English Touring Opera, Hackney Empire
Operas by Handel, Cavalli and Monteverdi are staged on an intimate scale and in exciting new interpretations
Mezzo-soprano Julia Riley sings the title role in Handel's Xerxes
Power, heroism, separation, lovers reunited ... English Touring Opera's autumn season at Hackney Empire has all the elements of human life – and of interfering gods as well.
Handel's Xerxes (8 Oct) updates the myth to make its hero a Battle of Britain pilot-prince. Handel's once forgotten operas, with their showstopping arias and characterful orchestration are now favourites with opera companies large and small – and audiences too – and Xerxes is particularly fine.
In Cavalli's La Calisto (14 Oct), delicious musical collisions arise out of Jupiter's abduction of Calisto and Diana's romp with Endymion. Then Penelope is reunited with her warrior husband in Ulysses' Homecoming (15 Oct), by Monteverdi.
English Touring Opera has a deserved reputation for making unfamiliar works accessible, and for giving a fresh new look to the mainstays of the repertoire – and this innovative companies fits the atmospheric Hackney Empire like a glove.
Handel's Xerxes (8 Oct) updates the myth to make its hero a Battle of Britain pilot-prince. Handel's once forgotten operas, with their showstopping arias and characterful orchestration are now favourites with opera companies large and small – and audiences too – and Xerxes is particularly fine.
In Cavalli's La Calisto (14 Oct), delicious musical collisions arise out of Jupiter's abduction of Calisto and Diana's romp with Endymion. Then Penelope is reunited with her warrior husband in Ulysses' Homecoming (15 Oct), by Monteverdi.
English Touring Opera has a deserved reputation for making unfamiliar works accessible, and for giving a fresh new look to the mainstays of the repertoire – and this innovative companies fits the atmospheric Hackney Empire like a glove.
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| What | English Touring Opera, Hackney Empire |
| Where | Hackney Empire, 291 Mare Street, London, E8 1EJ | MAP |
| Nearest tube | Bethnal Green (underground) |
| When |
08 Oct 16 – 15 Oct 16, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM |
| Price | £10 - £35 |
| Website | http://www.hackneyempire.co.uk/5709/seasons/english-touring-opera-autumn-2016.html |