Opera North

This is about the British organisation; for the unrelated American one, see Opera North (U.S.A.).

Opera North is a British opera company. Based in Leeds, England the Company's home theatre is the Leeds Grand Theatre, but it also presents regular seasons in several other cities, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays and the Theatre Royal, Newcastle. It also visits Sadler's Wells Theatre, London and, less regularly, the Bradford Alhambra, the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield, and other venues. The Company's orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North, regularly performs and records in its own right. Operas are performed either in English or in the original language of the libretto, in the latter case usually with subtitles.

History

Opera North was founded in 1978, and its first performance (of Saint-Saëns's Samson and Delilah) was given on 15 November 1978. It started life as an offshoot of English National Opera, and was known until 1981 as English National Opera North. It had the specific intention of delivering high-quality opera to the northern areas of the country which, up to that point, had no regular opera company. With the name change to Opera North, the official ties with English National Opera ceased to exist.

The founding Music Director of Opera North was David Lloyd-Jones (1977-1990). He was succeeded by Paul Daniel (1990-1997), Steven Sloane (1999-2002) and Richard Farnes (2004- ). Elgar Howarth was designated Principal Guest Conductor of the company between 1985 and 1988, and held the temporary post of Music Advisor during the interregnum between Daniel and Sloane.

Repertory

As well as presenting the bread-and-butter operas of the standard repertory, the company has performed a number of operas that are rarely seen in Britain. Examples include:

In addition, the company has given world premières of the following operas: Rebecca by Wilfred Josephs (1983), Caritas by Robert Saxton (1991), Baa, Baa, Black Sheep by Michael Berkeley (1993), Playing Away by Benedict Mason (1994), The Nightingale's to Blame by Simon Holt (1998), The Adventures of Pinocchio by Jonathan Dove (2007) and Skin Deep by David Sawer and Armando Iannucci (2009). In July 2009, Opera North premièred Prima Donna, a new opera by Rufus Wainwright, at the Manchester International Festival.^[1] In 2010, the company will be producing a new opera by Jonathan Dove entitled Swanhunter.

Opera North has also given performances of musical theatre works. The first was Jerome Kern's Show Boat (in collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company) in 1989, and productions of Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing and Sondheim's Sweeney Todd followed in 1998. Latterly, the works of Kurt Weill have become something of a speciality, with productions of Love Life (1996), One Touch of Venus and The Seven Deadly Sins in 2004 and Arms and the Cow in 2006. In 2009, Let 'Em Eat Cake, the sequel to Of Thee I Sing, was produced.

Opera North has worked extensively with electronic composer Mira Calix, commissioning Dead Wedding (for the Manchester International Festival 2007) Onibus (2008) and the installation Chorus (2009) for the opening of the Howard Assembly Rooms with visual artist UVA.

Awards

• Winner of the TMA Theatre Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera 2007 (for Peter Grimes, directed by Phyllida Lloyd),^[2] and in 2004
• Winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Opera & Music Theatre 2007 (for Peter Grimes)^[3] and in 2005
• Winner of the South Bank Show Award for Opera 2007 (for Peter Grimes)^[4] and 2005 (for its Eight Little Greats season of one-act operas)^[5]
• Winner of the Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards for Opera 2004
• Winner of the Audiences Yorkshire Award for Best Overall Marketing and Audience Development Campaign 2004

Funding

Major funders of Opera North include:^[6]

• Arts Council England, Yorkshire
• Leeds City Council
• West Yorkshire Grants
• North Yorkshire County Council
• East Riding of Yorkshire Council

Notes

1. ^ Higgins, Charlotte (2008-10-09). "From pop to opera: petrified Rufus Wainwright embraces 'the dark religion'". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/oct/09/rufuswainwright.folk. Retrieved 2009-02-22. 
2. ^ TMA press release
3. ^ RPS Music Awards site
4. ^ Metro report
5. ^ Arts Council press release
6. ^ "An Introduction to the Company". Opera North. 2008. http://www.operanorth.co.uk/aboutus/aboutus.aspx. Retrieved 2008-04-21. 

External links

• Official site