interrogate what the opera's time and location would mean to people of the time. We thus got a production which was not only in 18th-century costume but was full of detail and incident pointing to the location too, Naples. 

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte - Christian Senn - The Grange Festival (Photo Craig Fuller)

Kirill Karabits, making his festival debut, conducted the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, with harpsichord continuo from Peter Davies. Samantha Clarke and Kitty Whately were the sisters, Fiordiligi and Dorabella, with Alessandro Fisher and Nicholas Lester as their lovers, Ferrando and Guglielmo. Carolina Lippo was Despina and Christian Senn was Don Alfonso.

During a stylish account of the overture that boded well for the remainder of the opera, we saw a street in Naples. Full of character and incident, this was evidently a brothel patronised by Don Alfonso (Christian Senn), Ferrando (Alessandro Fisher) and Guglielmo (Nicholas Lester). From the outset, it was clear that Martin Lloyd-Evans' solution to the work's problematic title was to add a corollary, 'Men are like that too!'. The opera's first scene took place outside the brothel and you felt that the two young men were already spending their winning on whores.

Style and substance: a fascinating & engaging account of The Yeomen of the Guard at the Grange

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard - The Grange Festival (Photo Simon Anand)

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard; Ellie Laugharne, Nick Pritchard, Nick Haverson, Angela Simkin, Nicholas Crawley, Heather Shipp, Graeme Broadbent, John Savournin, dir: Christopher Luscombe, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, cond: John Andrews; the Grange Festival
Reviewed 8 July 2022 (★★★★½)

A sympathetic and stylish account of the most serious of the G&S operas, combining fine singing indeed, plenty of words and some remarkable physical theatre from Nick Haverson's superb Jack Point

Gilbert and Sullivan wrote an apparently effortless sequence of Savoy Operas that trace an arc of development from The Sorcerer through to The Mikado and Ruddigore; when the run of one opera came to an end, there was another one waiting. However, Ruddigore was not a success on opening night and only after changes, including removing some of Sullivan's more serious music, did it achieve a respectable run. And when it closed, for the first time in their partnership there was no new opera ready. The work that did appear, in 1888 was Yeomen of the Guard, the most serious of Gilbert and Sullivan's collaborations. It is not the serious, grand opera that Sullivan wanted, but Gilbert's plot includes hardly any element of topsy-turveydom and the comic elements are woven into a serious plot. Sullivan responded with some of his most developed music, the two act finales in particular move well away from the familiar comic patter. As such, the opera responds well to performance by operatic voices, and it has the slightly dubious distinction of being the only complete Gilbert & Sullivan opera to be performed at the Royal Opera House (when Sir Charles Mackerras conducted the forces of Welsh National Opera in 1995). Whilst there have been more recent productions from Carl Rosa Opera Company and at the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival, there has not been a major opera house or festival production this century.

So it welcome news that Christopher Luscombe directed Gilbert & Sullivan's Yeomen of the Guard at the Grange Festival when we caught the final performance (8 July 2022). John Andrews conducted the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, with John Savournin as Sir Richard Cholmondeley, Nick Pritchard as Colonel Fairfax, Graeme Broadbent as Sergeant Meryll, David Webb as Leonard Meryll, Angela Simkin as Phoebe Meryll, Nick Haverson as Jack Point, Ellie Laugharne as Elsie Maynard, Nicholas Crawley as Wilfred Shadbolt and Heather Shipp as Dame Carruthers. Designs were by Simon Higlett, lighting by Paul Pyant and choreography by Ewan Jones.

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard - 'Hereupon we're both agreed': Nick Haverson, Nicholas Crawley - The Grange Festival (Photo Simon Anand)

The opera has a very specific setting and the dramaturgy is the sort of complex mechanism that directors tinker with at their peril. Simon Higlet's striking set was an attractive depiction of Tower Green, and as such completely timeless. Luscombe (who directed the stripped back Pagliacci at the Grange in 2020, see my review, and the delightful 1950s-set Falstaff in 2019, see my review) introduced one significant innovation, the work was set in July 1919. Colonel Fairfax's supposed crime was spying during the war, whilst Jack Point and Elsie Maynard became musical hall comedians. It worked very well, with few if any disjoints and only slight adjustments (I think) to the dialogue. It also allowed director and cast to have fun with some of the stiffer elements of Gilbert's dialogue. So that the Act One dialogue between John Savournin's Sir Richard Cholmondeley and Nick Pritchard's Colonel Fairfax was given in the wonderfully clipped stiff-upper-lip tones of 1930s British cinema, whilst in Fairfax (as Leonard) wooing of Elsie, Pritchard and Ellie Laugharne really channelled Brief Encounter.

