A day of Puccini
Opera Holland Park with Schicchi and The Christine
Collins Young Artists’ – a day of Puccini!
On Saturday 14 July OHP will launch The
Christine Collins Young Artists’ with a performance of the
acclaimed production of Puccini's one act masterpiece Gianni
Schicchi featuring Alan Opie in the title role and a cast of
exciting, emergent singers. The full performance with the City of
London Sinfonia, accompanied by the beautiful one act Mascagni
opera Zanetto starring Janice Watson and Patricia Orr,
begins at 2pm. Read a blog by one
of the young artists.
On that same evening the main cast of
Schicchi will take to the stage too so we are offering
patrons the chance to enjoy both performances and to spend a
delightful day enjoying the stunning OHP theatre. Purchase a ticket
for the evening performance and we will give you a free seat at the
Young Artists performance. And to help get the day off to a
convivial start we will also throw in a glass of wine. Between
shows you can relax in the theatre or perhaps take a wander around
the gorgeous Holland Park. Maybe bring a picnic and we will give
you a table too (if it is available) with no charge either. The
first 30 callers get their ticket at £30;
thereafter all tickets are £40 (for the day).
Please telephone the box office on 0300 999
1000 to book.
OHP believes passionately in developing our
emerging talent and this is a wonderful chance for you to support
them whilst enjoying one of Puccini's most vivacious scores and a
hilarious production.
A whole afternoon and evening at Opera Holland
Park with two Italian masters and a clutch of young talent. What
could be better?!
Read the
reviews…
Stunning...Savagely funny. Alan Opie gives a
towering, gleeful performance in the title role, though what really
impresses here is the ensemble playing, in which no one – from
Carole Wilson's ferocious Zita and Simon Wilding's alcoholic Betto
to John Lofthouse's prissy lawyer Amantio – puts a foot wrong. It's
conducted with lethal precision by Manlio Benzi, too.
Tim Ashley, Guardian
There is plenty of comic life in a cast led by
Alan Opie’s excellent, worldy-wise Schicchi with Yung Soo Yun
and Anna Patalong seizing their lyrical chances as the young
lovers. The City of London Sinfonia offers stylish support
too.
Richard Morrison, The Times
The music is interlaced with an idyllic
Italian romance…simple and elegant, sweeping strings are its
predominant voice, adorned by gentle phrasing from the flutes in
more tender passages. The City of London Sinfonia under Manlio
Benzi bore this out with feeling, evoking all the poignancy there
is to be had in Mascagni’s compact score.
Opera Brittania