Twice lately, under tall oaks and pines on what is becoming known as Suffolk’s mini-Minack, I have encountered touring opera companies doing wonderfully, relaxedly, professionally. Since they ARE both touring, links below, let me tell you that Wild Arts with its opera evenings are of a breathtakingly high, ROH-level musical standard – a gorgeous quintet of musicians and a most cunning choices of excerpts, some of them mischievously well acted on the plank stage below us. I’d follow Orlando Jopling’s lot anywhere.
And the other one is Opera Anywhere, currently rollicking through a Gilbert and Sullivan touring festival. As an amuse-bouche they opened with the 45-minute Trial by Jury complete with “locally sourced chorus” rehearsed only once but happily bang on cue, which among other pleasures introduced me to James Gribble as a diminutive baritone judge with a gift for natural physical comedy. Then they did Iolanthe, and the standout was Dale Harris as Strephon and a rather fabulous, grainy, Thatcher-tough Fairy Queen from VAnessa Woodward.
Surf their websites., below. Catch tiny operas on the road! Take the kids. They’ll see what fun it can be, and that it doesn’t have to be a grand country-house-opera-event.
https://wildarts.org.uk/2022-opera-evenings
various perfs to september
and next year
to 17 november
to 17 november
theatreCat 