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This is about the British organisation; for the unrelated American one, see Opera North (U.S.A.)
Opera North (U.S.A.)

Opera North is a professional opera company based in Lebanon, New Hampshire and is a member of OPERA America. The company presents an annual summer festival of two fully staged operas....
.


Opera North is a British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
 company. Based in Leeds
Leeds

Leeds is located on the River Aire in West Yorkshire, England. It is the urban core and administrative centre of the wider metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds....
, England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 the Company's home theatre is the Leeds Grand Theatre
Grand Theatre Leeds

The Grand Theatre is a theatre and Opera house in the centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was designed by James Robinson Watson, chief assistant in the office of Leeds-based architect George Corson, and opened on 18 November 1878....
, but it also presents regular seasons in several other cities, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham
Theatre Royal, Nottingham

The Theatre Royal, Nottingham is part of Nottingham's Royal Centre, which also incorporates the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall. The theatre is in the heart of Nottingham City Centre and is owned by Nottingham City Council....
, the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays
Salford Quays

Salford Quays is an area of Salford, in Greater Manchester, England, near the end of the Manchester Ship Canal. Previously the site of Salford Docks, it became one of the first and largest urban regeneration projects in the United Kingdom following the closure of the dockyards in 1982....
 and the Theatre Royal, Newcastle
Theatre Royal, Newcastle

The Theatre Royal is a Grade I listed building situated on Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey in Newcastle upon Tyne. It was designed by local architects John and Benjamin Green as part of Richard Grainger's grand design for the centre of Newcastle, and was opened on 20 February 1837 with a performance of The Merchant of Venice....
. It also visits Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre

Sadler's Wells Theatre is the name of six theatres that have been built since 1683 at a site on Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington....
, London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
 and, less regularly, the Bradford Alhambra
Bradford Alhambra

The Bradford Alhambra is a theatre in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It was built in 1913 at a cost of ?20,000 for theatre impresario Francis Laidler, and opened on Wednesday 18 March 1914....
, the Lyceum Theatre
Lyceum Theatre (Sheffield)

The Lyceum is a 1068-seat theatre in the Sheffield, England....
 in Sheffield
Sheffield

Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom and metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England. It is so named because of its origins in a field on the River Sheaf that runs through the city....
, and other venues. The Company's orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North
Orchestra of Opera North

The Orchestra of Opera North is, as might be expected, the orchestra that plays for the British opera company, Opera North.It was founded as the English Northern Philharmonia, and changed its name during the period when Steven Sloane was Opera North's Music Director....
, regularly performs and records in its own right.






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This is about the British organisation; for the unrelated American one, see Opera North (U.S.A.)
Opera North (U.S.A.)

Opera North is a professional opera company based in Lebanon, New Hampshire and is a member of OPERA America. The company presents an annual summer festival of two fully staged operas....
.


Opera North is a British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
 company. Based in Leeds
Leeds

Leeds is located on the River Aire in West Yorkshire, England. It is the urban core and administrative centre of the wider metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds....
, England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 the Company's home theatre is the Leeds Grand Theatre
Grand Theatre Leeds

The Grand Theatre is a theatre and Opera house in the centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was designed by James Robinson Watson, chief assistant in the office of Leeds-based architect George Corson, and opened on 18 November 1878....
, but it also presents regular seasons in several other cities, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham
Theatre Royal, Nottingham

The Theatre Royal, Nottingham is part of Nottingham's Royal Centre, which also incorporates the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall. The theatre is in the heart of Nottingham City Centre and is owned by Nottingham City Council....
, the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays
Salford Quays

Salford Quays is an area of Salford, in Greater Manchester, England, near the end of the Manchester Ship Canal. Previously the site of Salford Docks, it became one of the first and largest urban regeneration projects in the United Kingdom following the closure of the dockyards in 1982....
 and the Theatre Royal, Newcastle
Theatre Royal, Newcastle

The Theatre Royal is a Grade I listed building situated on Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey in Newcastle upon Tyne. It was designed by local architects John and Benjamin Green as part of Richard Grainger's grand design for the centre of Newcastle, and was opened on 20 February 1837 with a performance of The Merchant of Venice....
. It also visits Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre

