On the musical merry-go-round at Opera North

“Stephen Sondheim famously said that ‘Oklahoma! is about a picnic. Carousel is about life and death’. And I think he was absolutely right,” says Jo Davies.

The director is in charge of bringing the musical about life and death to the stage of Leeds Grand Theatre in a production for Opera North.

That’s right, Opera North, the company that last year staged Ruddigore, Queen of Spades, Norma (in which the heroine is burnt at the stake) and Giulio Cesare, is staging merry musical Carousel.

What are they thinking?

Well, according to the company’s general director, Richard Mantle, they are thinking of a number of things – which may surprise some – in staging a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.

Firstly, that in doing so, Opera North is honouring the company’s history and secondly, the company is staging Carousel in the hope of finding new audiences.

New audiences, sure, but honouring the company’s traditions?

“If you look at the history of the company, we have staged a number of musicals regularly as part of our programme,” says Mantle.

“We have staged Sweeney Todd, Love Life, One Touch of Venus and Show Boat. Musicals are in our DNA.”

He admits, however, that a number of the Opera North regular supporters have already said they won’t be booking for the show, and will wait for when the more serious opera returns to the programme.

Mantle doesn’t want to alienate the fans of the company, but is clear he wants to present a broad range of work.

“We can’t just present apples and apples. There are all sorts of different fruit – and not everything will appeal to everyone.”

Mantle says all of this in his top floor office of the Opera North offices.

Down in the theatre, where the piece is being pulled together with the gentle force applied by impressive Jo Davies, the director is singing from a slightly different hymn sheet.

“Well it is a musical, absolutely, but it’s the most operatic musical written in the period – certainly the most operatic piece of work from Rodgers and Hammerstein,” she says. “There are long sung-through sections, there is a seven-and-a-half-minute sung soliloquy, so it has the feel of an opera. I think what makes it the most operatic piece from them are the themes. Like Sondheim said, this is a piece of work that has some very big themes.

“It’s about what we pass on to our children, about a man who loses everything and who does everything he can to do his best for his family. It’s about some big themes that I think it’s fair to describe as operatic.”

Davies, a director who has worked at the Royal Opera House, the English National Opera, the National Theatre as well as on Broadway and in the West End, says that Carousel can be described as ‘sentimental’ and ‘romantic’ – in the best way.

“Those words have become perjoratives, but actually sentimental and romantic are really not bad things to be,” she says.

The problem is that the two words, like Carousel, have something of an image problem. Thanks largely to a movie version in 1956 and subsequent productions, the musical became a byword for schmaltz and not over-sentimentality.

The problem is twofold. First, the story of Billy Bigelow, the fairground worker who falls in love with a girl, dies and returns from heaven, is open to melodrama. Secondly, the signature song of the show is You’ll Never Walk Alone, famously adopted by Liverpool football supporters.

“It’s also the third most popular song to be played at funerals,” says Davies. Which explains the melodrama. “Somehow in art, if a piece of work is designed to specifically elicit an emotional response, people seem scared of it,” says Davies.

“I subscribe to the idea of intelligent audiences and I think if you tell them what to think, without giving them space to make up their own minds, then they feel partronised – which is possibly why words like romantic and sentimental are used negatively.”

Despite all the melodrama that came to be associated with the musical, it was reclaimed in the early 1990s, when the National Theatre restaged the piece and the story’s grit and darkness were allowed to seep through. It was a triumph and the conductor on that production, James Holmes, will also be leading the orchestra in the Opera North production, which opens at Leeds Grand next week.

Davies is a vastly experienced director who believes that the rules never change when you move between the three different types of theatrical work. Anthony Ward is an Olivier award winning designer who has collaborated with the director on the production. He says there is anxiety about creating a design for such a large scale piece of work.

Davies is clear on what she and the designer must do: “You’re always telling the story. I don’t know how to direct an opera differently from a musical or that differently from a play,” she says. “It always simply has to be about the story.”

So how has Carousel survived the melodrama and the reputation it has gained over the years of indulging in such overwrought emotion?

“It is a universal story that tackles universal themes,” says Davies. “The score is absolutely exquisite, which doesn’t harm it, but it’s the story. “It’s about families and wanting to provide for your children, about how our choices shape you and what your legacy will be.

“It’s a powerful work.”

Accompanying Carousel events

Written on the Wind and High Society: Two films made in the same year that Carousel first appeared place the story in context. Written on the Wind (Apr 27, 7.45pm) features Lauren Bacall and Rock Hudson, while Crosby, Sinatra and Grace Kelly star in High Society. (Apr 28, 3pm)

Dancing on Broadway with Kim Brandstrup: One of Europe’s most influential choreographers, who is choreographing Carousel, discusses his work. (Apr 30, 7.30pm).

Participate: A family session introducing people to the basics of Broadway dance and a chance to learn some of the classic routines. (Apr 28, 10.30am).

Carousel, Leeds Grand, May 2-19. 0844 8482705.