Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro
June 19,21,24,27,28. July 02, 05.
Libretto: Lorenzo da Ponte
Sung in English, trans. Michael Irwin
Conductor Andrew Griffiths
Director Bernadette Iglich
Designer Agnes Treplin
On one frantic C18 day of near-calamities and life-changing crises Figaro is threatened with both cuckoldry and incest and Susannah with rape; the Countess is devastated by her husband's infidelity while the Count suffers complete loss of face as the local alpha male when social changes pressurise him to forgo his ancient droit de seigneur. Yet indisputably this is a comedy and arguably the most perfect opera ever written - with a sublime resolution and some of the most beautiful vocal music the world has ever heard. Iford's Figaro will be aiming to draw you close into the lives of this household as you share their nailbiting decision-making.
Cavalli's GiasoneJuly 11,12,15,16,19
(with Christian Curnyn and Early Opera Company)
Edition by Antony Hose
Libretto Giacinto Cognini
Translation by Ronald Eyre
Conductor Christian Curnyn
Leader Oliver Webber
Director Martin Constantine
Christian Curnyn and his Early Opera Company are fresh from the huge triumph of their recent recording of Semele and bring to this exclusive new production of Giasone, all their characteristic starry qualities with among others, Stephen Wallace, Madeleine Shaw and Sinead Campbell. Jason and the Golden Fleece is a delicious Venetian Carnival version of the story of Jason and Medea. It begins on the island of Colchis where Jason is procrastinating… Anything goes on Colchis apparently, and he is visited every night by an amorous but anonymous young lady who eventually reveals herself as Medea, the sorceress. But his wife turns up and the opera nearly tips into tragedy. This is very definitely early soap-opera: designed to entertain; satirical, subversive and scurrilously non pc and with sensuous and mellifluous music by Cavalli. It was deservedly the most popular opera of the C17.
Verdi's Un Giorno di Regno (King for a Day)July 22,24,26,28,30. August 01, 02.
Opera della Luna with the Pepys Ensemble
Libretto Felice Romani
English translation by Jeff Clarke
Director Jeff Clarke
Conductor Oliver Gooch
Designer Elroy Ashmore
The legendary Opera della Luna returns to Iford with a new version, in a new English translation, of this wonderfully entertaining opera which is bursting with melody and crammed with tuneful ensembles (and contains a positively muppet-like comic duo of cranky old men). Verdi's first comedy tells the story of a royal ‘lookalike' who whilst deployed as a decoy makes the most of his opportunity to get what he wants! He is the Chevalier de Belfiore who hears that his former love, a young widowed Marchioness, is about to be married off by her wicked uncle, and masquerading as the King, wreaks havoc on the wedding plans. Our new version with new English translation by Jeff Clarke leaves all arias and ensembles untouched but offers new recitative sharply rewritten for comedy and clarity. This early Verdi piece looks back to the works of Donizetti and Rossini yet also foreshadows the melodious Verdian wonders to come. The Pepys ensemble will be conducted by Oliver Gooch whose recent performances at Iford have been so highly acclaimed, and the production is by Jeff Clarke.
Sunday concert
The Gentleman of Johns Concert
Hailed as ‘one of the freshest and most exciting male voiced consorts to have come out of Great Britain in the last thirty years’, by BBC Music Magazine, the Gents were formed by choral scholars of the world renowned Choir of St John's College, Cambridge. They sing an eclectic range of music from Tallis to the Beach Boys, moving on the way through Wagner, Vaughan Williams and the Beatles.
Tickets £16 - contact Theatre Royal Box Office: 01225 44 88 44August 03.
The dates of the Jazz promenades are as follows.
Sat 14th June - First Night Party
The Phil Dando Big Band and Simon Banks Pianist Extraordinaire.
With music ranging from the Roaring Twenties right through to the present day, the Phil Dando Big Band faultlessly recreates the sound of the big band era with such classics as String of Pearls and Pennsylvania 65000, and pieces by Duke Ellington and Tommy Dorsey. Also at this prom, Simon Banks Pianist Extraordinaire will present a blend of stride style jazz, boogie woggie, ragtime and swing. Simon’s charismatic stage presentation has made him a uniquely entertaining and popular performer at almost every jazz festival throughout the UK.
Tickets £25.00 - contact Theatre Royal Box Office: 01225 44 88 44
Fri 20th June - June Jazz Night
Clare Teal named ‘The New Queen of Swing’ by the Mail on Sunday, and voted British Jazz Singer of the Year 2007. Clare has recently broken from the constraints of genre to reveal a wealth of hidden riches. "Where once I was influenced largely by jazz and classical, now I'm influenced by everything," she says. Clare will be joined by the Jive Aces, who are renowned for their high-energy jump jive music from the era when swing met rock and roll, with a glitzy dash of Rat Pack and a shaking of rhythm and blues. Booker Montreux Jazz Festival says they are ‘high calibre musicians that amazed the Montreux Jazz Festival crowd with their spectacular show combined with technical perfection.’
Tickets £25.00 - contact Theatre Royal Box Office: 01225 44 88 44
Sat 09th Aug - Gypsy Swing
Evan Christopher and Django à la Créole, with Dave Blenkhorn, Sebastien Giradot and Dave Kelbie, are on tour from the USA and fresh from the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival. This superbly eloquent New Orleans clarinettist (a contender for no 1 in the USA) brings new arrangements of the European music of Django Reinhardt melded with New Orleans and Créole. The New York Times declares that the group have ‘A forthright sound and a hungry energy.’ Also performing on the 9th August is the Bright Size Gypsies – habitués of London’s renowned QuecumBar. This unique band led by composer/guitarist/vocalist Simon Harris and accompanied by a variety of virtuosic musicians, performs an infectious blend of quirky original material, standard gypsy jazz repertoire, and masterfully re-worked pop classics by artists such as Michael Jackson, the Beatles and Mozart!
Tickets £25.00 - contact Theatre Royal Booking Office: 01225 44 88 44
Click here to downlaod a booking form
