Longborough Festival Opera announces 2016 season
Over the past decade and a half it has gradually built an international reputation for its productions, led by its
triumphant performances of Wagner.
Longborough is now thrilled to announce its 2016 Summer Season features four operatic masterpieces with a line-up of artists
which includes some familiar to Longborough but also many fresh faces.
Wagner’s tannhÄuser
Music Director Anthony Negus - a conductor with over fifty years’ experience of Wagner’s stage works - received rave reviews
from critics for his Tristan und Isolde in 2015. This year, along with director Alan Privett, Negus turns his attention to a new
production of Tannhäuser, and we are fortunate to be welcoming such renowned singers as John Treleaven and Neal Cooper
in the title role (see cast dates below). Never one to shy away from the seemingly impossible, Longborough’s production of
Tannhäuser will see the largest chorus ever to have sung on our stage.
FULL CAST
Tannhäuser
John Treleaven (9, 14, 18 June)
Neal Cooper (11, 16 June)
Elisabeth
Erika Mädi Jones
Venus
Alison Kettlewell
Wolfram
Hrolfur Saemundsson
Landgraf
Donald Thomson
Walther
Julian Hubbard
Biterolf
Stuart Pendred
der Schreiber Brian Smith Walters
Reinmar
Charles Johnston
DATES
Thursday 9 June
Saturday 11 June
Tuesday 14 June
Thursday 16 June
Saturday 18 June
Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser
3.00pm
3.00pm
3.00pm
3.00pm
3.00pm
All performances start at 3pm with two intervals,
the long interval at approximately 6.10pm.
The performance is due to end at 9pm.
Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro
In a team first forged at the Royal Opera House, conductor Robert Houssart, opera and theatre director Thomas Guthrie and
designer Rhiannon Newman Brown make their Longborough debut in Mozart’s much-loved Le nozze di Figaro. This established
creative partnership are known as much for their dynamic, fresh and imaginative way with story-telling, as for their musicality
and visual flair.
The title role will be taken by Australian baritone Grant Doyle who began his career as a Royal Opera House Young Artist.
Despite being a seasoned Mozartian - having sung the role of Don Giovanni, Papageno, and Count Almaviva to great acclaim we are delighted that this will be Grant’s debut as Figaro. Figaro’s bride-to-be Susanna will be performed by young Norwegian
soprano Beate Mordal, while Count and Countess Almaviva are sung by Benjamin Bevan and Susannah Fairbairn respectively.
They are joined by Mozart veterans and renowned character actors Harry Nicholl (Don Basilio/Don Curzio) and Eric Roberts
(Bartolo/Antonio).
FULL CAST
Count Almaviva
Countess
Susanna
Figaro
Cherubino
Marcellina
Bartolo/Antonio
Don Basillio/
Don Curzio
Barbarina
Benjamin Bevan
Susanna Fairbairn
Beate Mordall, Lucy Hall (2 July)
Grant Doyle
Anna Harvey
Wendy Dawn Thompson
Eric Roberts
Harry Nicoll
Lucy Knight
DATES
Sunday 26 June
Tuesday 28 June
Friday 1 July
Saturday 2 July
Tuesday 5 July
Thursday 7 July
Le nozze di Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro
3.00pm
5.00pm
5.00pm
5.00pm
5.00pm
5.00pm
With the exception of the Sunday matinee, all
performances start at 5pm with two intervals, the
long interval at approximately 6.40pm.
The performance is due to end at 9.10pm.
Janáček’s Jenůfa
With Jonathan Lyness at the podium and an orchestra now well into its Janáček stride, director Richard Studer brings his clean
and incisive style to this new production in his debut of Janáček’s score in which the composer poured out his love for his own
afflicted daughter in a work of rare beauty. Studer and Lyness are the team behind The Cunning Little Vixen in 2008 and Katya
Kabanova in 2012
Lee Bisset - known to Longborough audiences for her thrilling Isolde in Longborough’s 2015 Tristan und Isolde and her magnificent portrayal of Katya in 2012 - returns to sing Jenů fa, and Andrew Rees - Longborough’s Siegmund (and Schoolmaster from
the 2008 Cunning little Vixen - sings Steva. Other casting includes the international tenor Daniel Norman making his Longborough debut as Laca and Gaynor Keeble, returning to Longborough in the fiercely challenging role of Kostelnicka, Jenů fa's Stepmother. With lighting by Olivier nominated Wayne Dowdeswell.
FULL CAST
Jenůfa
Steva
Laca
Kostelnicka
Grandmother
Starek
Mayor
Mayor's wife
Karolka
DATES
Saturday 16 July
Tuesday 19 July
Thursday 21 July
Saturday 23 July
Lee Bisset
Andrew Rees
Dan Norman
Gaynor Keeble
Maria Jagusz
Mark Saberton
tbc
Louise Mott
tbc
Jenůfa
Jenůfa
Jenůfa
Jenůfa
5.00pm
5.00pm
5.00pm
5.00pm`
All performances start at 5pm with two
intervals, the long interval at approximately 7.05pm.
The performance is due to end at 9pm.
Handel’s Alcina
Longborough’s talented Young Artists have been performing Handel’s operas now for several seasons – their properties as
baroque operas give them a lightness and flexibility that make them highly appropriate for voices which are working towards
full maturity, and are ideal for our intimate theatre.
Jenny Miller, Jeremy Silver and Faye Bradley team together for the third consecutive year to invoke Handelian magic with
three performances in the intimacy of Longborough and a fourth at the Greenwood Theatre in London.
FULL CAST
Alcina
Morgana
Oberto
Ruggiero
Bradamante
Oronte
Melisso
Julia Sitkovetsky
Lucy Hall
Rosie Lomas
Hanna-Liisa Kirchin
Anna Harvey
Christopher Diffey
Matthew Durkan
DATES
Saturday 30 July
Sunday 31 July
Tuesday 2 August
Thursday 4 August
Alcina
Alcina
Alcina
Alcina
5.00pm
3.00pm
5.00pm
Greenwood Theatre, London
With the exception of the Sunday matinee, all performances start at 5pm with one dining interval at approximately pm.
The performance is due to end at 9pm.
For more details, please contact Judy Grahame ([email protected] 020 ???
or Helen Granger ([email protected] or 01451 830292)