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Summer Opera

Haydn: Il mondo della luna

The Summer Opera
4 (Preview)/7/10/11/13/14 July 2018

Conductor – Steven Devine; Director – Michael Burden

In a new English translation by Simon Rees

Reviews

NCO’s Rare Haydn Opera is an Enchanting Oxford Evening – Seen and Heard International
A World of Enchantment: New Chamber Opera’s Production of Haydn’s Il mondo della luna – British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies

The Evening’s Events
6.00pm: Drink in the Cloisters
6.30pm: Opera Part I, The Warden’s Garden
Picnic Interval in the Cloisters (approximately 90 minutes)
9.00pm: Opera Part II, The Warden’s Garden
10.15pm: Curtain

Tickets

Wednesday 4 (Preview) & Tuesday 10
New Chamber Opera

http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/newchamberopera
or
Download a form here

****

Saturday 7 & Friday 13
Tickets: New College Development Office (01865) 279 337

Tuesday 10
Tickets: OXPIP (01865) 778 034

Wednesday 11
Tickets: Friends of the Oxford Botanic Garden (07722) 605 787

Saturday 14
Tickets: Friends of WNO (01865) 408 045

Il mondo della luna

Ecclitico, a would-be astronomer: Daniel Shelvey
Ernesto, a cavalier: Daniel Keating-Roberts
Buonafede, a naive old man: Thomas Kennedy
Clarice, daughter of Buonafede: Kate Semmens
Flaminia, another daughter of Buonafede: Rachel Shannon
Lisetta, maid of Buonafede: Indyana Schneider
Cecco, servant of Ernesto: Alexander Gebhard

The central character of Haydn’s opera Il Mondo della Luna is a rather dotty and egotistical but naive old man, Bonafede. He is entranced by the lunar lifestyle invented by Ecclitico, the false astronomer. The aim of the opera is to befuddle Bonafede into allowing his two daughters to marry: Flaminia to Ernesto, and Clarice to Ecclitico. The opera was performed in celebration of the wedding of Count Nikolaus Eszterházy (son of Haydn’s employer, Prince Eszterházy) and the Countess Maria Anna Weissenwolf on August 3, 1777, but very rarely (if at all) thereafter. It underwent a number of changes, and it is clear that there is not one but many versions of the piece.

The opera was a pathbreaker in a number of ways. Up until 1776 there was no regular operatic tradition at the Eszterházy court, where Haydn was composer and Kapellmeister. He had composed several well-received operas, including L’infedeltà delusa (performed by New Chamber Opera in 2014) but it was not until the completion of the new Eszterházy theatre that he began to compose operas on a regular basis. Haydn not only wrote new operas but promoted works by other composers’ new repertoire. It has undergone some revival in the last few years, in particular, in two different productions by English Touring Opera.

Other

Andreas Scholl

The University’s first
Humanitas Visiting Professor of Voice and Classical Music

Photo credit: © Decca/James MacMillan

Events

19 February 2018
T. S. Eliot Lecture Theatre
Andreas Scholl in conversation
‘Beyond Bach’
5.00pm, followed by a reception

20 February 2018
Masterclass, Holywell Music Room
11.00am-1.00pm; 2.00-5.00pm

21 February 2018
Masterclass, Holywell Music Room
11.00am-1.00pm; 2.00-5.00pm

22 February 2018
Masterclass, New College Chapel
11.00am-1.00pm
Masterclass Concert, New College Chapel
2.00-5.00pm

Admission is free, but please book via http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/newchamberopera

Born into a family of singers, Andreas Scholl, aged 13, was chosen from 20,000 choristers gathered in Rome from around the world to sing solo at Mass on 4 January 1981. Just four years later, Scholl was offered a place at the Schola Cantorum, an institution that normally accepts only post-graduate students, and now succeeded his own teacher there, Richard Levitt. His operatic roles include Bertarido in Handel’s Rodelinda at Glyndebourne in 1998 and at the Met in 2006, and the title role in Giulio Cesare at Oper Frankfurt. He has worked with many of the contemporary Baroque specialists including William Christie and Philippe Herreweghe.

Scholl has released a series of extraordinary solo recordings including: Wanderer – a disc of German Lied in partnership with pianist Tamar Halperin; O Solitude – an all-Purcell album with Accademia Bizantina which won the 2012 BBC Music Magazine award, Arias for Senesino, Heroes – a disc of arias by Handel, Mozart, Hasse and Gluck, Robert Dowland’s A Musicall Banquet, Arcadia – a collection of rare and unpublished cantatas by composers from Rome’s Arcadian Circle, Wayfaring Stranger – a selection of specially arranged English and American folksongs with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Bach cantatas with Kammerorchester Basel and Vivaldi Motets with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, all of which are released on Decca. His most recent recording, Small Gifts of Heaven, is a collaboration with Dorothee Oberlinger and released on the Sony label this season.

