Press Release

25 July 2013

A FESTIVAL OF BRITTEN: AUTUMN 2013 AT OPERA NORTH

Press Nights at Leeds Grand Theatre

Sat 14 Sept Britten Peter Grimes 7.00pm REVIVAL Leeds

Sat 28 Sept Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream 7.00pm REVIVAL Leeds

Thu 17 Oct Britten Death in Venice 7.00pm NEW Leeds

In a major celebration of the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten, the most successful British opera composer of the 20th century, Opera North’s Autumn season for 2013 comprises a full season of three mainstage Britten productions, starting with a revival of Phyllida Lloyd’s multi-award winning Peter Grimes. Martin Duncan’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream also returns to the Company’s repertoire, while the legendary Yoshi Oida’s production of Death in Venice, previously seen internationally, at Lyon, Toronto, Bregenz and Aldeburgh, is new to Opera North and will be conducted by the Company’s “outstanding” music director Richard Farnes.

Following May 2013’s chamber production of Albert Herring in the Howard Assembly Room, the festival feel to Opera North’s Britten celebrations is carried over from the mainstage into other areas of the company’s work throughout 2013. Further events include an installation in the Howard Assembly Room based around the Sea Interludes, and performances of Britten’s work in a series of concerts by the Orchestra of Opera North, the Chorus of Opera North, and the Opera North Children’s Chorus.

Comments Richard Mantle, Opera North’s general director:

“Benjamin Britten is the greatest composer for theatre and opera our country has ever known and one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. In his centenary year we will celebrate the breadth of his work through the breadth of our work. By the time we stage Death in Venice in the autumn of 2013, we will have performed all of the composer's major stage work, which few opera houses in the world have achieved.

“We will bededicatingthis festival of Britten season to the founder of Opera North, the 7th Earl of Harewood, who died in 2011. As well being a personal friend of Benjamin Britten for a time, George was also a strong champion of his work, commissioningGlorianafor the Royal Opera House in 1953.

Through this season we hope to further the legacy of Lord Harewood's passion and enthusiasm for a truly remarkable British composer."

The season is supported by theOpera NorthFuture Fund.

The season is supported by the Britten-Pears Foundation.

Mainstage productions

PETER GRIMES REVIVAL

Benjamin Britten (1945)

14 September 2013 (12 performances)

Sung in English

Phyllida Lloyd’s multi-award winning production of Peter Grimes returns to the Company’s repertoire for Britten’s Centenary year. First seen in 2006, this production was described by The Sunday Times as “[…] a collective company triumph, the operatic event of the year.” It went on to garner awards including the Southbank Show Award for Opera, the TMA Theatre Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, and the Royal Philharmonic SocietyAward for Opera & Music Theatre.

Welsh tenor Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts reprises his searing performance in the title role as the isolated and at times, violent fisherman Peter Grimes. His diverse roles at Opera North have included Paolo/Dante (Francesca da Rimini), Jenik (The Bartered Bride), Laca (Jenůfa) and Filka Morozov (From the House of the Dead).

Giselle Allen returns as Ellen Orford. Her most recent appearances with Opera North have been thetitle role inRusalka, Miss Jessel(The Turn of the Screw) and Freia(Das Rheingold).

Joining the cast of Peter Grimes for the first time, Robert Hayward makes his role debut as Captain Balstrode following many previous appearances for Opera North in roles including, Macbeth, Scarpia and Falstaff. He was most recently seen as Jaroslav Prus (The Makropulos Case).

Opera North also welcomes back the talents of Rebecca De Pont Davies as Mrs Sedley and Iain Paton as the Revd Horace Adams. Other new cast members include Mark le Brocq as Bob Boles, and making their Company debuts, Benedict Nelson as Ned Keene, and Jennifer France and Aoife O’Sullivan as the two nieces.

Conducting is the internationally acclaimed Jac van Steen, making his mainstage debut with Opera North, after a number of very well received concerts for the Company. He has worked with a multitude of renowned musical organisations including the London Sinfonietta, Royal Scottish Orchestra, The Hallé, CBSO Birmingham, and Deutsches National Theatre Weimar. He is currently principal guest conductor with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, having made his debut with them at the BBC Proms in 2005, and has been general music director of Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra and Opera Theatre Dortmund for several years.

