The Duchess of Padua
Broadway World ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "Packed full with stunning music... Lambert’s music is spot on"
Bachtrack "... an ode to the human voice… the melodrama was delicious and ...this is a slick and stylised production.”
The Reviews Hub ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "For passionate opera fans, having something so new should come as a welcome joy… it’s well worth seeking out."
Bachtrack "... an ode to the human voice… the melodrama was delicious and ...this is a slick and stylised production.”
The Reviews Hub ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "For passionate opera fans, having something so new should come as a welcome joy… it’s well worth seeking out."
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Oscar Wilde's epic tragedy reduced to its essentials and turned into a compact opera
The Space Theatre London E14 3RS 20 - 25 February 2024 The Georgian Theatre Royal
Richmond (Yorks) DL10 4DW Sat 2 March at 19:30 The Anthony Burgess Foundation
Manchester M1 5BY Sun 3 March at 16:00 The Croft Hall, Hungerford RG17 0HY
Sun 10 March at 16:00 The Music Troupe is a registered charity no. 1161386
These performances are generously supported by
read about the opera on The Arts Dispatch
https://www.theartsdispatch.com/edward-lambert-on-the-duchess-of-padua/ |
Music: Edward Lambert
Words: Oscar Wilde Director: Fleur Snow Design: Melissa Sofoian Model maker: Yun Geng Lighting: Jonny Danciger Production manager: Tabitha Benton-Evans Ellie Neate (soprano) The Duchess Anna Elizabeth Cooper (mezzo-soprano) Guido Ferranti James Beddoe (tenor) The Duke Henry Grant Kerswell (bass) Count Moranzone Piano duo: Adrian Salinero & Alex Norton "We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell." Oscar Wilde's epic tragedy of revenge, passion and murder has been turned into a compact opera which now receives its first performances.. An avenging young man falls for the browbeaten duchess and casts them both into danger. At times melodramatic, at times sentimental, with everything in between, this adaptation of Wilde's beautiful verse faithfully follows the twists and turns of the drama's extraordinary plot - and reveals it to be more modern than it seems. There has been no known production of the play between 1891 and 2010 (Wikipedia), and so the best of Wilde's eloquent and touching text is, for the duration of these performances, rescued from oblivion. With arias, ensembles, a love-duet and a death scene, a quartet of fine voices accompanied by a virtuoso piano duo brings to life this ‘Italian-style’ opera for intimate spaces. The performance lasts about 1'45" including interval |
Ellie Neate graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama opera course in 2022. She has performed Five Eliot Landscapes by Thomas Adès at Oxford Lieder Festival, at Wigmore Hall for the BBC and in "ENO does Eurovision". Opera roles include Celia Iolanthe, First Daughter Akhnaten and Elsie Maynard (cover) The Yeomen of the Guard at English National Opera, Cunegonde Candide (Blackheath Halls Opera), Lisa La Sonnambula, Elisa Il Re Pastore and Cleopatra Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra (Buxton International Festival), Galatea Acis and Galatea, Milica Svadba and Maria Bertram Mansfield Park (both Waterperry Opera) and Gretel Hansel and Gretel (BYO).
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Anna Elizabeth Cooper made her Glyndebourne debut recently as Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She also performed Soeur Alice in Barrie Kosky’s production of Dialogues des Carmélites. Previously, she performed Olga Eugene Onegin at Opera Holland Park and premiered the role of Suzanna in Joseph Howard’s Behind God’s Back at the Tête-à-Tête Festival. Other operatic roles include Concepcion L’heure Espagnole, Lisetta il mondo della luna, Dinah Trouble in Tahiti and Cherubino Le nozze di Figaro directed by Sir Thomas Allen at the Royal College of Music International Opera Studio. Anna will be covering Zweite Dame in Glyndebourne’s production of Die Zauberflöte this summer.
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James Beddoe is an Artist Masters graduate from Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Roles in 2022/2023 included ‘Nemorino’ Donizetti L’elisir d’amore, three productions as ‘Prince Ramiro’ Rossini La Cenerentola, ‘Schoolmaster’ Janáček The Cunning Little Vixen, Rodolfo La bohème, ‘Lensky’ Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin, ‘Aeneas’ Purcell Dido & Aeneas. James also performs regularly as an oratorio soloist and recitalist, as well as an Evangelist. For spring 2024, in addition to The Duchess of Padua, he will be appearing as ‘Strephon’ in a production of Iolanthe at the Athenaeum, London, and performing Britten St Nicolas for the first time.
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Henry Grant Kerswell trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal Scottish Academy and as a Young Artist at Opera Holland Park, The Britten Pears Programme and Grange Park Opera. Since making his principal debut at Opera Holland Park, Henry has gone on to sing with many companies including Scottish Opera, Opera North, Birmingham Opera Company, Grange Park Opera, Bergen National Opera, English Touring Opera, Royal Opera House and Wexford Festival Opera. Future plans include Hotensius, La fille du Regiment for Grange Park Opera and Fasolt in Regent Opera's upcoming Ring Cycle.