Recitals

Hilary 2018 Recitals

New College Ante-chapel
1.15pm, £2/£1 concessions

February
9 Laura Coppinger, Soprano

16 Alexander Gebhard, Tenor

23 Filippo Turkeimer, Baritone

March
2 Stephanie Franklin, Soprano

9 Lewis Hammond, Countertenor

NCO Studio

The Rake’s Progress

New Chamber Opera Studio
presents
Igor Stravinsky
The Rake’s Progress

14 & 15 February 2018
7.30pm
Sheldonian Theatre

Tickets: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/newchamberopera

or on the door

Conductor – Chloe Rooke
Repetiteur – Anhad Arora
Chorus director - Joseph Beesley
Director – Michael Burden

Cast

Anne Trulove – Emily Gibson
Tom Rakewell – Maximilian Lawrie
Nick Shadow – Patrick Keefe
Father Trulove – Tom Lowen
Baba the Turk – Carrie Thomson
Keeper of the Madhouse – Josh Newman

Stravinsky’s neo-classical opera The Rake’s Progress tells the story of Tom Rakewell, who, at the behest of Nick Shadow (the Devil), abandons his intended, Anne Trulove, for the dubious delights of the city. Shadow leads him into a variety of scrapes, including a scheme to turn stones into bread, a visit to a brothel, and marriage to a bearded lady. He ends up in Bedlam, the Devil having stolen his reason. The Moral? ‘For idle hearts and hands and minds the Devil finds work to do.’ The tale, loosely based on William Hogarth’s series of pictures, is by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman.

Recitals

Michaelmas 2017 Recitals

New College Ante-chapel
1.15pm, £2/£1 concessions

October 27th
Opening recital
Victoria Armillotta (soprano)
Iryna Ilnytska (mezzo soprano)

November 3rd
James Fairchild (tenor)

November 10th
Wendy Jones (mezzo-soprano)

November 17th
Carrie Thompson (soprano)

November 24th
Frances Bell-Davies (soprano)

December 1
Alexander Gebhard (tenor)

NCO Studio

Acis and Galatea

G F Handel
Acis and Galatea
Acis, Galtea, Polyphemus

Conductor: Chloe Rooke

23 & 25 November 2017
8.30pm
New College Ante-Chapel

Tickets
£15/£7 concessions
on the door and from
http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/newchamberopera

One writer on Handel’s Acis and Galatea has commented: ‘It is not clear whether the original performance was staged, semi-staged, or performed as a concert work.’ And therein lies differences in terminology and staging which dogged the work throughout the 18th century. The first term applied to it was ‘masque’, a form in which dance was usually a decisive element. Then it was described as an ‘opera’, implying a filly costume staging of the piece. Next up was the label ‘serenata’, a performance that was advertised as being in costume, but with no movement on the stage. Lastly, it was called an ‘oratorio’, suggesting performances with no costumes and no staging, although it was too short for an evening’s performance and had other works on the theatrical bill to make up a ‘Part III’. New Chamber Opera has performed Acis and Galatea in the past as an oratorio; in November, we will be performing it in a new staging, exploring as aspects of the drama.

The work was written by Handel when he was living at Cannons Park, the home of the Duke of Chandos, during 1717-1718. It traces its origins to the series of pastoral masques set by Johann Pepusch in the second decade of the 18th century, and to the work of the poet John Hughes. The text is attributed to John Gay, and based on Book XIII of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Acis and Galatea are in love; the monster Polyphemus loves Galatea and kills Acis out of jealousy; Galatea assuages her grief by turning Acis into a river spirit as immortal as herself.

