Archive - Wednesday, 14 May 2003


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Opera company gives a modern twist to classic tales

LONGBOROUGH Festival Opera's 2002 season of Wagner's The Ring Cycle and Mozart's The Magic Flute was an enormous success.

This year LFO presents Benjamin Britten's Albert Herring from The Opera Project, a new production of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca and a revival of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte from Longborough Festival Opera and Visible Music Productions.

Since its beginnings in 1991 as Banks Fee Opera offering chamber music concerts in the drawing room, LFO has grown in stature.

In 1997 the Festival moved to its current home in a new opera house complete with Palladian facade, an auditorium seating 480 and 16 private boxes.

Albert Herring will be sung in English. Britten's comic opera follows a Suffolk village's quest for a May Queen.

After deciding that none of the village maidens are virtuous enough, they decide on a May King.

The innocent mother's boy Albert Herring is selected but during the celebrations he drinks too much alcohol and decides to go exploring.... Tosca is a powerful and dramatic opera which will be sung in English and Italian.

Scarpia, the Chief of Police, is infatuated by Floria Tosca, a celebrated singer. Tosca's lover, Cavaradossi, is caught up in a plot to help a revolutionary fugative to escape.

To save her lover from torture at the hands of Scarpia, Tosca reveals the whereabouts of the fugitive, only to be double-crossed by the police chief. Cosi Fan Tutte will be sung in English.

This is a delightful comedy with sublime music. Two young officers are persuaded to test the loyalty of their fiancees by disguising themselves as Albanian merchants. The girls eventually succumb to their new admirers with consequences at once comic and serious.

Albert Herring will be performed on June 11, 13 and 14, Tosca on June 20, 21, 25, 27 and 28 and Cosi Fan Tutte on July 4, 5, 9, 11 and 12 July.

Performances begin at 6.30pm and there is a 75 minute supper interval. Patrons are invited to bring picnics or pre-book dinner in the restaurant where a three course meal is £30 per head.

Tickets are from £30, boxes from £45, both are available from the box office on 01451 830292.