Sadler's Wells Theatre is the name of six theatres that have been built since 1683 at a site on Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington....
, London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
 and, less regularly, the Bradford Alhambra
Bradford Alhambra

The Bradford Alhambra is a theatre in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It was built in 1913 at a cost of ?20,000 for theatre impresario Francis Laidler, and opened on Wednesday 18 March 1914....
, the Lyceum Theatre
Lyceum Theatre (Sheffield)

The Lyceum is a 1068-seat theatre in the Sheffield, England....
 in Sheffield
Sheffield

Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom and metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England. It is so named because of its origins in a field on the River Sheaf that runs through the city....
, and other venues. The Company's orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North
Orchestra of Opera North

The Orchestra of Opera North is, as might be expected, the orchestra that plays for the British opera company, Opera North.It was founded as the English Northern Philharmonia, and changed its name during the period when Steven Sloane was Opera North's Music Director....
, regularly performs and records in its own right. Operas are performed either in English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 or in the original language of the libretto, in the latter case usually with subtitles.

History


Opera North was founded in 1978, and its first performance (of Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns

Charles-Camille Saint-Sa?ns was a French composer, organist, Conductor , and pianist, known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse Macabre , Samson and Delilah , Havanaise , Introduction and Rondo capriccioso , and his Symphony No....
's Samson and Delilah
Samson and Delilah (opera)

Samson et Dalila , Op. 47, is a Grand Opera in three acts and four tableaux by Camille Saint-Sa?ns to a French language libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire....
) was given on 15 November, 1978. It started life as an offshoot of English National Opera
English National Opera

English National Opera is the national opera company of England, and one of two opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden....
, and was known until 1981 as English National Opera North. It had the specific intention of delivering high-quality opera to the northern areas of the country which, up to that point, had no regular opera company. With the name change to Opera North, the official ties with English National Opera ceased to exist.

The founding Music Director of Opera North was David Lloyd-Jones
David Lloyd-Jones

David Lloyd-Jones is a British Conducting. He is also an editor and translator, especially of Russian operas....
 (1977-1990). He was succeeded by Paul Daniel
Paul Daniel

Paul Daniel CBE is an England conducting. He is particularly noted for performances and recordings of opera and of British music.As a boy, he sang in the choir of Coventry Cathedral, where he received musical training....
 (1990-1997), Steven Sloane
Steven Sloane

Steven Sloane is an American-born, Germany Conductor . Currently he is musical director of the Symphonic Orchestra in Bochum, a post he has held since 1994....
 (1999-2002) and Richard Farnes
Richard Farnes

Richard Farnes is a United Kingdom Conductor , and is currently Music Director of Opera North....
 (2004- ). Elgar Howarth
Elgar Howarth

Elgar Howarth is an English conducting and composer.Howarth was educated in the 1950s at Manchester University and the Royal Manchester College of Music , where his fellow students included the composers Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies, and the pianist John Ogdon....
 was designated Principal Guest Conductor of the company between 1985 and 1988, and held the temporary post of Music Advisor during the interregnum
Interregnum

An interregnum is a period of discontinuity of a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one monarch and the next , and the concepts of interregnum and Regent therefore overlap....
 between Daniel and Sloane.

Repertory


As well as presenting the bread-and-butter operas of the standard repertory, the company has performed a number of operas that are rarely seen in Britain. Examples include:

  • Les mamelles de Tirésias
    Les mamelles de Tirésias

    Les Mamelles de Tir?sias is a Surrealism two act Comic opera by Francis Poulenc, based on The Breasts of Tiresias by Guillaume Apollinaire, which was written in 1903 but first performed in 1917....
      (Poulenc
    Francis Poulenc

    Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a France composer and a member of the French group Les Six. He composed music in all major genres, including art song, chamber music, oratorio, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music....
    ) (1978)
  • The Mines of Sulphur
    The Mines of Sulphur

    The Mines of Sulphur is an opera in three acts by Richard Rodney Bennett, his first full-length opera, composed in 1963. Beverley Cross wrote the libretto, based on his play Scarlet Ribbons, at the suggestion of Colin Graham, who eventually directed the first production in 1965....
      (Richard Rodney Bennett
    Richard Rodney Bennett

    Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, CBE is an England composer renowned for his film scores and his jazz performance as much as for his challenging concert works....
    ) (1980)
  • A Village Romeo and Juliet
    A Village Romeo and Juliet