Other

Visiting Professor of Opera 2017-18 – Stephen Langridge

The University’s Visiting Professor of Opera, 2017-18

Events
Admission is free, but please book via http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/newchamberopera

26 October 2017
Stephen Langridge in conversation: “Why play opera at all?”
5:00-6:45pm; T. S. Eliot Lecture Theatre

27 & 30 October 2017
Making Opera

27 October 2017
Singers’ workshop
10.00-1.00pm; Long Room, New College
New creations
2.00-5.00pm: Long Room, New College

30 October 2017
Working with the New
10.00-1.00pm: Long Room, New College
Performing the New
2.00-5.00pm: Long Room, New College

Biography
Stephen Langridge is Artistic Director (Opera/Drama) of GöteborgsOperan, the Gothenburg Opera. Having studied Drama at Exeter University, Stephen then spent several years working as assistant director, mostly with the cutting edge company, Opera Factory, but also at Covent Garden, Opera North and Scottish Opera. His own practice developed through a mixture of small-scale tours of cut-down classics with Pimlico Opera, practical laboratories for composers and librettists, and devised music theatre projects, often in unconventional spaces with unconventional people. Underlying all his work is the belief that music theatre is a natural and dynamic form of human expression, to which everybody should have access, both as a creative participant and as an audience.

Stephen is well known for his education, development, and training work (projects in France, Spain, Germany, Finland, Holland, Sweden, Senegal, South Africa, and throughout the UK), and for his theatre work in unusual settings, including West Side Story (Bernstein) and Julius Caesar (Shakespeare) with large casts of prisoners in various British high security prisons, and Ngoma, a multi-racial music and theatre project in South African townships.

Although his directing work is now often on a larger scale – including productions at many of the world’s leading opera houses – Stephen continues to work off piste incorporating smaller scale experimental and developmental projects as an essential part of his working life.

NCO Studio

The Choice of Hercules

Poussin, Nicolas; The Choice of Hercules; National Trust, Stourhead; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/the-choice-of-hercules-101292

George Frederick Handel

Conductor: Chloe Rooke

New College Chapel
7 June 2017
8.30pm
Tickets £10/£5 from TicketSource
Or on the door

First performed in 1750, Handel’s The Choice of Hercules deals with a choice offered to the god Hercules, a choice between the paths of pleasure and virtue. The two women offer various arguments to Hercules, which culminates in the trio ‘Where shall I go’? In the end, Hercules chooses Virtue. Similar stories of choice were set in England throughout the 18th century, most notably The Judgement of Paris; Handel’s text, probably by Thomas Morell, comes from Robert Lowth’s 1743 poem of the same title.

Recitals

Trinity 2017 Recitals

New College Ante-chapel
1.15pm, £2/£1 concessions

April 28
Rory Green (Bass)

May 5
Alistair Walker (Tenor)

May 12
Sofia Kirwan-Baez (Soprano)

May 19
Charlotte Pawley (Soprano)

May 26
Lila Chrisp (Mezzo-Soprano)

June 2
Liam Connery (Tenor)

June 9
Caleb Bester (Bass)

June 16
George Robarts (Baritone)

Summer Opera

The Barber of Seville

Giovanni Paisiello

sung in an English translation by Gilly French and Jeremy Grey

Conductor – Steven Devine; Director – Michael Burden

Read a review of the production here.

5 (Preview), 8, 11, 12, 14, 15 July 2017
The Warden’s Garden, New College

The Evening’s Events
6.00pm: Drink in the Cloisters
6.30pm: Opera Part I, The Warden’s Garden
Picnic Interval in the Cloisters (approximately 90 minutes)
9.15pm: Opera Part II, The Warden’s Garden
10.15pm: Curtain

Tickets

July
5 & 11 https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/newchamberopera
8 & 14 Old Members and Friends of New College (01865) 279509 (open to general public from one week prior)
11 OXPIP (01865) 778 043
12 Friends of Oxford Botanic Gardens (07722) 605 787
15 Friends of WNO (01865) 408 045

The story of The Barber of Seville, best known to modern audiences through Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, had a number of previous settings, the most popular of which was by Giovanni Paisiello (1740 – 1816). The libretto comes straight from Beaumarchais, and is by the prolific (and capable) poet, Giuseppe Petrosellini. The opera was performed on 26 September 1782 at the Imperial Court in St Petersburg, and had lasting success; even after the premiere of Rossini’s version, Paisiello’s setting continued to be performed for some years afterward. Paisiello studied at the Conservatorio di S. Onoforio in Naples, originally as a singer. His years there were very successful, and he eventually became the composer for the Conservatorio’s theatre. His works there were mainly intermezzos, but they won him operatic commissions for Bologna and Rome, and when he departed the Conservatorio in 1763, he was in a position to launch a successful career. In 1776 Paisiello was invited by Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, and it was there that The Barber of Seville was conceived.

Cast List

Count Almaviva
Joseph Doody

Rosina
Kate Semmens

Bartolo
Giles Underwood

Figaro
Trevor Eliot Bowes

Don Basilio
Tom Kennedy

Giovinetto/Alcade
Alexander Gebhard

Svegliato/Notary
George Robarts