Vitally Sung

Heritage Opera's 'Così fan tutte'
impresses RODERIC DUNNETT

Opera in northern England is receiving a real uplift from one of Britain's brightest, most talented and imaginative touring ensembles: Heritage Opera.

This youthful, meticulously well-organised company was founded in 2006 by conductor and entrepreneur Chris Gill, and his wife, the gifted young soprano Serenna Wagner, plus a team of energetic, capable and dedicated regulars who have joined together to deliver a host of vital, dramatic and thoroughly engaging productions of major operatic repertoire over the last few years.

A pioneering Eugene Onegin, a sinister Turn of the Screw, a superbly chilling Tosca with the magnificent Mark Saberton as Scarpia, a very noteworthy Magic Flute, and the UK premiere of the tragic Halka by the doyen of Polish opera composers, Moniuszko, are just a few of the almost twenty productions -- some three or four annually -- which this company has staged in the past five seasons.

Heritage Opera is now gearing up for its most exciting and courageous venture to date: the world premiere in August 2011 of a newly commissioned opera by Jonathan Dove, based on Jane Austen's novel Mansfield Park. [See Heritage Opera: What's On for further details of the performances, 1-11 August 2011, of this new commission.]

COSI FAN TUTTE

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART