Stan Graham's Leisure Guide for North and West Yorkshire
Any of you who have been paying attention will know from the Leeds Heritage Theatre Preview about the Opera North productions being staged at Leeds Grand Theatre but there is lots of other stuff going on as well so here is a summary. The main operas in the winter season are Carmen, Bernstein Double Bill…
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Whoever is curating the programme for this first post-pandemic season at Opera North is playing a blinder. They are making it so easy for those new to the genre, and also hardened opera buffs, to slide effortlessly back into ‘normal’ life. In addition this production is the perfect opportunity for an audience to experience modern…
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Leeds Heritage Theatres is the new umbrella term for Leeds Grand Theatre, Leeds City Varieties Music Hall and Hyde Park Picture House. In the past I have done previews of the two live venues separately but now that their website is a comprehensive list of everything on offer it seems logical to treat them as…
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What a great way to kick off the first Opera North Season since lockdown. Carmen is one of those operas where everyone knows at least two of the arias even if only from adverts or film scores. Before the curtain opened the audience was given a brief welcome back by Richard Mantle, Opera North’s General…
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After more than 600 days, live classical music has returned to Huddersfield Town Hall with the launch of a new season of events, and it couldn’t have started with a better curated programme. The title of this first concert says it all, the pieces starting with a choice from the darker side and ending in…
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Well, now that we are past Midsummer’s Day, the nights have started drawing in so it is time to look forward to the offerings from Leeds Playhouse to cheer us up and divert us from watching the digits on our smart meters increase quicker than the altimeter on Sir Richard Branson’s spaceship. Fear not, there…
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I have been sitting on this information for a while now because I was getting pretty depressed having to pass on the news of scheduled performances by various organisations being cancelled or postponed over the past eighteen months. Some have been postponed and then cancelled. With the proposed lifting of restrictions and the vaccine roll-out…
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This morning I received a text purporting to be from the NHS inviting me to follow a link to receive my on-line Covid Passport. Whilst it looks totally genuine, after my experience last night I feel a bit wary about taking things at face value. I don’t want to become prey to scammers and end…
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Opera North are at it again, bringing opera to people who would not normally experience it and what a great choice. There can have been no more appropriate work to air on the weekend of the G7 Summit on Climate Change. As the name suggests, there is a green message in this work, not only…
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After Fidelio and La Petite Bohème, Opera North’s third Christmas streaming is the perennial favourite, Cinderella. This is not the big budget blockbuster with an eighty piece orchestra and a Grand Ball scene to rival that of any Hollywood extravaganza of the 1930s, no, this is the Whistle Stop version comprising three actors, a piano…
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