Opus Arte 2009/10 Cinema Season
The Opus Arte cinema season also brings you performances from other venues around the world including plays from Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in London, the best of the festival at Glyndebourne, operas and ballets from Madrid’s Teatro Real and Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu as well as concerts from the chapel of King’s College, Cambridge. Recorded in High Definition and true Surround Sound these performances from the world’s great stages give you an experience as vivid and as ambient the best seats in the house.
The Barber of Seville
Falstaff
Messiah
L'Elisir D'Amore
Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci
Manon
Romeo and Juliet
Love Labours Lost
As You Like It
THE BARBER OF SEVILLE
From Teatro Real Madrid
From 26 October 2009
This sparkling production of Rossini’s comedy is led by two of today’s greatest opera stars – María Bayo as the young ward Rosina and Juan Diego Flórez as her handsome suitor, Count Almaviva. The wily Figaro (the Barber) is Pietro Spagnoli. This beautiful recording captures brilliantly this production as it progresses from an elegant silver and white to a kaleidoscope of colour for the boisterous finale.
www.odeon.co.uk
www.empirecinemas.co.uk
www.kinodigital.co.uk
Spurling Cinemas
Dungarvan
Dundrum
Swords
[Top]
FALSTAFF
From Glyndebourne Festival 2009
From 29 November 2009
Verdi’s final opera, Falstaff is a mercurial, nimble-footed and profusely tuneful portrait of Shakespeare’s Fat Knight. The libretto combines three parts Merry Wives of Windsor to two parts Henry IV, with a sprinkling of fairy dust from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A witty farce, the opera follows Falstaff’s attempted seduction of two local ladies who then exact their wiley revenge on him. A strongly international cast is led by the exciting British baritone Christopher Purves in the larger-than-life role of the corpulent Falstaff, whose profligate presence both outrages and inspires the leaner, meaner citizens of Windsor.
www.cineworld.co.uk
www.odeon.co.uk
www.macrobert.stir.ac.uk
www.empirecinemas.co.uk
Spurling Cinemas
Dungarvan
Dundrum
Swords
Aldeburgh Cinemas
[Top]
MESSIAH
From King's College, Cambridge
From 16 December 2009
The world-famous Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, sings the best-loved choral masterpiece from the magnificent setting of King’s College Chapel, one of the jewels of Britain’s cultural and architectural heritage. The award-winning Choir’s performance marks the 250th anniversary of the death of George Frederic Handel and the 800th anniversary of the prestigious University of Cambridge. Handel’s oratorio, based on a libretto by Charles Jennens that employs verses from the bible to present the life of Jesus was premiered in 1742, changing the life of this composer.
A work of extraordinary power, Messiah still remains one of the most popular works in Western choral literature and most famous for its well-known and uplifting ‘Hallelujah Chorus’. Outstanding and expressive performances by the Choir and a superb cast of soloists, accompanied by the Academy of Ancient Music and conducted by Stephen Cleobury, make for an evocative and inspiring experience.
www.empirecinemas.co.uk
Spurling Cinemas
Dungarvan
Dundrum
Swords
[Top]
L'ELISIR D'AMORE
From the Glyndebourne Festival 2009
28 March 2010
Set in an idyllic vision of a southern Italian village square, Donizetti’s delightful opera tells of the romantic rivalry between the penniless Nemorino and the bumptious Sergeant Belcore for the love of the beautiful, bookish Adina, whose reading of the tale of Tristan and Isolde makes poor love-sick Nemorino think that the wonder-working Dr Dulcamara might have just the potion his heart requires. Witty, charming and ultimately deeply touching, this is Italian opera at its intoxicating best. The score bubbles over with high spirits, the action is genuinely funny and though, as in all the best comedies, the laughter is occasionally tinged with tears, true love eventually rules the day – all thanks to a bottle or two of Bordeaux.
www.cineworld.co.uk
www.odeon.co.uk
Spurling Cinemas
Dungarvan
Dundrum
Swords
[Top]
CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA AND PAGLIACCI
From Teatre Real, Madrid
From 15 April 2010
Pietro Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana
A Sicilian village on Easter Sunday. Turiddu has become engaged to Santuzza, but he carries on his affair with Lola, his former lover. Santuzza, confesses to Mamma Lucia, Turiddu’s mother, that her son is unfaithful to her. Santuzza tries to persuade Turiddu to leave Lola and return to her, but he violently rejects her proposal. Enraged, Santuzza tells Alfio, Lola’s husband. His honour offended, Alfio kills Turiddu in a knife fight.
Ruggero Leoncavallo: Pagliacci
Tonio, Beppe, Canio and his wife Nedda form a company of itinerant performers. One afternoon before their show opens, Tonio lets Canio know that his wife is seeing Silvio, a local fellow, who plans to escape with her that night.
Spurling Cinemas
Dungarvan
Dundrum
Swords
[Top]
MANON
From Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona
David McVicar's production is spectacular, using a group of dancer-actors, permanently on stage but never interfering with the rest of the action. There is a single set, consisting of tiers at the back of the stage, crowned by a large curtain, producing the effect of a theater within a theater. Bright, light coloured costumes add much to the action, and are particularly remarkable in the Cours La Reine scene. Tanya McCallin is responsible for both the set and costumes and Paule Constable's lighting is outstanding. McVicar's approach is outstanding, both in managing mass movement and in the direction of the actors: the entrance of the coach at the station in Act I is particularly remarkable. This is magnificent work from a real man of the theatre, who has a perfect knowledge of the score and great respect for the music.
Spurling Cinemas
Dungarvan
Dundrum
Swords
[Top]
ROMEO AND JULIET
From Shakespeare's Globe
A violent street brawl between their rival families is the prelude to Romeo’s first encounter with Juliet. Despite this, and the fact that Juliet has been promised to another man in marriage, they fall in love. But any plans for their future happiness are cruelly destroyed by renewed violence between the two families – and while the adults remain almost comically preoccupied with their own affairs, among their children a hidden tragedy begins to unfold.
With its wonderful combination of lyricism, suspense and dramatic changes of mood, Shakespeare’s heartbreaking tale is one of the greatest of all love stories.
[Top]
LOVES LABOURS LOST
From Shakespeare's Globe
The King of Navarre and his courtiers have forsworn every kind of pleasure. But a visit from the Princess of France and her lovely entourage soon has this all-male ‘academe’ tearing up its own rulebook. Shakespeare’s celebration of the claims of young love is a festive parade of every weapon in the youthful playwright’s comic arsenal – from excruciating cross-purposes to silly impersonations, drunkenness, bust-ups and prat-falls. It’s also his most joyful banquet of language, groaning with puns, rhymes, bizarre syntax, grotesque coinages and parody. This production employs Renaissance staging and costume.
[Top]
AS YOU LIKE IT
From Shakespeare's Globe
Rosalind, the daughter of a banished duke, falls in love with Orlando at a wrestling match. Her usurping uncle, jealous of her popularity banishes her from court. Disguised as a boy she leaves with her cousin Celia and the jester Touchstone, to seek out her father in the Forest of Arden. Here she meets Orlando again and, in the guise of a young man, counsels him in the art of love and wooing.
A firm favourite among Shakespeare’s comedies, and including some of his best-loved characters, As You Like It runs the glorious gamut of pastoral romance: cross-dressing and love-notes; poetry and brilliant conversation; gentle satire, slapstick and passion.
[Top]