    A Village Romeo and Juliet is an opera by Frederick Delius, the fourth of his six operas. The composer himself, with his wife Jelka, wrote the English-language libretto based on the short story Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe by the Switzerland author Gottfried Keller....
      (Delius
    Delius

    Delius is a surname. It may refer to:* Ernst von Delius - German racing car driver* Frederick Delius - English composer* Nicolaus Delius - German philologist...
    ) (1980)
  • Prince Igor
    Prince Igor

    Prince Igor is an opera by Alexander Borodin, written in four acts with a prologue. The composer adapted the libretto from the East Slavic peoples epic The Tale of Igor's Campaign, which recounts the campaign of Russian prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Polovtsian tribes in 1185....
     (Alexander Borodin
    Alexander Borodin

    Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a Russian composer of Georgian people-Russian people parentage who made his living as a notable chemistry. He was a member of the group of composers called The Five , who were dedicated to producing a specifically Russian kind of art music....
    ) (1982)
  • Beatrice and Benedict
    Béatrice et Bénédict

    B?atrice et B?n?dict is a comic opera in two acts by Hector Berlioz. The French libretto was written by Berlioz himself, based loosely on William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing....
     (Berlioz) (1983)
  • Johnny Strikes Up
    Jonny spielt auf

    Jonny spielt auf is an opera with words and music by Ernst Krenek about a jazz violinist. The work typified the cultural freedom of the Weimar_Republic#Stresemann.27s_golden_era_.281923.E2.80.931929.29....
      (Krenek) (1984, British première)
  • Intermezzo
    Intermezzo (opera)

    Intermezzo is an opera in two acts by Richard Strauss to his own German language libretto, described as a B?rgerliche Kom?die mit sinfonischen Zwischenspielen ....
      (Richard Strauss
    Richard Strauss

    Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer of the late Romantic music and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems. Strauss was also a prominent Conducting....
    ) (1986)
  • Daphne
    Daphne (opera)

    Daphne is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss, his 13th opera, subtitled "A Bucolic Tragedy in One Act". The German language libretto was by Joseph Gregor....
      (Strauss) (1987, British première)
  • La finta giardiniera
    La finta giardiniera

    La finta giardiniera , K?chel-Verzeichnis 196, is an Italian language opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart wrote it in Munich in January 1775 when he was 18 years old and it received its first performance on January 13 at the Salvatortheater in Munich....
     (Mozart) (1989)
  • Jérusalem
    Jerusalem

    Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
     (Verdi) (1990, British première)
  • Ariane and Bluebeard
    Ariane et Barbe-bleue

    Ariane et Barbe-Bleue is an opera in three acts by Paul Dukas. The French libretto is adapted from the symbolism play by Maurice Maeterlinck....
      (Dukas) (1990)
  • Masquerade
    Masquerade (Nielsen)

    Maskarade is an opera in three acts by Carl Nielsen to a Danish libretto by Wilhelm Andersen, based on the comedy by Ludvig Holberg. The first performance was at Royal Danish Theatre, Copenhagen, 11 November 1906....
      (Carl Nielsen
    Carl Nielsen

    Carl August Nielsen was a conducting, violinist, and composer from Denmark. His works have long been well known in Denmark and they have been "a mainstay throughout the Nordic countries and, to a lesser extent, in Britain," noted the critic Alex Ross in 2008 in The New Yorker, and rising young conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel and Alan G...
    ) (1990, British professional première)
  • King Priam
    King Priam

    King Priam is an opera by Michael Tippett, to his own libretto. The story is based on Homer's Iliad, except the birth and childhood of Paris, which are taken from the Fabulae of Hyginus....
      (Michael Tippett
    Michael Tippett

    Sir Michael Kemp Tippett Order of Merit Order of the Companions of Honour Order of the British Empire was one of the foremost English composers of the 20th century....
    ) (1991)
  • L'étoile (Chabrier) (1991)
  • The Jewel Box (Mozart, arranged by Paul Griffiths) (1991)
  • The Thieving Magpie
    La gazza ladra

    La gazza ladra is a melodramma or opera semiseria in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was by Giovanni Gherardini after La pie voleuse by JMT Badouin d'Aubigny and Louis-Charles Caigniez....
     (Rossini) (1992)
  • Iolanta
    Iolanta

