THE last of the summer’s opera and music festivals, If Opera at Bradford on Avon, runs this year from 23rd to 31st August, and brings two of the greatest operas in the repertoire to eager audiences.
Spawned by the original Iford Arts Festival, which ran at Iford Manor from the 1980s to 2018, If Opera has staged several productions and gained a reputation for its focus on supporting emerging artists. This year the company brings Lucia di Lammermoor and Die Fledermaus to the beautiful grounds of Belcombe Court, as well as the popular picnic prom featuring JTQ, The James Taylor Quartet and a children’s concert, this year Little Red Riding Hood.
“Our season at Belcombe Court provides enormously varied emotional and dramatic experiences for audiences. Showcasing our talented ensemble as ever, we, like many opera companies in the UK, are pushing forward in tough times to enrich and entertain in beautiful places. Something we perhaps need more than ever,” says Michael Volpe, the executive director of If Opera.
Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor will be performed on 23rd, 27th, 29th and 31st August, directed by Thomas Guthrie and conduced by Oliver Gooch, with the Bristol Ensemble and If Opera chorus and a cast of soloists. It will be sung in Italian with English surtitles.
The opera follows the fortunes of Lucia (Lucy Ashton) sister of the Lord of Lammermoor, and the enmity they have for the Ravenswood family. Lucia is in love with Edgardo Ravenswood, but her brother Enrico has other plans for her matrimony. The gothic thriller comes complete with ghostly apparitions, duels and acts of revenge. It is most famous for the ‘mad scene’, in which Lucia, having murdered her imposed husband Arturo, embarks on one of the most challenging and thrilling arias in the entire repertoire.
The second oper(etta) is Johann Strauss’s comic Die Fledermaus, performed on 24th and 28th August and bringing back Iford favourite Simon Butteriss with the Bristol Ensemble and If Opera chorus This will be a Fledermaus with a difference. In this specially staged and costumed performance, comic genius Butteriss has replaced the operetta’s original spoken dialogue with a racy and pacey narration that follows every twist and turn of this ludicrous tale. Witty, clever and with knowing nods to the present day, it will be delivered with the singing actor comedian’s customary flamboyance and panache.
This year’s company includes lyric-coloratura soprano Robyn Allegra Parton in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor. Baritone Alexey Gusev will take on the role of Lucia’s brother, Enrico, and tenor Ángel Macías will play Edgardo Ravenswood. Galina Averina will sing Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus.
Little Red Riding Hood, on 25th August, has music by Paul Patterson and text, adapted from Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes, by Donald Sturrock. Bristol Ensemble’s wind quintet and piano will take audiences on a magical narrated journey through the Enchanted Forest with our heroine, Little Red Riding Hood, and one slightly dim wolf, whose dastardly deeds are thwarted at every turn by a cast of quirky characters. The second of the two performances will be BSL interpreted and a relaxed performance. At this performance, If Opera welcome people who will benefit from a more relaxed theatre environment, including those with hearing impairments who require British Sign Language interpretation.
The Picnic Prom on 26th August is a chance to take your party picnic and visit the pop-up bar, to relax while music fills the air or explore the secret pathways and hidden nooks of the magnificent grounds, rarely open to the public … The JTQ, which includes vocalist Yvonne Yanney, will be joined by Emma Smith and her trio for the evening.
For more information, visit the If Opera website.