Stan Graham's Leisure Guide for North and West Yorkshire
What a fabulous evening at Leeds Grand Theatre for this production of Mozart’s Requiem and After Tears: After A Requiem by Neo Muyanga. It wasn’t opera in its usual sense, more a concert piece by Opera North combined with the Phoenix Dance Theatre, Jazzart Dance Theatre and Cape Town Opera. You would have thought that…
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For anyone wondering whether to see an opera I think that The Pearl Fishers, by that most accessible of composers, Bizet, illustrates why you should give it a go. I would wager that there were quite a few newbies in the audience on Press Night as, after each aria, there was a short smattering of…
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What better way can there be to spend a sunny spring morning than with a walk round the best city in the world in the company of the amazing cellist, Abel Selaocoe along with members of the Orchestra and Chorus of Opera North. The heads of the early bird shoppers were definitely turned! OK, they…
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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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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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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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On Monday, 17th October, it will be 60 years to the day since a spotty, overweight East Leeds slum kid sat down with his mum after tea to watch the local ITV regional news programme, People and Places. There were only two channels back then, both in black and white, and very little popular music…
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Tyke It To The Limit 