On a highly concentrated scale: Verdi's Macbeth at The Grange Festival

Verdi: Macbeth - Gezim Myshketa - The Grange Festival (Photo Simon Annand)

Verdi: Macbeth (1865); Judith Howarth, Gezim Myshketa, Jonathan Lemalu, Samuel Sakker, director: Maxine Braham, conductor: Francesco Cilluffo, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; The Grange Festival
Reviewed 11 June 2022 (★★★★½)

Stunning singing and vivid performances bring out the sense of character in the revised version Verdi's first Shakespearean opera

Verdi: Macbeth - Judith Howarth - The Grange Festival (Photo Bodnar Photography)

Verdi's Macbeth premiered at the Teatro all Pergola in Florence in 1847. It had a respectable life in Italian houses before Verdi revised it for Paris in 1865 (where it was performed by the Théâtre Lyrique at what is now the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris), but then the work rather languished till the 20th century. This has left the opera with a somewhat complicated history, modern performances tend to focus on the 1865 revision, but miss out the ballet music that Verdi wrote for Paris and many companies follow Glyndebourne's lead in re-instating Macbeth's death aria from the 1845 version (though this was not done here). 

We caught the second performance (11 June 2022) of Verdi's Macbeth at The Grange Festival in a production directed and choreographed by Maxine Braham and conducted by Francesco Cilluffo with Gezim Myshketa as Macbeth, Judith Howarth as Lady Macbeth, Jonathan Lemalu as Banquo and Samuel Sakker as Macduff.  Designs were by Madeleine Boyd, with lighting by Matt Haskins.

There was a drop curtain, opened and closed by the witches, revealing a fixed set, a sort of distressed library with an upper walkway. The witches were in black, somewhere between punk and steam-punk, and from this library they produced the artefacts used to tempt Macbeth, the crown, the dagger. Throughout the opera, the witches were highly active, controlling the action, provoking, threatening and manipulating the characters.

Baroque mind games: Handel's Tamerlano at The Grange Festival

Handel:Tamerlano - The Grange Festival (Photo Simon Annand)

Handel: Tamerlano; Raffaele Pe, Paul Nilon, Sophie Bevan, Patrick Terry, Angharad Lyddon, director: Daniel Slater, conductor: Robert Howarth, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; The Grange Festival
Reviewed 10 June 2022 (★★★★★)

Strong performances and an intelligently modern-dress staging make Handel's darkest operatic drama a gripping evening

Tamerlano is regarded as one of Handel's greatest operas yet productions of it in the UK have been few and far between in recent years, but that has all changed. Cambridge Handel Opera, the Grange Festival and English Touring Opera are all addressing the work, whilst Irish National Opera looked at Vivaldi's take on the same story. Opera seria is such that each production can be somewhat different, taking a different route to addressing the fundamental issues at stake in the opera. 

Whilst Tamerlano does contain two of the greatest dramatic scenes that Handel wrote in his Italian operas, the opera's complex plot essentially boils down to a series of mind games. The work uses that classic opera seria plot where characters are confined in a single space over a short period of time and then we see what happens. Which leaves a lot of scope.

At The Grange Festival, we caught the first night (10 June 2022) of Daniel Slater's new production of Handel's Tamerlano, Robert Howarth conducted the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, with Raffaele Pe as Tamerlano, Paul Nilon as Bajazet, Sophie Bevan as Asteria, Patrick Terry as Andronico, Angharad Lyddon as Irene and Stuart Orme as Leone. Designs were by Robert Innes Hopkins with lighting by Johanna Town.

