London Opera Company to Perform Wagner’s Die Walküre
Saturday 3rd July 2021 at St John’s Church, Waterloo, London
The London Opera Company has announced that it will perform a new semi-staged production of Wagner’s Die Walküre at St John’s Church, Waterloo, London on Saturday 3rd July 2021, with a company of top-flight international singers musicians.
The London Opera Company formed in the summer to give fellow musicians and international opera singers who had lost their work to the pandemic the opportunity to keep performing, and to give music lovers a first class treat after a summer devoid of live concerts.
Last October they performed a sold-out and rapturously received chamber concert of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at The Warehouse, London.
Opera magazine said, of this performance, 'Not only was there no weak link in the cast; strength of ensemble and dramatic interaction rendered it considerably more than the sum of its parts...Above all, this was an accomplished and moving company debut’
Wagner news said of this performance,
‘I find myself without words to describe the intensity of the impact of this performance upon the music-starved audience, who feasted on the experience, and their ecstatic response at the end was extraordinary. I have rarely known any performance, even of this opera, to carry such an overwhelming emotional payload. God bless the London Opera Company for giving us this heady draught amid a musical desert. If this is a taste of their quality, I want to see more of their work, soon.’
Peter Selwyn will be Music Director for this project, and together with Kelvin Lim he will be arranging a version of the opera for two pianos and percussion.
Having assisted on productions of Die Walküre at Bayreuth and Covent Garden, and having also conducted the Jonathan Dove reduction, Peter is now excited by the challenge of conveying the essence of Wagner’s powerful and beautiful score on two pianos. Born of the necessity in Covid times of keeping orchestral forces small, the large orchestral moments such as the ‘Ride of the Walkyries’ and ‘Magic Fire’ music are ideally suited to 4-handed treatment, and the use of percussion will, both forcefully and subtly, add to the range of colours.
The full cast is:
SIEGMUND – BRIAN SMITH WALTERS
SIEGLINDA- GWENETH-ANN RAND
HUNDING – SIMON WILDING
WOTAN – SIMON THORPE
BRUNNHILDE – CARA MCHARDY
FRICKA – HARRIET WILLIAMS
GERHILDE – TANYA HURST
ORTLINDE – PHILIPPA BOYLE
HELMWIGE – NATASHA JOUHL
WALTRAUTE – SARAH PRING
SIEGRUNE – CAROLYN DOBBIN
ROSSWEISSE HARRIET WILLIAMS
GRIMGERDE – KATHERINE TAYLOR JONES
SCHWERTLEITE – RHONDA BROWNE
Tickets will be on sale at https://www.thelondonoperacomp...
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