Announcing the full programme of shows in the 2023 Grimeborn Opera Festival!
Arcola Theatre today announces the full programme of productions in the 2023 Grimeborn Opera Festival, which is returning for its 16th year.
The Festival centrepiece is the European premiere of Marc Blitzstein’s ‘No For An Answer’ (26 – 29 July), directed by Arcola Theatre’s Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen.
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. American composer Blitzstein, a gay man murdered in 1964, won national attention in 1937 with the pro-union musical ‘The Cradle Will Rock’, also directed by Mehmet Ergen as Arcola’s 10th Anniversary production. It was originally directed by Orson Welles.
Leonard Bernstein, a close friend, said that Blitzstein’s contribution to the American musical theatre was “incalculable”. Blitzstein is also known for his off-Broadway translation/adaptation of ‘The Threepenny Opera’ by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, the opera ‘Regina’, an adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s play ‘The Little Foxes’ and the Broadway musical ‘Juno’, based on Seán O’Casey’s play ‘Juno and the Paycock’.
Arcola Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen said: “Every year it is a joy to bring ambitious and adventurous Opera to contemporary audiences at the Arcola Theatre. We’re passionate about making Opera accessible to all. Grimeborn allows us to do that with programming from both classical and radical, thought-provoking artists and companies from across the continent and some of the most affordable ticket prices in the UK.”
Photo Idil Sukan
STUDIO 1
Merry Wives of Windsor
19 – 22 July
all performances 7.30pm
Queer Voices (Skeive Stemmer), Norway’s first officially queer opera, has created a performance-opera, highlighting the conflict and power-play between the sexes, and challenging traditional gender roles, while retaining the comedy, intrigue and drama.
No For An Answer
26 – 29 July
all performances 7.30pm
Arcola Theatre’s Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen and Composer John Jansson will join forces to revive this forgotten text and score for the European premiere of ‘No For An Answer’. 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.
La Cenerentola
1 – 5 August
all performances 7.30pm
Barefoot Opera presents a world where Alice in Wonderland meets Tik Tok in this physical theatre take on Cinderella: Rossini’s Cenerentola features wannabe influencers and their posturing dad trashing the planet while Cinders finds her Prince.
Trouble in Tahiti
9 – 12 August
all performances 7.30pm
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, dancers physically represent the jazz trio who play the role of the Greek chorus in Bernstein’s short satire of the American dream.
Loyola
11-12 August
both performances 8.45pm
El Parnaso Hyspano presents The UK stage premiere of Zipoli’s long-lost baroque opera. Written for performance by Indigenous musicians on the Jesuit missions in Bolivia, ‘LOYOLA’ is by turns comic, impassioned and deeply spiritual.
A&E – world premiere
15 – 19 August
all performances 7.30pm
When Adam meets Eve at the A&E ward of Homerton Hospital it’s love at first radiography but a cheeky boy will tempt Adam to download Tinder and that will change everything… ‘A&E’ is the debut opera of the iconoclastic creative tandem Muelas+Ward. A librettist and a composer, a director and a producer who want to make opera for people who are normally scared of opera.
Turandot
23 – 26 August
Wednesday – Saturday at 7.30pm, Saturday matinee at 3.30pm
A radical and unnervingly relevant reinterpretation of ‘Turandot’. A British East & Southeast Asian company confronts Puccini’s last opera exposing the harmful tragedy of online obsession.
Cephale et Procris
29 August – 2 September
Tuesday – Saturday at 7.30pm, Saturday matinee at 2.30pm
A story that shows how French Baroque Opera can be relevant today: Beautiful singing, Baroque instruments, minimalist setting, symbolism, physical theatre.
Jane Eyre
6 – 9 September
all performances at 7.30pm
After a triumphant run of ‘Bluebeard’s Castle’ at Grimeborn 2022 (* British Theatre), Green Opera, the first environmentally-sustainable opera company, returns with the first staged production of John Joubert’s moving and dynamic adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel.
Brontë – world premiere
12 (preview) 13, 15 & 16 September
all performances 7.30pm
A compelling literary detective story about the turbulent lives of the Brontë sisters based upon an acclaimed play by Polly Teale, adapted as an opera by composer Lisa Logan (premiere).
The Mikado
19 – 21 & 23 September
Tuesday – Saturday at 7.30pm, Saturday matinee at 3.30pm
Charles Court Opera, “the masters of G&S in small spaces” present their stylish, intimate, highly successful 5-star production of the most loved of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operas, ‘The Mikado’.
STUDIO 2
Portrait of Manon & L’Heure Espagnole
22 – 26 August
Tuesday – Saturday at 7pm, Relaxed Saturday matinee at 3pm
Love can be longed for, but is too quickly lost. In this double bill, love is examined from both of these angles – regretful heartache at what has been, and frustrated desire at what could be.