Peter Grimes JEFFREY LLOYD-ROBERTS

Ellen Orford GISELLE ALLEN

Captain Balstrode ROBERT HAYWARD

Auntie YVONNE HOWARD

Niece 1 JENNIFER FRANCE

Niece 2 AOIFE O’SULLIVAN

Bob Boles MARK LE BROCQ

Mrs Sedley REBECCA DE PONT DAVIES

Revd Horace Adams IAIN PATON

Ned Keene BENEDICT NELSON

Swallow DEAN ROBINSON

Hobson STEPHEN RICHARDSON (ex 26 Oct, 9 Nov)

PAUL HUDSON (26 Oct, 9 Nov)

Conductor JAC VAN STEEN (ex 26 Oct)

MARTIN PICKARD (26 Oct)

Director PHYLLIDA LLOYD

Set & Costume Designer ANTHONY WARD

Lighting Designer PAULE CONSTABLE

Original Choreographer KATE FLATT

Revival Choreographer TIM CLAYDON

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM REVIVAL

Benjamin Britten (1960)

28 September 2013 (11 performances)

Sung in English

Martin Duncan (The Adventures of Pinocchio) revives his warm and witty 2008 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, conducted by Stuart Stratford. Several of the original cast members return to reprise their roles, including James Laing as Oberon, Jeni Bern as Tytania, Yvonne Howard as Hippolyta and Henry Waddington, who shares his role as Bottom with Darren Jeffery, who has previously sung the role for the Royal Opera House.

Joining the cast for the first time are the exciting young singers Sky Ingram, Kathryn Rudge and Quirijn de Lang. Sky Ingram (Helena) is an Australian soprano currently training at the National Opera Studio, sponsored by Opera North, following studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where her roles included Frau Fluth in Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor and Emily in Our Town.

Singing Hermia, mezzo soprano Kathryn Rudge returns to Opera North following critically acclaimed performances as Sesto (Giulio Cesare, 2012) and Annio (La clemenza di Tito, 2013). Tipped as a rising star following her graduation from the RNCM in 2011, she has given recitals in venues including Wigmore Hall and the Bridgewater Hall, and has also been seen as Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro with English National Opera and Glyndebourne on Tour.

Stuart Stratford conducts following his “stylish and unsentimental” Faust for the Company in autumn 2012. Stuart has also conducted for English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, English Touring Opera and Almeida Opera. Outside the UK Stuart has worked at the Finnish National Opera, Hong Kongand Switzerland at Theater St.Gallen. He has also conducted concerts with many of the UK orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, and London Symphony Orchestra.

Oberon JAMES LAING (ex 12, 15, 19, 22 Nov)

CHRISTOPHER AINSLIE (12, 15, 19, 22 Nov)

Tytania JENI BERN

Helena SKY INGRAM

Hermia KATHRYN RUDGE

Lysander ANDREW GLOVER

Demetrius QUIRIJN DE LANG

Theseus DARREN JEFFERY (Leeds) DEAN ROBINSON (Tour)

Hippolyta YVONNE HOWARD

Bottom HENRY WADDINGTON (Leeds)

DARREN JEFFERY (Tour)

Quince JOHN SAVOURNIN

Flute NICHOLAS SHARRATT

Snug SION GORONWY

Snout JOSEPH SHOVELTON

Starveling GEOFFREY DOLTON

Puck DANIEL ABELSON

Conductor STUART STRATFORD (ex 15, 19 Nov)

OLIVER RUNDELL (15, 19 Nov)

Director MARTIN DUNCAN

Set Designer JOHAN ENGELS

Costume Designer ASHLEY MARTIN-DAVIS

Lighting Designer BRUNO POET

Choreographer BEN WRIGHT

Revival Choreographer TIM CASSON

DEATH IN VENICE NEW

Benjamin Britten (1973)

17 October 2013 (9 performances)

Sung in English

This acclaimed production for Aldeburgh Music and the Bregenz Festival (2007) from the legendary Yoshi Oida has toured internationally, including to Lyon, Toronto and Prague. It comes to Opera North for the first time, appropriately finding itself in the highly accomplished hands of Company stalwarts.