    Iolanta, Opus number 69, is a lyric opera in one act by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by the composer's brother Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and is based on the Danish Play Kong Ren?s Datter by Henrik Hertz....
     (Tchaikovsky) (1992)
  • The Duenna (Roberto Gerhard
    Roberto Gerhard

    Robert Gerhard , was a Spanish Catalan composer and musical scholar and writer, generally known outside Catalonia as Roberto Gerhard whose works are among the most important produced by any composer from Spain in the twentieth century....
    ) (1992, British première)
  • Der ferne Klang
    Der ferne Klang

    Der ferne Klang is an opera by Franz Schreker first performed in Frankfurt am Main on 18 August, 1912. Schreker wrote his own libretto for this, his first success....
      (Schreker) (1992, British première)
  • Gloriana
    Gloriana

    Gloriana is an opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten to an English libretto by William Plomer, based on Elizabeth and Essex by Lytton Strachey....
     (Britten) (1993)
  • Il re pastore
    Il re pastore

    Il re pastore is an opera, K?chel-Verzeichnis 208, written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian language libretto by Metastasio, edited by Gianbattista Varesco....
     (Mozart) (1993)
  • The Secret Marriage
    Il matrimonio segreto

    Il matrimonio segreto is an opera in two acts, music by Domenico Cimarosa, on a libretto by Giovanni Bertati, based on the play The Clandestine Marriage by George Colman the Elder and David Garrick....
     (Cimarosa) (1993)
  • Oberto
    Oberto (opera)

    Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio is an opera in two acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on an existing libretto by Antonio Piazza probably called Rocester....
     (Verdi) (1994, British stage première)
  • The Reluctant King
    Le roi malgré lui

    'Le roi malgr? lui' is an op?ra-comique in three acts by Emmanuel Chabrier with an original libretto by Emile de Najac and Paul Burani....
     (Chabrier) (1994, British stage première)
  • Troilus and Cressida
    Troilus and Cressida (opera)

    Troilus and Cressida is the first of the two operas by William Walton. The libretto was by Christopher Hassall, his own first opera libretto, based on Chaucer's poem Troilus and Criseyde....
      (William Walton
    William Walton

    Sir William Turner Walton Order of Merit was a United Kingdom composer and Conductor .His style was influenced by the works of Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev as well as jazz music, and is characterized by rhythmic vitality, bittersweet harmony, sweeping Romantic music melody and brilliant orchestration....
    ) (1995)
  • Hamlet
    Hamlet (opera)

    Hamlet is an opera in five acts by the French composer Ambroise Thomas, with the libretto by Michel Carr? and Jules Barbier based on Shakespeare's Hamlet and a French adaptation of the play by Alexandre Dumas and Paul Meurice....
     (Ambroise Thomas
    Ambroise Thomas

    Ambroise Thomas was a France opera composer, best-known for his operas Mignon and Hamlet and as Director of the Conservatoire de Paris from 1871-1896....
    ) (1995)
  • Medea (Cherubini) (1996)
  • Julietta
    Julietta

    Julietta is an opera by Bohuslav Martinu, who also wrote the libretto, which is based on the play Juliette, ou La cl? des songes by the French author Georges Neveux....
      (Martinu) (1997)
  • Joan of Arc
    Giovanna d'Arco

    Giovanna d'Arco is an operatic dramma lirico with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera....
     (Verdi) (1998)
  • Radamisto
    Radamisto (Handel)

    Radamisto is an opera in three acts by George Frideric Handel to an Italian language libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym, based on L'amor tirranico, o Zenobia by Domenico Lalli and Zenobia by Matteo Noris....
     (Handel
    HANDEL

    HANDEL was the code-name for the United Kingdom's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges....
    ) (2000)
  • La Gioconda
    La Gioconda (opera)

    La Gioconda is an opera in four acts by Amilcare Ponchielli to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Angelo, tyran de Padoue, a play in prose by Victor Hugo, dating from 1835....
     (Ponchielli) (2000)
  • Genoveva
    Genoveva

    Genoveva is an opera in four acts by Robert Schumann in the genre of German Romanticism with a libretto by the composer. The only opera Schumann ever wrote, it received its first performance on 25 June 1850 at the Stadttheater in Leipzig, with the composer conducting....
     (Schumann
    Schumann

