THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
Mozart
Da Ponte after Beaumarchais
Fiona Shaw brings her unique creative flair to a major new production of Mozart's immensely popular classic, The Marriage of Figaro. Building on her previous ENO successes directing Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers (which received an Olivier Award-nomination) and Vaughan Williams's Riders to the Sea, Shaw now offers an exciting, fresh interpretation of this much-loved opera'
‘Fiona Shaw's realisation is a triumph' - Evening Standard on Elegy for Young Lovers
*****
Sunday Telegraph
****
The Times
****
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THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
Mozart
Da Ponte after Beaumarchais
Fiona Shaw brings her unique creative flair to a major new production of Mozart's immensely popular classic, The Marriage of Figaro. Building on her previous ENO successes directing Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers (which received an Olivier Award-nomination) and Vaughan Williams's Riders to the Sea, Shaw now offers an exciting, fresh interpretation of this much-loved opera'
‘Fiona Shaw's realisation is a triumph' - Evening Standard on Elegy for Young Lovers
*****
Sunday Telegraph
****
The Times
****
The Independent
****
Financial Times
****
Evening Standard
The Marriage of Figaro is one of the most frequently performed operas, with music that is cherished and loved by audiences everywhere. It also features one of the most famous overtures in classical music, often referenced in films, TV, radio and popular culture, along with the soaring duet that defined one of the truly unforgettable movie moments in The Shawshank Redemption.
This much-anticipated new staging is conducted by former ENO Music Director Paul Daniel, who returns to ENO to lead a talented, youthful and predominantly British cast. Iain Paterson, whose recent triumphs at the London Coliseum include Gounod's Mephistopheles, Wagner's Amfortas and Mozart's Don Giovanni, plays Figaro. He is joined by Roland Wood who is back at ENO after successes in last year's The Pearl Fishers and most recently Simon Boccanegra. While Kate Valentine, who was widely praised as Elisabeth in Elegy for Young Lovers takes the role of the skirt-chasing Count's long-suffering wife.
‘ENO assembled a terrific cast...Kate Valentine's ripening soprano sounded glorious as Elisabeth'
Sunday Times on Kate Valentine in ENO's Elegy for Young Lovers, 2010
‘The more inflected, lustrous, and impassioned singing came from Iain Paterson's Amfortas'
Daily Telegraph on Iain Paterson in ENO's revival of Parsifal, 2011
5, 12, 14, 19, 21, 26 October and 3, 5, 10 November at 19:00| 29 October at 18:00
10 performances.
New Production
Widely regarded as the greatest comic opera ever written, Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro whisks us through the whirlwind events of ‘one crazy day' (to borrow Beaumarchais's title for his original play) as Figaro, the Count's valet, attempts to wed his beloved Susanna, the Countess's maid, before their philandering master can bed her first. Following her much-praised ENO productions of Vaughan Williams's Riders to the Sea and Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers, leading stage and screen actress Fiona Shaw plots a path through The Marriage of Figaro's moral maze of disguises, deceptions, sexual intrigue, mutual suspicion and mistaken identity. Former ENO Music Director Paul Daniel returns to conduct an impressive young cast led by Iain Paterson, recently admired at ENO in such diverse roles as Verdi's Amonasro, Gounod's Mephistopheles, Mozart's Don Giovanni and Wagner's Amfortas, as Figaro and Kate Valentine as the predatory Count's long-suffering but all-forgiving wife.
Oct 5, 12, 14, 19, 21, 26 and Nov 3, 5, 10 at 19:00 | Oct 29 at 18:00
10 performances. Running time: 3hrs 15mins
Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto Lorenzo da Ponte
Billed as the perfect introduction to opera, The Marriage of Figaro is highly accessible to new opera fans, being sung entirely in English. The action focuses on Figaro's wedding day, which promises to run anything but smoothly as the Count, also Figaro's boss, has set his womanising sights on bride-to-be Susanna.
With a stellar cast of international young singers, and conducted by Opera East's Artistic Director and former Assistant Conductor on the Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House, Oliver Gooch, this promises to be a memorable evening by the touring opera company for the East of England.
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