La Boheme a First for Northumberland?
Heritage Opera’s La Boheme could be the greatest opera ever staged professionally in Northumberland. It is also likely to be the first – unless a previously unnoticed opera house or theatre can be found in the county! It will certainly by the first full length opera staged as part of the Northumberland Music Festival – which this year enters its third year in three of the County’s finest Country Houses. The historic, and marvellous, event will take place on Friday 15th November at Doxford Hall.
Puccini’s La Boheme is said to be one of the most powerful love stories in all opera and is set around 1830 in the student’s quarter of Paris. Filled with memorable music, this tragic love story has an enduring appeal, as it charts its path from intense emotion through love, to tragedy at the finale. It is said to be one of the most performed operas in the repertoire, with its combination of love and loss, poetry and Paris. The Music Festival production features an English libretto, and has received acclamations wherever it has been performed. It is credited with having kindled a love of opera in the most sceptical of hearts.
Fully staged and costumed, with grand piano accompaniment, the production is by Heritage Opera, North West England’s own professional touring opera company. The company has toured the north of England to much acclaim, and is readily compared to some of the big names of opera for the passion and engagement it brings to its productions.
Robert Parker, whose brainchild the Festival is, says: “My wife Gina and I love music and Northumberland equally and now we are overjoyed to be staging the Festival’s’ first full length Opera – something our friends and supporters have been looking forward to since 2011, and the first festival.”
Tickets are now on sale, and include a Gourmet 3 course Dinner. Accommodation and Concert packages are available, with accommodation at Doxford Hall for those attending La Boheme priced at only £100 per person.
As in previous year’s the Festival will support charitable organisations – this year, HospiceCare North Northumberland receives a donation from ticket sales.
Details of La Boheme and the Festival programme are available on the website at www.nmfestival.com, and information and bookings can be made through emailing or phoning the Festival office at [email protected], or 01668 283100, or directly through Doxford Hall Hotel at 01665 589700.
La Boheme was first performed in Turin in 1896, conducted by Toscanini. This historic first may just about about to be matched near Alnwick in 2013!