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Fleur Snow is an opera director and musician from West Wales. She is passionate about new music, historical gesture and site-specific work. Recent work as an assistant director has been on the international stage, with credits including Evgenij Onegin, Teatro Massimo, Palermo, Du Är Min Nu, Göteborgs Stadsteater, La Bohème, Opera Holland Park and Die Lustigen Weiber, Staatsoperette Dresden. Fleur is currently staff director in Theater St Gallen.
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Melissa Sofoian (Set and Costume Designer) made it to the Linbury Prize Top 20 shortlist in 2019. From 2019 to 2021 for David Poutney, she served as Design Assistant to Leslie Travers on Die Meistersinger (Oper Leipzig), Al Wasl (Dubai Opera), and Mefistofele (Teatro Alla Scala). Other productions include Simon Boccanegra (Latvian National Opera), Peter Grimes (Theatre Basel) and Anoush at the Marylebone Theatre in London in 2023. With an Architectural background, she's a multidisciplinary artist, also involved in Exhibition Design.
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Tabitha Benton-Evans is a Cornish-Scottish director, writer and performer with an MA in Opera Directing at RWCMD where they directed A Dinner Engagement and wrote and directed a pop-up opera, Interrupted. They previously studied French at the University of St Andrews where they performed in and directed The Magic Flute, Orphée et Eurydice and The Pirates of Penzance. In 2022 they directed The Burning Question for The Music Troupe which was hailed as "a delicious and unexpected cocktail of frothy cappuccino and sparkling prosecco, spiked through with hot peperoncini – an absolute delight from start to finish."
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Yun Geng (model maker) received a Master's degree in Theatre Design from UAL's Wimbledon College of Arts in 2018. After that, she dedicated several years to honing her craft in Beijing and recently returned to the UK to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Kent, advancing her skills in the art of puppetry making.
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Adrian Salinero (piano) is from Basque Spain and based in London. A 22/23 Young Artist at the National Opera Studio, he has worked with Welsh National Opera, Opera North, Scottish Opera and English National Opera. He has worked alongside David Parry and Christian Curnyn and performed in the Wigmore Hall and BBC's Hoddinott Hall. He was recently keyboard player and ensemble member in OVO's production of Weill's The Threepenny Opera at The Cockpit and other venues and also played for Lambert's Masque of Vengeance in November.
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Alex Norton (piano) trained as a Young Artist at the National Opera Studio (2022/23). Recent productions include the UK premiere of Salieri’s La fiera di Venzia and the Danish premiere of Mascagni’s Zanetto and various projects with the Royal Opera House’s Learning and Participation programme and Welsh National Opera’s Cherry Town by Shostakovich. Alex has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Wigmore Hall, various European venues, and made his concerto debut with the Leeds Symphony Orchestra performing Gershwin’s Piano Concerto.
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Getting there...
The Space, E14 3RS
Closest station is Mudchute DLR, then 10 minutes walk, but it's very easy and probably quicker by bus 135, 277 or D7 from Canary Wharf station (Jubilee or Elizabeth line). Between them, the buses are frequent, you'd be unlucky to wait long.
Closest station is Mudchute DLR, then 10 minutes walk, but it's very easy and probably quicker by bus 135, 277 or D7 from Canary Wharf station (Jubilee or Elizabeth line). Between them, the buses are frequent, you'd be unlucky to wait long.
If arriving on the Jubilee Line...
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...go up the escalator...
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... and again...
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Turn left when you emerge from the station... walk a few yards straight on and cross the road...
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... and get to bus stop L where any bus - 135, 277 or D7 - takes you the few stops to The Space Theatre.
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If arriving on the Elizabeth Line, take the westerly exit...
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... and turn L at the top of the escalator...
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... walk a little and up those stairs to the street...
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... look R and you'll see a bus stop under a bridge...
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... and get to bus stop F. 135, 277 and D7 all go to The Space Theatre
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Alternatively, cross the road from bus stop F and get the DLR to Mudchute, from where you'll have a 10 minutes walk to the theatre.
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Buses stop directly outside The Space - that's it there, the theatre is a converted church
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Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond
DL10 4DW |
Burgess Foundation,
Manchester M1 5BY |
Croft Hall,
Hungerford RG17 0HY |
Can't make it?
Please buy a no-show ticket!
It’s bad enough these days trying to get any artistic endeavour off the ground: how much harder it is for a small charity to put on performances of a brand new opera! In doing so, we are supporting the work of talented, professional artists during a time of dwindling opportunities for them AND - we fly the flag for the survival of opera because without new, small-scale, economical works the art form will become ever more associated with its expensive and exclusive past.
Please buy a no-show ticket!
It’s bad enough these days trying to get any artistic endeavour off the ground: how much harder it is for a small charity to put on performances of a brand new opera! In doing so, we are supporting the work of talented, professional artists during a time of dwindling opportunities for them AND - we fly the flag for the survival of opera because without new, small-scale, economical works the art form will become ever more associated with its expensive and exclusive past.