Handel:Tamerlano - Sophie Bevan, Paul Nilon, Raffaele Pe The Grange Festival (Photo Simon Annand)

Real intimacy: Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady in a concert staging at The Grange Festival

Lerner and Loewe My Fair Lady; Ellie Laugharne, Steven Pacey, Peter Polycarpou, dir: Guy Unsworth, cond: Alfronso Casado Trigo, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; The Grange Festival
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 19 July 2021 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
A concert staging of Lerner and Loewe's 'perfect musical' which combined high musical values with engaging imagination in presentation

Lerner and Lowe's My Fair Lady is a strange musical, there are few proper dance numbers, the big song and dance pieces being quite limited, and for all the American creators desires to open Bernard Shaw's play up somewhat, the ghost of Pygmalion (written in 1912 and receiving its UK premiere in 1914 with Mrs Patrick Campbell and Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree) hangs over the entire enterprise. The result gives the piece a slightly more acerbic quality than many American musicals, to its great benefit. The sense that for all that it is a Broadway Musical, there is still something of the chamber piece with its series of intimate dialogues in drawing rooms, means that presenting My Fair Lady as a concert staging works rather better than many other 1950s American musicals, and has the big advantage that we do not have to suffer the amazing dancing Cockneys.

The Grange Festival presented Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady in a concert staging directed by Guy Unsworth with Alfonso Casado Trigo conducting the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra gloriously live on stage and playing the orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett and Philip J Lang (if any musical needs to have a full orchestra it is surely this one). Ellie Laugharne played Eliza with Steven Pacey as Henry Higgins, Peter Polycarpou as Doolittle, Susie Blake as Mrs Higgins / Mrs Pearce / Cockney Woman, Richard Suart as Colonel Pickering and Nadim Naaman as Freddy Eynsford-Hill.

The orchestra spread out at the rear of the stage, with cast and chorus sitting in front. Cast members were in concert dress but were off the book, and there was an acting area at the front over the pit. The book was slightly edited (no ball scene, some characters missing) but we got a very full version musically. The cast was a mixture of the operatic (Laugharne and Suart) and those from spoken and musical theatre. 

Wonderfully satisfying: a very stylish production of Rossini's La Cenerentola at The Grange Festival

Rossini: La Cenerentola - Christian Senn, Heather Lowe, Carolina Lippo, Maria Ostroukhova - The Grange Festival (Photo Simon Anand

Rossini La Cenerentola; Heather Lowe, Nico Darmanin, Christian Senn, Simone Alberghini, Carolina Lippo, Maria Ostroukhova, Roberto Lorenzi, dir: Stephen Barlow, cond: David Parry; The Grange Festival
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 7 July 2021 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
An impressively international cast with 1950s period designs forming a stylish backdrop to a production full of character

We caught the final performance, on 7 July 2021, of Stephen Barlow's production of Rossini's La Cenerentola at The Grange Festival, conducted by David Parry with Heather Lowe as Angelina, Nico Darmanin as Don Ramiro, Christian Senn as Dandini, Simone Alberghini as Don Magnifico, Carolina Lippo as Clorinda, Maria Ostroukhova as Tisbe and Roberto Lorenzi as Alidoro. Designs were by Andrew D Edwards and lighting by Paul Pyant. As with the festival's previous opera productions, the accompaniment was based on a recording made by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, with David Parry playing the continuo accompaniment live.

Barlow and Edwards set the production in the 1950s with film very much as a reference. The opening scene was set in a once glamorous trailer park, with Clorinda and Tisbe (Carolina Lippo and Maria Ostroukhov) lounging in stylish underwear reading period film magazines, one of which featured Grace Kelly who was clearly the style icon for Heather Lowe's Angelina in her glamorous appearance atop a long staircase for the closing scene of Act II. And here the wallcovering echoed a classic Christian Dior design, as did the outlines of the dresses. Edwards' clever multi-level enabled much to be made of the space as well as making scene changes simple (all was on the revolve). The small but hard-working chorus were largely confined to the upper levels of the set, an ingenious touch, except for moments such as the big Act Two solo from Don Ramiro (Nico Darmanin) which was done as a Hollywood song and dance number.

Rossini: La Cenerentola - Nico Darmanin & chorus - The Grange Festival (Photo Simon Anand)

But all this style simply formed a backdrop for a production which allowed character to be built. Barlow set things up neatly during the overture when a scene in front of the curtain showed the jokey relationship between Ramiro (Nico Darmanin), Dandini (Christian Senn) and Alidoro (Roberto Lorenzi) as Alidoro co-ordinated a bet between Ramiro and Dandini about swapping clothes and who could dress in the other's clothes the fastest. With both Darmanin and Senn stripping down to vest and pants, I rather began to detect an underwear theme with this year festival [see my review of A Midsummer Night's Dream].