A new season of varied operatic heroes

“Just imagine an opera with two earth-shattering events that are as cataclysmic as the conclusion of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, and you have some idea of the impact of Handel’s Joshua,” says Charles Edwards, director of Opera North’s world premiere production opening at Leeds Grand Theatre next week.

“For me it was like starting out with a blank piece of paper, and from the outset we approached the existing musical score just as if it was a dramatic stage work, with Joshua becoming the national hero who also has a family story to tell. I know there are going to be purists who will say we should have left it as an oratorio, but, you know, I think there will be a lot of people who don’t normally come to opera who are really going to enjoy this.”

Handel had taken London by storm with a whole series of spectacular opera productions, but commercial instincts of this ever shrewd business man, told him to move into the new vogue for oratorios, though, as Edwards points out, with Joshua he took a step backwards with a basic story-line that was exactly the same format as Donizetti and Verdi would use in their operas over a century later.

“Don’t get this wrong, it’s not some ‘milk and water’ Baroque experience, Handel required a large orchestra including the full array of brass instruments available to him at the time, and there will be something special for Opera North’s outstanding chorus in the powerful choral sections. I’m not a political type of person, but I visited Berlin’s Jewish Museum last year and the experience gave a whole new dimension to my ideas about the opera, as the present state of Israel and the story of Joshua run absolutely in parallel, and it became rather inevitable that this would spill over into my production.”

For Edwards this has also been the story of finding the heroic tenor for the leading role, as today’s operatic world is not over populated with such singers.

“He’s still quite young, but Daniel Norman is an excellent and perceptive actor, and together we have created the character who, in the short space of the opera, has to change from an ordinary family man into his final exalted position.”

Then there was also the task of discovering a virile and suitably young looking countertenor to sing the part of Othniel, one of the two lovers in the sub-plot of the opera. “We also found that in another young singer, Jake Arditti, who is quite sensational and has a tremendous future, while for Achsah we have cast the soprano, Fflur Wyn, a familiar face at Opera North.” Having found one hero, Opera North then went in search of a second one who was capable of a musical marathon singing the title role in Siegfried, the next installment of Wagner’s Ring Cycle which will be theatrically staged and costumed in concert performances at Leeds Town Hall in June. Their search ended with the very exciting Estonian heldontenor, Marti Turi, who appears with the Swedish soprano, Annalena Persson, in her continuing role of Brunnhilde, while Richard Roberts returns as the scheming dwarf, Mime, and Michael Druiett as The Wanderer.

Forming part of this year’s Wagner bicentenary celebrations, Opera North have now reached the third part of the cycle. Their decision to use the full weight of a symphony orchestra on stage has drawn critical acclaim as a new and innovative approach to this unique quartet of operas.

But no one could look less likely to be our third hero than mummy’s-boy, Albert, the young man at the centre of Benjamin Britten’s opera, Albert Herring. Yet breaking away from her apron-strings is going to take an act of unprecedented heroic proportions in this story of village life, and if he does need a little encouragement from his two young friends, and a liberal quantity of an alcoholic beverage, Albert ends triumphant. Making his operatic debut last year, Alexander Sprague, will have to contend with the formidable Lady Billows, a role that brings back to Opera North the famous soprano, Dame Josephine Barstow.

Highlights of Opera North’s exciting new season

Joshua: Based on the Old Testament story of Moses’ successor as he leads the Israelites in conquest of Canaan, it is often described as Handel’s greatest work. April 30, May 1, 3 & 4.

Albert Herring: Benjamin Britten’s 1947 piece of small town morals and one unlikely hero was once dubbed the “greatest comic opera of the century.”

May 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23-25.

Siegfried: Richard Wagner’s opera resembles a fairytale as the hero embarks on a series of adventures before facing his biggest challenge, winning over his true love.

June 15 & 19, July 13.