Pinner Music Festival – Opera Anywhere

The first half of this ‘night at the opera’ comprises a marvellous mix of arias and ensembles for young female voices, presented by the co-producers Sorelle.

The fantastic selection of pieces include works by Mozart (Cosi fan tutte), Berlioz (Beatrice & Benedict), Bizet (Carmen), Verdi (the witches’ scene from Macbeth) & Puccini (Gianni Schicchi, Tosca), Matchmaker, Matchmaker (from Fiddler on the Roof) by Davies & Miller, as well as medleys from The Sound of Music and of Vera Lynn favourites by Olivia Bell. There is truly something for everyone here.

In the second part, we shall savour Opera Anywhere’s production of Puccini’s very moving one-act opera Sister Angelica, directed by Katie Blackwell, who brings contemporary resonances to the drama. She sets it 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. Puccini uses all his typical compositional skills to draw on our emotions, in the very touching music he wrote to match the drama. Bring a hanky!