Brass Flirts With Opera
By Stephen Noble on July 8, 2011 in Music
The oom-pa-pa of brass and the belting vocals of opera isn’t your typical combination, but in a time when opera is seen as a thing for ‘those types’ it’s an intriguing arrangement to break down some barriers to say the least.
As part of the Brass: Druham International Festival, InterOpera, a world renowned company known for its attempts to showcase Opera as a contemporary art form and based in Weardale, and the Riverside Brass Band, formed back in 1877, will come together to perform 90 minutes of some of the most recognized classical songs.
It’s not going to be Now 44 [I actually had Now 44, it had 'Britney Spears, Steps and Eiffel 65 on it], but the songs are all recognisable by those who live outside of a rock, including Bizet’s Carmen, Mozart’s opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), Verdi’s Il Trovatore (the Troubador) and others – with all scores translated into brass music by Steve Robson, and scripts developed so those like me (i.e. The operatically uninitiated) can follow the story.
Performed over two nights, one on the 11th of July at The Empire Theatre in Consett (£12/£10 for concessions), the other at the Bowes Museum on the 14 July (£15/£12 for concessions).
Naturally, when we went along to film, and the sound of one woman and a piano echoed and filled the room with that slightly druggy hit of adrenaline that sends the hairs up on edge, so being backed with 37 local singers and the 29 musicians from the Riverside Band is going to be a whole different feeling – the power really doesn’t translate onto the video, so this has to be marked as an event not to miss – how often do you get the chance to see something like this? ALMOST NEVER, that’s how often.
We’ve also been told there’s to be audience participation, and all people involved were far from the worry of appropriate behaviour, peering through those odd little binoculars on a stick, so the atmosphere should be relaxed and the music stirring – making it a good way to see if you could be into this Opera lark.
For more details, and to book, head on over to the website.
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Video: What Do You Get When You Cross Brass With Opera? a @DurhamBRASS event next week will show you : http://www.kyeo.tv/?p=7073
Video: What Do You Get When You Cross Brass With Opera? a @DurhamBRASS event next week will show you : http://www.kyeo.tv/?p=7073
RT @kyeotv: Brass Flirts With Opera. Check those lungs right out http://t.co/KpiTwXN