Stan Graham's Leisure Guide for North and West Yorkshire
Calling all parents! If you have a child who is interested in a musical career and wants to learn an instrument, might I suggest that you buy them a violin. This is the third concert I have been to this week where a string quartet has been featured, so the employment prospects can’t be all…
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In the programme the director, Radula Gaitanou, says she wishes that opera were more like football, with the audience not knowing the outcome until the end. Well, she certainly walked the walk in this production, turning it into a game of two halves and, not until the penalty shoot-out at the end, do we find…
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I think that I have discovered a new hero, Leoš Janáček, the man responsible for the work currently being performed by Opera North at Leeds Grand Theatre. He has made my list of good guys on two counts; firstly he has broken the mould when it comes to the practice of anthropomorphism, and secondly, he…
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After a mini lockdown due to my recovering from a knee replacement operation and the lack of new shows opening since Christmas, it was great to get back to the beautiful Grand Theatre for a classic opera, albeit in modern dress – both the opera and me. As usual, the work covered love, betrayal, murder,…
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It seems that the only sopranos I haven’t met this week are the ones who would fit me with a concrete overcoat and take me swimming in the Hudson River. Tonight it was the turn of Katherine Broderick to impress me with her vocal prowess, along with pianist Kathryn Scott and Paul Whittaker who translated…
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What better way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon in Leeds than in Howard Assembly Room being serenaded by two brilliant sopranos. Daisy Brown and Fflur Wyn have been appearing in Opera North’s production of Orfeo ed Euridice, which I reviewed at the end of last month, so I was looking forward to seeing them…
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Here I am again at the wonderful Howard Assembly Room. I am not complaining, you understand, quite the opposite, the place has expanded my musical knowledge beyond all expectations. This evening we left the world of experimentation behind for a concert of works by Beethoven, Haydn and an encore from Elgar. The Doric String Quartet…
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To quote from the blurb on Howard Assembly Room’s website for this event, ‘Unquiet is the progressive new live experience devised by acclaimed conductor and composer Robert Ames and brought to life by the world renowned Manchester Camerata alongside a rotating cast of artists’. Can’t argue with that. Manchester Camerata’s website describes it as ‘A…
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Just a reminder that Orpheus, from Opera North and South Asian Arts, is now able to be viewed on Operavision. It is free, and available until 30th April 2023 so why not pour a glass of wedding fizz and give it a look. See my review at https://tyke-it-to-the-limit.com/2022/10/16/orpheus-from-opera-north-and-south-asian-arts-at-leeds-grand-theatre/ and judge for yourself at https://operavision.eu/performance/orpheus
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Another week, another Orpheus. You would think I would be getting a bit bored by the story by now after having reviewed so many takes on it in so short a time, but each has put its own twist on the tale making it seem fresh every time. The story started life as a myth…
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Tyke It To The Limit 