NI Opera

Is Turandot the most controversial artistic production ever staged in Northern Ireland?

| Readers 1415

Following their successful production of Salome back in February, NI Opera’s Steven Hadley introduces the company’s next show Turandot [Ed – everyone can hum along with Nessun Dorma!] which he promises will challenge audience views on wealth, consumerism and the power of art to shock, educate and entertain. Is Northern Ireland ready? Northern Ireland Opera are closing this autumn’s Belfast International Arts Festival with three performances of the lavish Turandot by Giacomo Puccini at the Grand Opera House. It’s a …

Read more…

Review: Salome (NI Opera) – no soap opera with its intense & macabre scenes of incarceration, lust, abuse & death

| Readers 870

Opera is a form of slow-motion storytelling, with larger than life characters and their huge voices and big gestures injected into an over-the-top plot that inhabits an enormous stage. Richard Strauss’ Salome – based on Oscar Wilde’s play – adds horror into the mix, re-working and twisting the original twelve verse Bible story of the death of John the Baptist into something much more gruesome and depraved. The character of John – Jokanaan in the opera – is probably the …

Read more…

Bring me the head of John the Baptist! NI Opera’s Salome: a collision of religion and sex … in Belfast

| Readers 787

Oliver Mears rejects the notion that opera has to seen as elitist, incomprehensible and alienating. NI Opera’s artistic director explained to me that the four-year old company choose “the most dramatic” works to perform to challenge people’s preconceptions and prejudices, and always sing in English. listen to ‘Oliver Mears from @NIOpera talking about #SalomeBelfast coming to @GrandOperaHouse in February’ on audioBoom Their next performance opens in the Grand Opera House on Friday 6 February. [Update – review posted.] Salome is …

Read more…