Philharmonia at Garsington Opera 2023 season announcement

• Garsington Opera and the Philharmonia Orchestra are delighted to announce full details of the 2023 Season programme
• The Philharmonia returns for Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, and a new production of Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos
• The Philharmonia’s performances run from 18 June until 23 July 2023

Ariadne auf Naxos – new production

An opera of two halves? A comedy of two halves? Or both at once. That’s what is proposed by ‘the richest man in Vienna’, who has commissioned two entertainments, one from a serious opera composer and one from a troupe of comedians. When he discovers that sitting through both separately would delay the firework display he has planned, he gives orders for the two shows to be performed simultaneously on the same stage. The earnest young Composer is horrified while the pragmatic Zerbinetta is happy to give it a go. Performing the title role is Garsington favourite Natalya Romaniw (Eugene Onegin, 2016; The Bartered Bride, 2019; Rusalka, 2022). Tenor Young Woo Kim makes his debut as Bacchus. Jennifer France (Le nozze di Figaro, 2017; Fantasio, 2019) is Zerbinetta, Polly Leech (Così fan tutte, 2022) is The Composer. Director Bruno Ravella (Falstaff, 2018; Der Rosenkavalier, 2021) returns to Garsington for this new production with Designer Giles Cadle.

Mark Wigglesworth, who made a triumphant debut in 2022 with The Turn of the Screw, conducts.

Sung in German with English supertitles.

Performances:
18, 24, 29 June
1, 6, 14, 19, 21 July 2023

Start time: 6.20pm

The Bartered Bride – revival

This is a story of thwarted love and arranged marriage, an arrangement which the spirited heroine, Mařenka (Pumeza Matshikiza, making her Garsington Opera debut), is not prepared to accept. She has to use every last ounce of determination, charm and cunning that she possesses in order to marry the man she loves (Jeník, Oliver Johnston – Falstaff, 2018; Der Rosenkavalier, 2021), encountering bribery, corruption and parental opposition along the way. Paul Curran’s ‘irresistibly energetic production’ (The Guardian) is revived by Director Rosie Purdie, with Designer Kevin Knight, Lighting Designer Howard Hudson and Choreographer Darren Royston. The Circus Troupe is led by Jennifer Robinson.

Jac van Steen conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra and Garsington Opera Chorus.

Sung in Czech with English supertitles.

Performances:
30 June
3, 5, 8, 10, 13, 15, 20, 23 July 2023

Start time: 5.55pm

Ticket sales date to be announced.