Swansea City Opera makes a welcome return with a production of Donizetti’s popular and uproarious comic opera, Don Pasquale. SCO is known throughout the UK for its sparkling performances of comic opera and this Pasquale will be no exception.
This important new staging of Gloriana marks three major anniversaries: 60 years since the Queen’s Coronation, 60 years since the opera’s premiere at the Royal Opera House, and the centenary of Benjamin Britten’s birth.
Floria Tosca stands in shock, clutching a dagger in her bloodstained hands. An hour before she was singing hymns in church. How did she come to this?
Few figures in British history have dominated the imaginations of writers, painters and film directors quite like her. Donizetti's re-imagining of Anne's final days in the scheming court of Henry VIII is a touching one. It is a portrait of an innocent stranded in a nest of vipers. You will find it hard not to care deeply for her.
A thrilling imagining of this showdown is at the heart of Maria Stuarda. Donizetti's riveting opera transports you to a Britain at war with itself and overcome by uncertainty and strife. Rudolf Frey's production shines light on the striking parallels between the two heroines: the imprisoned Mary and Queen Elizabeth; a woman shackled by the demands of office.
When her favourite, Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex, is threatened with charges of treason she strives to save him. Should he ever be arrested he simply has to present her ring to ensure his freedom.
