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SEEN AND HEARD
OPERA SEASON PREVIEW
ENO
Announces the 2009/10 Season:
a
preview from Colin Clarke
(CC)
On
Thursday, April 2, 2009, ENO announced its forthcoming (2009/10)
season. The company’s chief executive Loretta Tomasi gave a
remarkably upbeat summary of the company’s present finances (stating
they are better than they ever have been, including £5m in reserve).
Any restructuring, she claimed, has already been done.
Also present were the
current Music Director, Edward Gardner and the artistic director,
John Barry. The figures for the new season are quite remarkable: no
fewer than twelve new productions (six of which will be conducted by
Gardner), and collaborations with the Catalan theatre group “La Fura
dels Baus” and the theatre company Punchdrunk. Directors who will be
involved will include Rupert Goold (who recently directed Pete
Postlethewaite as Lear and will take on Turandot),
Katie Mitchell and Deborah Warner; David Alden and Jonathan Miller,
Penny Woolcock and, interestingly, singer Catherine Malfitano, who
directs Tosca in May 2010.
For those of us among us who are unabashed modernists, the arrival
of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre is a cause for huge joy. In
fact, Ligeti’s masterpiece opens the season. And Henze’s Elegy
for Young Lovers arrives in April 2010 (no cast available as
yet). For those who prefer music of our time that is easier on the
ear, Glass’ Satyagraha can be found in February 2010. I
suppose after taking on Bach Passions, a Handel Messiah at
ENO should not come as too much of a shock (opens late November
2009, conducted by Lawrence Cummings and directed by Warner;
soloists include Catherine Wyn-Rogers and John Mark Ainsley).
Jonathan Miller joins forces with Isabella Bywater for Donizetti’s
Elixir of Love; Mark Wigglesworth conducts a Katya
Kabanova (with Susan Bickley as Marfa, Patricia Racette as Katya
and Alfie Boe as Vanya).
One could almost sense Edward Gardner’s
drooly expectation at the coupling of Duke Bluebeard’s Castle (with Clive
Bayley and Michaela Martens) and The Rite of Spring (performed by
Fabulous Beast, a cast of twenty dancers). I hope he is as excited about the
prospect of Idomeneo with a cast that includes Emma Bell as Elettra and
Sarah Tynan as Ilia.
Of course there are some old favourites. The Miller Rigoletto is back
(how many times is it now?). More recently, David McVicar directed Turn of
the Screw, and that returns, as does Donizetti Lucia (with Anna
Christy). Good to see Pearl Fishers there, too, which has been staged
before here. This is a new production by Penny Woolcock.
There are some fascinating things here, and to see ENO fighting fit is good for
the soul in these troubled times. Keep on clicking onto
Seen and Heard for coverage!
Colin Clarke