Kathryn Rudge reveals all about Opera North’s Don Giovanni at the Lowry
| 9th March 2018
A trio of powerful Italian blockbusters of desire, betrayal and revenge arrived at The Lowry this week as award-winning opera company Opera North returned to Salford Quays with a thrilling season of Fatal Passions until Saturday 10 March.
Kathryn Rudge, from Liverpool, who is playing Zerlina in Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on Friday 9 March, said: “It is a really exciting piece.”
“It is based around Don Giovanni who seduces all these ladies, and eventually gets his comeuppance because they all figure out what he’s up to and come together.”
The opera follows the lothario as he seduces his way across Europe, bedding 1003 women in Spain alone. Don Giovanni’s hedonism is a challenge not only to human morality, but also to God.
Broad comedy rubs up against tense drama in Da Ponte’s libretto, and the beauty and terror of Mozart’s score are evidence of a supreme musical dramatist at the height of his powers, divinely (and perhaps diabolically) inspired.
Mozart’s sublimely beautiful music, driven by the dramatic urgency of a fast-unfolding plot, stands in stark contrast with the barbarous cruelty of his deeply ambiguous anti-hero.
Alessandro Talevi’s eclectic, time-travelling production brings fresh insights to this, Mozart’s darkest, craziest, opera.
In Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball) on Saturday 10 March, Giuseppe Verdi weaves a timeless tale of power, passion and political plotting, at the heart of which is a tragic love triangle.
Based on an actual historical event: the assassination of King Gustavus of Sweden in 1792. Gustavo loves Amelia, wife of his most loyal ally Anckarstroem. Although the King eventually decides that duty must conquer love, it is too late to prevent Anckarstroem from joining a conspiracy against his life.
Verdi displays all his mastery of his art in this, the most operatic of operas. Dramatic arias jostle with tense ensembles and rousing choruses, and at the heart of the piece is one of Verdi’s most impassioned love duets.
Former Music Director Richard Farnes returns to the Company for the first time since he led Opera North’s legendary Ring cycle in 2016 to conduct a new production by Tim Albery that promises to be a highlight of the season.
This production is supported by a generous gift from The Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation.
Album 1