Opera North’s highly esteemed music director, Richard Farnes, will conduct Britten’s valedictory final opera, composed at the end of his life and first performed at Snape Maltings in 1973.

Alan Oke, around which this production was created, reprises his “outstanding incarnation” of the ageing writer, von Aschenbach, with “inherent dignity and poignancy”. His numerous roles elsewhere include Howard J Marshall in Anna Nicole at ROH and his “superbly sung and acted” Gandhi in ENO’s Satyagraha. His many previous roles for Opera North recently include Bob Boles in Peter Grimes and Skuratov in From the House of the Dead.

Peter Savidge sings the multiple baritone roles, including the Traveller, having sung the same roles in this production in Toronto and Prague. Appearing regularly in the major opera houses, for Opera North his most recent roles have been Albert in Werther,Professor of Fine Arts / Journalist / Art Dealer / Landlady / Earl in Weinberg’s The Portrait, and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly.

Death in Venice will be performed in Leeds and on tour, and will also visit its original home, Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh, for two performances in November.

This production is supported by a generous gift from Terry and Liz Bramall

Gustav von Aschenbach ALAN OKE

Traveller/Elderly Fop/Old

Gondolier/Hotel Manager/

Hotel Barber/Leader of the

Players/Voice of Dionysus PETER SAVIDGE

Voice of Apollo CHRISTOPHER AINSLIE (Ex 25 Oct, 14, 21 Nov)

JAMES LAING (25 Oct, 14, 21 Nov)

English Clerk DAMIAN THANTREY

Conductor RICHARD FARNES

Original Director YOSHI OIDA

Revival director ROB KEARLEY

Set Designer TOM SCHENK

Costume Designer RICHARD HUDSON

Original Lighting Designer PAULE CONSTABLE

Revival Lighting Designer TONY SIMPSON

Choreographer DANIELA KURZ

Associate Choreographer KATHARINA BADER

Diary of main stage performances September –November 2013

Leeds Grand Theatre

Sat 14 Sept Peter Grimes 7.00pm

Sat 21 Sept Peter Grimes 2.30pm

Fri 27 Sept Peter Grimes 7.00pm

Sat 28 Sept A Midsummer Night’s Dream 7.00pm

Sat 5 Oct A Midsummer Night’s Dream 7.00pm

Thu 10 Oct Peter Grimes 7.00pm

Sat 12 Oct A Midsummer Night’s Dream 7.00pm

Wed 16 Oct Peter Grimes 7.00pm

Thu 17 Oct Death in Venice 7.00pm

Fri 18 Oct A Midsummer Night’s Dream 7.00pm

Sat 19 Oct Death in Venice 7.00pm

Wed 23 Oct Death in Venice 7.00pm

Thu 24 Oct A Midsummer Night’s Dream 7.00pm

Fri 25 Oct Death in Venice 7.00pm

Sat 26 Oct Peter Grimes 7.00pm

Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Aldeburgh

Fri 1 Nov Death in Venice 7.30pm

Sat 2 Nov Death in Venice 7.30pm

The Lowry, Salford Quays

Tue 5 Nov Peter Grimes 7.00pm

Wed 6 Nov A Midsummer Night’s Dream 7.00pm

Thu 7 Nov Death in Venice 7.00pm

Fri 8 Nov A Midsummer Night’s Dream 7.00pm

Sat 9 Nov Peter Grimes 7.00pm

Theatre Royal Newcastle

Tue 12 Nov A Midsummer Night’s Dream 7.00pm

Wed 13 Nov Peter Grimes 7.00pm

Thu 14 Nov Death in Venice 7.00pm

Fri 15 Nov A Midsummer Night’s Dream 7.00pm

Sat 16 Nov Peter Grimes 7.00pm

Theatre Royal Nottingham

Tue 19 Nov A Midsummer Night’s Dream 7.00pm

Wed 20 Nov Peter Grimes 7.00pm

Thu 21 Nov Death in Venice 7.00pm

Fri 22 Nov A Midsummer Night’s Dream 7.00pm

Sat 23 Nov Peter Grimes 7.00pm

/Ends

For further information and images, please contact:

Rebekah Wadham, Communications Assistant

, 0113 223 3590

Nicola Dempster, Press & PR Manager

0113 223 3526