October 19, 2011 4.13 pm This story is over 148 months old

Touring opera comes to Lincoln

Opera fever: Lincoln will be treated to various operatic performances at the Theatre Royal next week.

Lincoln will get a week filled with opera at the Lincoln Theatre Royal this month.

The English Touring Opera (ETO) and the Old Street Band will be providing the city with three different shows to enjoy.

The first begins on October 29 at 7.30pm. Thomas Guthrie’s production of The Fairy Queen is based on Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, and is set in a military convalescent hospital, through the eyes of Victorian painter Richard Dadd, played by local actor Mark Wilde.

As well as singers, the show features various dancers and aerialists.

Wilde also plays in ETO’s second opera instalment, Handel’s Flavio, on October 30. The show is based on two star-crossed lovers trapped by the rivalry of their families.

Finally, ETO will close up the week of opera on October 31 by performing their newest production, Handel’s Xerxes, which is recasting the Persian king as a prince-turned-pilot in the Battle of Britain.

As well as opera at the Theatre Royal, ETO will perform theatrical baroque music in the Wren Library at Lincoln Cathedral.

The Cathedral performance includes work such as Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri and Cantatas No. 154, 156, 161 and 159 by Bach, sung alongside Lincoln Minster School Chamber Choir.

General Director of ETO and Director of Flavio and Xerxes James Conway said: “What so much baroque opera and theatrical music offers is great intensity of experience.

“Whether it is the rollercoaster highs and lows of young adult experience in Flavio, the stylish elegance of the royals and non-royals of Xerxes, the strange and lovely inner life of The Fairy Queen – or the vary different, passionate devotions of Buxtehude, Gesualdo and Bach – there is so much that is deeply felt, and wonderfully expressive.”

Ticket for all events can be bought at Lincoln Theatre Royal’s Box Office online or by calling 01522 519999.

Source: English Touring Opera