TOM Morris’s first Bristol Proms came to a triumphant end on Saturday with a “stage managed” production of Handel’s oratorio Messiah, performed by the Southbank Sinfonietta, the Erebus Ensemble, five solo singers and actor Tristan Sturrock. These proms had rules, aimed at taking the audience back to the time when music was performed as frequently…
BRISTOLIANS are gearing up for the annual Balloon Fiesta, on next week from 8th to 11th August, and there will be more new visitors than ever this year. I can’t imagine that anyone who sees Hot Air, on until next Saturday at the Tobacco Factory at Bedminster, will be able to resist the temptation of…
ONE thing you can say for Pia Furtado’s production of Handel’s Acis and Galatea, at Iford Opera until Saturday, is that it looks marvellous. It is also very well sung and played by Christian Curnyn’s Early Opera Company. The problem is that it is so full of Rococo fol de rols and sado-masochistic debauchery that…
AUDIENCES at the Cattle Ring in Salisbury Market were treated to a remarkable productions of Carmen by a stunning company of young singers when Winterbourne Opera took over the space. The company, which usually performs in the Tithe Barn at Winterbourne Dauntsey, was formed in 2001 following a successful performance of The Magic Flute by…
ONE of the programme essays for Somerset born Lucy Bailey’s production of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy, King Lear, at Bath, begins with the paragraph “King Lear is a play about homelessness.” No it’s not. It might as well have said “a play about cake cutting”. The tragedy is that the fine and versatile actor David Haig…
AS soon as it was announced that Dorset Opera had included La Traviata, directed by Jonathan Miller, as part of its 2013 festival season at Bryanston, tickets for the three performances sold out in double quick time. Coupled with a Wagner opera for the festival, it meant that the chorus of (often) young singers had…
AFTER 38 years, Dorset Opera has finally succumbed to Richard Wagner, in celebration of the composer’s bicentenary, and mounted two performances of his most accessible work The Flying Dutchman at the Coade Hall at Bryanston School. The other production also marked a bicentenary, of Guiseppi Verdi, with his La Traviata directed by Jonathan Miller. The…
THIS year marks the 50th anniversary of the first Brownsea Open Air Theatre production, after founding director Joyce Caton visited the National Trust open air theatre at Polesden Lacey (established in 1951) and thought “I could do this … and how about on Brownsea Island.” Would health and safety legislation allow the idea if it…
DIRECTOR Peter Kelly had an idea for his production of the world’s most famous love story at Studio Theatre in Salisbury this week, and he showed his wardrobe mistress Pam Hanan a picture of the Japanese animation house Manga’s idea of Romeo and Juliet. “I don’t want it to be LIKE this, but it’s a…
DUSTIN Hoffman made his directorial debut at the age of 73 with a film version of Ronald Harwood’s 1999 play Quartet, and it has been one of the surprise hits of this year – as well as raising the hackles of the thespian community as Hoffman totally ignored the fact that it had started life…