Grimeborn 2023

This is a battle – between genders and between generations, for power, love, and respect. Queer Voices have created a burlesque, exuberant comic-opera performance with fearless casting…..crossing the boundaries between audience and performers….A guerilla opera, abolishing archaic, operatic hierarchy, experimenting and challenging traditional gender roles in the play.
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Set in a Greek-American social club at times of austerity, cost of living crisis and rising unemployment, ‘No For An Answer’ was written in 1941 but speaks to the present with terrifying prescience and will demonstrate the compassion and farsightedness of Blitzstein and speak to a modern British audience. This will be the European premiere of No For An Answer by Marc Blitzstein, directed by the Arcola Theatre's Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen, a pioneer of Blitzstein's oeuvre in Britain. American composer Blitzstein, a gay man murdered in 1964, won national attention in 1937 with the pro-union musical ‘The Cradle Will
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Barefoot Opera are known for physicalised, ensemble storytelling and integrated music making. In this production of Rossini’s fabulously comic tale, the ill treated Cinders wins her prince through her kind behaviour.
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In a seemingly utopian suburbia, Sam and Dinah are unhappily married. Both escape from their dysfunctional home scene through work, the gym and going to the movies. However, with their young son Junior in the house, both are forced to address their growing isolation for the good of the family. In this production of Trouble in Tahiti, dancers will physically represent the jazz trio who play the role of the Greek chorus in Bernstein's short satire of the American dream.
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The UK stage premiere of this long-lost baroque opera by Jesuit composer Domenico Zipoli. Originally written around 1720 for performance by Indigenous musicians on the Jesuit missions in Latin America, the score was recently discovered in the Archives of Chiquitos in Bolivia. One of the first operas to emerge from the melting pot of Hispanic and Native cultures, LOYOLA combines the sounds of Europe’s 18th century with Indigenous tradition. LOYOLA is brought to Grimeborn by El Parnaso Hyspano: an ensemble led by Inca tenor Rafael Montero, dedicated to authentic performances of the Latin American baroque. This musical and cultural integrity
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Yes, love hurts! And it always did, but today ghosting, anxiety, projection, self-validation and the cowardice of being apparently safe behind a screen just increase that pain.
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“What next?” is a question not often asked in opera. Will Rodolfo ever love again? Can Guglielmo and Fiordiligi’s marriage really succeed? Do the Rhinemaidens need better terms and conditions this time…?
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Struggling with emotional connection and disenfranchisement, Calaf finds himself drawn into the digital hellscape of Turandot. Can there be a return to reality?
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4-star production by Ensemble OrQuesta - ‘A Baroque Opera Company for the 21st Century’ - directed by Marcio da Silva: Composed by French female composer Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre, this UK premiere production revives this forgotten opera and explores the timeless tensions of gender inequality. A story that shows how French Baroque Opera can be relevant today: Beautiful singing, Baroque Instruments, Minimalist setting, Symbolism, Physical Theatre ★★★★ 'Eloquent: Musical and dramatic integrity spiced with invention'. Claire Seymour - The Stage ★★★★ 'a thoroughly engrossing and absorbing evening' - Tim Hochstrasser, Plays to See Content warning: scenes with subtle implications
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After a triumphant run of Bluebeard’s Castle at Grimeborn 2022 (***** British Theatre), Green Opera, the first environmentally-sustainable opera company, returns to Grimeborn with the first stage production of John Joubert’s moving adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel. Featuring a diverse cast in a dynamic new staging, this production explores the enduring struggle for freedom in a world that refuses to accept the individual.
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The world premiere of a compelling literary detective story about the turbulent lives of the Brontë sisters - based upon an acclaimed play by Polly Teale. In 1845, Branwell Brontë returns home in disgrace, plagued by his addictions. As he descends into alcoholism and insanity, bringing chaos to the household, his sisters write… Polly Teale's powerful play, adapted as an opera by composer Lisa Logan, evokes the real and imagined worlds of the Brontës, as their fictional characters Jane Eyre, Rochester, Cathy, Nelly and Heathcliff come to haunt their creators.
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The award winning “masters of Gilbert & Sullivan in small spaces”, Charles Court Opera, present their intimate, highly successful 5 star London production of the most loved of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operas, The Mikado. The scheming Lord High Executioner is about to hatch one plot too far, with far-reaching and hilarious consequences for everyone involved, especially when the ruler himself arrives… Gilbert's pen was rarely sharper than when he wrote this punchy, lively satire, which contains familiar songs by Sullivan, including ”I’ve got a little list” and “The sun whose rays”, that are by turns toe-tapping and sumptuous.  Presenting this
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