English Touring Opera present Lucrezia Borgia & Il viaggio a Reims at York Theatre Royal, March 24 & 25
English Touring Opera (ETO) returns to York Theatre Royal on March 24 & 25 with two deeply contrasting operas Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia and Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims, each directed by women staging their first productions with ETO.
Period-instrument specialists The Old Street Band will play for both operas, the first time the operas by Donizetti and Rossini have toured in the UK with a period instrument orchestra.
Donizetti’s tragedy Lucrezia Borgia (March 24) is staged for the first time by ETO, in a new production directed
by Eloise Lally, making her ETO directorial debut. A thrilling and moving meditation on power and
motherhood, Lucrezia Borgia is the tragedy of a complex woman in a dangerous situation.
Lucrezia Donizetti created one of opera’s great antiheroines, as well as one of the most challengingroles in the soprano repertoire.
Paula Sides stars in the title role, with Thomas Elwin as Gennaro, Katie Coventry as Orsini and Aidan Edwards as Alfonso, and ETO Music Director Gerry Cornelius conducts.
A new production of Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims (March 25) is another first for ETO. Intrigue, politics, romance and lost luggage all play their part in Rossini’s last Italian opera, as a group of entitled guests from all over Europe are stranded in a provincial hotel on their way to a great coronation.
Featuring a cast of 27 – one of the largest ever assembled by ETO – the production includes a host of talented young singers including Lucy Hall as Madame Cortese, Luci Briginshaw as Contessa di Folleville, Susanna Hurrell as Corinna and Julian Henao Gonzalez as Conte di Lebenskopf.
Valentina Ceschi, who directed ETO’s online opera The Firebird to great acclaim in 2022, makes her ETO theatrical directorial debut, and ETO Artist in Association Jonathan Peter Kenny.
ETO is presenting its first season under the leadership of new General Director Robin Norton-Hale.
English Touring Opera presents Lucrezia Borgia: 7.30pm, March 24
Il Viaggio a Reims: 7.30pm, March 25
Box office 01904 623568 | yorktheatreroyal.co.uk