    Schumann and Schuman most famously refers to Robert Schumann , German composer and pianistIt may also refer to the following:...
    ) (2000)
  • Paradise Moscow
    Moscow, Cheryomushki

    Cheryomushki, Moscow Op. 105 is an operetta by Dmitri Shostakovich. The three-act work was completed in 1958 and received its premiere on 24th January 1959 at the Mayakovsky Operetta Theatre under Grigori Stolyarov....
      (Shostakovich) (2001)
  • Francesca da Rimini (Rachmaninov) (2004)
  • Love's Luggage Lost (Rossini) (2004, British stage première)
  • Djamileh
    Djamileh

    Djamileh is an op?ra comique in one act by Georges Bizet to a libretto by Louis Gallet, based on an oriental tale, Namouna, by Alfred de Musset....
     (Bizet) (2004)
  • La vida breve
    La vida breve

    La vida breve is an opera in two acts by Manuel de Falla to an original Spanish libretto by Carlos Fern?ndez-Shaw. The first performance was given at the Casino Municipale in Nice in 1913....
     (Manuel de Falla
    Manuel de Falla

    Manuel de Falla y Matheu was a Spain composer of European classical music....
    ) (2004)
  • La voix humaine
    La voix humaine

    La Voix humaine is a one-act opera for one character, with music by Francis Poulenc to a libretto by Jean Cocteau, based on his 1932 play....
      (Poulenc) (2006)
  • The Fortunes of King Croesus (Reinhard Keiser
    Reinhard Keiser

    Reinhard Keiser was a popular German people opera composer based in Hamburg. He wrote over a hundred operas, and in 1745 Johann Adolph Scheibe considered him an equal to Johann Kuhnau, George Frideric Handel and Georg Philipp Telemann , but his work was largely forgotten for many decades....
    ) (2007, British première)


In addition, the company has given world premières of the following operas: Rebecca by Wilfred Josephs
Wilfred Josephs

Wilfred Josephs was an England composer....
 (1983), Caritas by Robert Saxton
Robert Saxton

Robert Saxton is a United Kingdom composer....
 (1991), Baa, Baa, Black Sheep by Michael Berkeley
Michael Berkeley

Michael Berkeley is a United Kingdom composer and broadcaster on music....
 (1993), Playing Away by Benedict Mason
Benedict Mason

Benedict Mason, born on 23 February 1954, is a British composer. He was educated at King's College, Cambridge University of Cambridge and took a degree in film-making at the Royal College of Art....
 (1994), The Nightingale's to Blame by Simon Holt
Simon Holt

For the horseracing in the United Kingdom commentator, see Simon Holt .Simon Holt is a British composer....
 (1998), The Adventures of Pinocchio by Jonathan Dove
Jonathan Dove

Jonathan Dove is a United Kingdom composer of opera and choral works and theatre, film, orchestral and chamber music. He has arranged a number of operas for English Touring Opera and the City of Birmingham Touring Opera , including in 1990 a famous 18-player two-evening adaptation of Richard Wagner Der Ring des Nibelungen for CBTO....
 (2007) and, most recently, Skin Deep by David Sawer
David Sawer

David Sawer is a United Kingdom composer of opera and choral, orchestral and chamber music. He is a Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music....
 and Armando Iannucci
Armando Iannucci

Armando Iannucci is a Scotland comedian, writer, director, performer and radio producer....
, directed by Richard Jones
Richard Jones (director)

Richard Jones is a British theatre and opera director....
 (2009). In July 2009, Opera North will première Prima Donna
Prima Donna (opera)

Prima Donna is the name of Rufus Wainwright's first opera, which is currently in the process of being written. He is creating both the music and the libretto, which he says will be about "a day in the life of an opera singer", anxiously preparing for her comeback, who falls in love with a journalist....
, a new opera by Rufus Wainwright
Rufus Wainwright

Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright is a Grammy-nominated, Canadian-American singer-songwriter. He has recorded five albums of original music, several extended play, and numerous tracks included on Compilation album and film soundtracks....
, at the Manchester International Festival
Manchester International Festival

The Manchester International Festival is an international culture festival of original new work, held in the England city of Manchester. It is planned to be a biennial event; the first edition happened between June 28 and July 15 2007 and the next is planned for July 2009....
.

