Notable debuts and established names spotlight The Grange Festival’s 2023 season
8 June – 2 July
The Grange Festival presents new productions of Così fan tutte, Orfeo ed Euridice / Dido and Aeneas and The Queen of Spades, adopted by two nights of jazz celebrating the music of jazz legend Duke Ellington
‘Quality and courage. With two excellent productions [Macbeth and Tamerlano], The Grange Festival confirms its excellence and uniqueness amongst European summer festivals.’ Musica, September 2022
Since its inception in 2017, The Grange Festival has swiftly developed a fame as a vacation spot venue for excellent singers, top-notch conductors, world-class productions and discerning audiences – and the 2023 season is about to boost its standing amongst the cognoscenti even larger.
The Festival’s persevering with perception in presenting a large repertoire sees 4 new productions (Così fan tutte, Orfeo ed Euridice / Dido and Aeneas and The Queen of Spades) by daring inventive groups, with a formidable mix of younger, proficient singers and established names, notably Dame Josephine Barstow because the Countess in The Queen of Spades. Three nice conductors – Kirill Karabits, Harry Christophers and Paul Daniel – be certain that the customary musical requirements stay as distinctive as ever. In addition to the Bournemouth Symphony (The Festival’s resident orchestra), the season sees the welcome return of The Sixteen Choir and Orchestra. And in true Grange Festival fashion, the season finishes with a flourish with two not-to-be-missed evenings of jazz celebrating the extraordinary musical journey of the legendary American pianist and composer Duke Ellington.
Continuing its cycle of operas by Mozart, the 2023 season opens with a brand new manufacturing of the composer’s much-loved Così fan tutte (8 to 24 June), with a forged of established Mozartians because the star-crossed lovers. Soprano Samantha Clarke, a memorable Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2021, sings the function of Fiordiligi with mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately, a Festival favorite, as her sister Dorabella. Baritone Nicholas Lester, whose appearances with The Grange embody Ford (Falstaff) and Lescaut (Manon Lescaut), returns as Guglielmo, while tenor Alessandro Fisher, winner of the 2016 Kathleen Ferrier Award, sings the function of Ferrando. Having each appeared on the Festival in La Cenerentola in 2021, Carolina Lippo now returns as Despina and Christian Senn, famend as a Mozart interpreter, takes the function of the puppet grasp Don Alfonso. Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits, Chief Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, makes his Festival debut on this new manufacturing by director Martin Lloyd-Evans and designer Dick Bird, whose earlier collaboration for The Grange was Mansfield Park in 2017.
In a uncommon and dramatically contrasting pairing, The Grange Festival presents an attractive early music double-bill: Gluck’s intensely shifting Orfeo ed Euridice along with the primary English opera, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (9 to twenty-eight June). Returning to The Grange after their much-lauded collaboration on Belshazzar in 2019 and Tamerlano in 2022, is the inventive crew of Daniel Slater (director) and Robert Innes Hopkins (designer). Tim Claydon, who additionally labored on Belshazzar, is the motion director. In Orfeo ed Euridice, Heather Lowe, a Samling Scholar beforehand heard at The Grange in 2021 as Angelina (La Cenerentola), sings Orfeo, while Sophie Bevan (Asteria in Tamerlano) returns as Euridice and Alexandra Oomens, a Harewood Artist with ENO, makes her competition debut as Amore. All three singers additionally seem in Dido and Aeneas – Heather Lowe as Dido, Sophie Bevan as Belinda and Alexandra Oomens as 2nd Woman. They are joined by two rising stars additionally making their debuts with The Grange – James Newby as Aeneas and Helen Charlston as Sorceress/Spirit. This stellar forged is accompanied by the Choir and Orchestra of The Sixteen below their founding director Harry Christophers, making a welcome return to The Grange after their triumphant rendition of Belshazzar.
The fourth new manufacturing of the season – Tchaikovsky’s dramatic opera The Queen of Spades, based mostly on Pushkin’s quick story – will probably be created by Paul Curran (who directed the magical A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2021) and designer Gary McCann, and carried out by Paul Daniel in his debut at The Grange Festival (23 June to 2 July). A robust worldwide forged is led by Ukrainian tenor Eduard Martynyuk within the demanding central function of Herman, with the acclaimed Armenian soprano Anush Hovhannisyan, a former Jette Parker Artist, as his love curiosity Liza. A second Ukrainian, baritone Andrei Kymach, winner of the distinguished Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 2019, makes his Festival debut as Count Tomsky alongside Russian baritone Ilya Kutyukhin as Prince Yeletsky and British bass Edwin Kaye as Surin. Returning to the Festival are British tenor David Webb as Chekalinsky, Christopher Gillett as Chaplitsky / Master of Ceremonies and Lucy Schaufer as Governess. Claire Barnett-Jones, winner of the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize on the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition 2021, sings the function of Polina. The line-up is accomplished with the dream casting of Dame Josephine Barstow because the Countess.
Following the massive success of its first foray into jazz in 2022, The Grange Festival will shut its 2023 season with Ellington: From Stride to Strings – two nights in celebration of the extraordinary musical lifetime of Duke Ellington, one of many jazz world’s most ground-breaking composers (30 June, 1 July). The evolution of Ellington’s music will probably be reimagined by a sextet of virtuoso musicians led by famend trumpeter Dominick Farinacci, that includes iconic numbers resembling Mood Indigo, Satin Doll and Take the A Train. These six musicians will then be joined by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra opening the second half of the night with New World A-Comin‘, that includes virtuoso pianist Mathis Picard. This will probably be adopted by two specifically commissioned works by Ethan Iverson, a composer and pianist identified for his daring re-imaginings of acquainted works: A Duke Ellington Symphonic Fantasy and a high-energy association for orchestra and jazz sextet of the long-lasting C Jam Blues.
Artistic Director Michael Chance feedback: ‘Our 2023 festival is full of memorable music. Whether it is Orpheus singing of his deep loss, or Dido lamenting before her death, or the two unsuspecting young women wishing their fiancées a calm voyage away from Naples, or Prince Yeletsky’s highly effective aria, these are all a lot anticipated operatic moments. And then we offer you Duke Ellington. My expectations are excessive.’
General reserving opens on 1 March 2023. For extra data CLICK HERE.
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