A reminder that if you are going to see Opera North’s production of Le nozze di Figaro at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle on 19 or 21 March, you’re in for a feast of Samling Artists:
James Newby (pictured above), is Count Almaviva, Jamie Woollard is Antonio, Katherine Broderick is Marcellina, Charlotte Bowden is Barbarina and Jonathan Lemalu is Bartolo. In between the two nights of Figaro, you can also see Stuart Jackson as Bob Boles in Peter Grimes.
Photo: Tristram Kenton
Our local audiences can also see Andri Björn Róbertsson with Newcastle Choral Society in The Creation on 21 March and Beth Moxon and Paul Grant are among the line-up of soloists for a performance by the Durham Singers of Oliver Tarney’s St Mark Passion on 28 March..
A new full-length film based on La bohème by writer and director Robin Norton-Hale comes to cinemas on 3 March, with a cast including Lucy Hall (Mimì), Benson Wilson (Marcello) and Edward Jowle (Colline)
finitefilmsandtv.com/projects/la-boheme/
Performance news
Joshua McCullough joins Garsington Opera as one of this year’s Alvarez Young Artists
Jonathan Ware embarks on a major new tour across Europe and America with performances in Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Pierre Boulez Saal, Hugo Wolf Akademie Stuttgart, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Shriver Hall and New Orleans Opera in a second collaboration with soprano Golda Schultz. ‘Dark Matter(s)’ is a journey through our darkest nocturnal thoughts, with songs by Clara Schumann, George Crumb, Johannes Brahms, Rita Strohl, Florence Price and Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs.
goldaschultz.com/performances
Derek Welton makes his house debut at Opernhaus Zürich in May as Pizarro Fidelio.
Jamie Woollard will appear as Angelotti in Tosca in the inaugural production of Sir Bryn Terfel’s new opera company Oxford Opera
oxfordphil.com/additional_event/tosca/
Recordings
Ruby Hughes has a new recital album: ‘Between the Shades’ with Mime Yamahiro Brinkmann (viola da gamba) and Jonas Nordberg (lute) which mixes early music with new commissions from Errolyn Wallen and Deborah Pritchard. The album received 5-star reviews in The Guardian and The Times and was a Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice for March, with reviewer William Yeoman writing ‘Such are the riches of this extraordinary album that one would happily linger amidst such shades for all eternity.’
Jâms Coleman joins soprano Claire Booth on ‘Life stories’, a recital recording exploring the borderlands between cabaret and classical, including the world premiere recording of Zoë Martlew’s Hotel Babylon, Poulenc’s Banalités and songs by Eisler, Gershwin and Adès.
prestomusic.com/classical/products/9837702–life-stories
Samling Artist Programme
Mezzo-soprano Anna Stéphany returns to Samling this week to lead the Artist Programme that she once benefitted from. You can see Anna in our public masterclass at Marchmont House at 2pm on Saturday 7 March.