Opera North has also given performances of musical theatre
Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece ? humor, pathos, love, anger ? as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole....
 works. The first was Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern

Jerome David Kern was an American composer of popular music. He wrote around 700 songs, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A Fine Romance ", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "All the Things You Are", "The Way You Look Tonight", and "Who? ", a 6-week #1 hit for George Olsen & his Orchestra in 1925....
's Show Boat
Show Boat

Show Boat is a musical theatre in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. One notable exception is the song Bill , which was originally written by Kern and author-lyricist P....
 (in collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company

The Royal Shakespeare Company is a British theatre company. Located primarily at Stratford-upon-Avon, with bases also in London and Theatre Royal, Newcastle, it is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly-funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal National Theatre....
) in 1989, and productions of Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing
Of Thee I Sing

Of Thee I Sing is a musical theater with a score by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin and a book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. The musical lampoons American politics; the story concerns John P....
 and Sondheim
Sondheim

Sondheim vor der Rh?n is a municipality in the district Rh?n-Grabfeld, Bavaria, Germany. It is administrated by the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Ostheim....
's Sweeney Todd followed in 1998. Latterly, the works of Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill

Kurt Julian Weill , was a Germany, and in his later years American, composer active from the 1920s until his death. He was a leading composer for the theatre....
 have become something of a speciality, with productions of Love Life
Love Life

Love Life was a musical written by Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner . It opened at the 46th Street Theatre on October 7, 1948 and closed on May 14, 1949 after having played 252 performances....
 (1996), One Touch of Venus
One Touch of Venus

One Touch of Venus is a musical theatre with music written by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ogden Nash, and book by S. J. Perelman and Nash, based on the novella The Tinted Venus by Thomas Anstey Guthrie, and very loosely spoofing the Pygmalion myth....
 and The Seven Deadly Sins
The Seven Deadly Sins

The Seven Deadly Sins is a satirical ballet chant? in seven scenes composed by Kurt Weill to a German language libretto by Bertolt Brecht in 1933 under a commission from Boris Kochno and Edward James....
 in 2004 and Arms and the Cow
Der Kuhhandel

Der Kuhhandel is an operetta by Kurt Weill. The German libretto was written by Robert Vambery....
 in 2006.

Opera North has worked extensively with electronic composer Mira Calix
Mira Calix

Mira Calix, real name Chantal Passamonte, is an artist signed to Warp Records, specialising in mixing her intimate vocals with jittering beats and experimental electronic textures....
, commissioning Dead Wedding (for the Manchester International Festival 2007) Onibus (2008) and the installation Chorus (2009) for the opening of the Howard Assembly Rooms with visual artist UVA.

Awards

  • Winner of the TMA Theatre Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera 2007 (for Peter Grimes
    Peter Grimes

    Peter Grimes is an opera by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto adapted by Montagu Slater from the Peter Grimes section of George Crabbe's poem The Borough ....
    , directed by Phyllida Lloyd
    Phyllida Lloyd

    Phyllida Lloyd is an English director, best known for her work in theatre.In 2006, Lloyd received two academic honours: Oxford University named her Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre , and she was awarded an honorary degree from Bristol University....
    ), and in 2004
  • Winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society
    Royal Philharmonic Society

    The Royal Philharmonic Society is a Great Britain European classical music society, formed in 1813. It was originally formed in London to promote performances of instrumental music there....
     Award for Opera & Music Theatre 2007 (for Peter Grimes) and in 2005
  • Winner of the South Bank Show Award for Opera 2007 (for Peter Grimes) and 2005 (for its Eight Little Greats season of one-act operas)
  • Winner of the Manchester Evening News
    Manchester Evening News

    name = |image = |type = Daily newspaper|format = Tabloid|foundation = 1868|price = ?0.42 or free in Manchester city centre|owners = Guardian Media Group...
     Theatre Awards for Opera 2004
  • Winner of the Audiences Yorkshire Award for Best Overall Marketing and Audience Development Campaign 2004

Funding

Major funders of Opera North include:

  • Arts Council England, Yorkshire


  • Leeds City Council


  • West Yorkshire Grants


  • North Yorkshire County Council


  • East Riding of Yorkshire Council


External links