feuds family friendships

“Blood is thicker than water” – or so they say.

 

If you’re a character in an opera, it is unlikely that your family life will be happy and

uncomplicated. In innocent youth, you may find a soulmate but, after one or two beautiful

duets, true love founders on the rocks of jealousy, infidelity, or parental hostility. Occasionally

love and loyalty win through – against all the odds.

 

Fate frequently intervenes in the lives of opera families and is very rarely kind. Loving parents

are separated from their children. Siblings succumb to relentless rivalry. Dreadful secrets come

to light, tearing the family apart. Deadly feuds break out. Bonds of friendship turn out to be

stronger than ties of blood.

 

All these powerful family passions and terrible torments give birth to great music. So, while

Opera families suffer, audiences enjoy every note.

 

feuds, family, friendships is Opera Nova’s new semi-staged production for 2018. It explores

the ties that bind us to family and friends as depicted in operas and musicals, contrasting

togetherness and loyalty with scheming self-interest and sad separations.

 

Using only simple costumes and props, Opera Nova presents family life with exciting drama

and wonderful music; from Bernstein’s West Side Story to Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, from

Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore to Verdi’s Rigoletto. Famous film music plays a part too,

including Gabriel’s Oboe, composed by Enrico Morricone for The Mission; while enduring opera

favourites, such as Bizet’s Pearl Fishers Duet and the Easter Hymn from Mascagni’s Cavalleria

Rusticana, will be enjoyed by all.