Pinner Music Festival – Opera Anywhere – CANCELLED

It is with profound regret that we have to announce the cancellation of this June’s Pinner Music Festival.

This is due to the coronavirus epidemic and the resulting government guidance, which very substantially impact upon our audience and volunteers.

We are delighted to welcome back Opera Anywhere for a wonderful programme of Puccini and his operatic heroines. Founders & Directors of Opera Anywhere, Mike & Vanessa Woodward, again bring a fine ensemble of young singers, mini-band & support team, for a show directed by long-term Opera Anywhere member Katie Blackwell.

In the first half, you will hear popular arias, duets and ensembles with female operatic characters from operas Madame Butterfly, Turandot, Gianni Schicchi, La Bohème, La Fanciulla del West, Il Tabarro & Tosca. Many of these are also well-known as separate pieces. Puccini had an uncanny knack of conveying women with a mix of pathos and power, vulnerability and strength, love and longing. You will share their dramas.

In the second half, we hear the deeply touching tale of Sister Angelica, a one-act opera that the director has chosen to set in the Ireland of the 1950s, in a rural convent – a superstitious and isolated community. With a socio-political background (very appropriate for Puccini), it is a moving story of love and faith, with the ‘disgraced’ Angelica the only character really deserving of redemption.

Members of the cast include Helen Winter, Freya Jacklin and Vanessa Woodward, who featured in their terrific Magic Flute two years ago.