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*From the organisers (correct at the time of publishing), please see the organiser’s website for the latest details.
In partnership with Britten Sinfonia
Conducted by Finnegan Downie Dear
Directed and Designed by Melly Still
Sung in German with surtitles
Genre: Opera
Location: Theatre
4 hours including one 90 minute interval
Nevill Holt Festival 2024 opens with Mozart’s most magical opera, directed and designed by Melly Still (Tony and Olivier Award-nominated Coram Boy, National Theatre; Rusalka and The Wreckers, Glyndebourne). An enchanting fairy-tale quest for love, The Magic Flute promises an evening of magic, mystique and romance, set to some of the most sublime music ever written by Mozart, conducted by Finnegan Downie Dear.
A feast for the senses of opera lovers of all ages, Nevill Holt Festival’s new production will see a cast of the UK’s most talented emerging opera singers take to our stage. It will be created in partnership with the award-winning Britten Sinfonia, which The Guardian recently described as “one of our most innovative and vital ensembles”.
Magic Flute ticket holders will be welcome to attend free pre-show talks in the chapel and will have complimentary access from 3pm onwards to the Nevill Holt estate gardens and Modern British sculpture collection as well as the 2024 Festival’s exhibitions of Anthony Caro and Eduardo Paolozzi’s sculptures, marking the centenary of both artist’s birth.
“The Magic Flute stands alone — its mixture of the comic, the tragic and the fantastic, somehow all bound together through the beauty of Mozart’s music, is inexhaustibly fascinating. It is a privilege to be working with Melly Still, Nevill Holt Festival and Britten Sinfonia on this project, and I can think of no more perfect setting than the intimate and enchanting theatre at Nevill Holt to bring a new version of this piece to life.” Finnegan Downie Dear
Cast in order of appearance
Martins Smaukstelis – Tamino
Isabelle Peters – First Lady
Aina Miyagi Magnell – Second Lady
Angharad Lyddon – Third Lady
Jonathan Eyers – Papageno
Nazan Fikret – Queen of the Night
Simon Sumal – Monostatos
Olivia Warburton – Pamina
Malachy Frame – Speaker / Second Armed Man
Allen Michael Jones – Sarastro
Magnus Walker – Priest /1st Armed Man
Jasmine Flicker – Papagena
Archie White – Dance Chorus (Dance Captain) Saskia Faye Larcombe – Dance Chorus
Thea Kallhed Möller – Dance Chorus
Melly Still is celebrated internationally as a director, choreographer, designer and adaptor, with her work taking her across the world from the UK to China, from Scandinavia to Broadway. She has been nominated as Best Director and for Best Design at both the Olivier and Tony Awards for her National Theatre production of Coram Boy, directed a new production of Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves for Theater St Gallen and returned to Glyndebourne in 2022, directing the festival’s opening production of The Wreckers by Ethel Smythe.
Finnegan Downie Dear came to international attention in 2020, winning first prize at the Bamberger Symphoniker’s International Mahler Competition. He has since debuted at the Staatsoper Berlin, Camerata Salzburg, Tampere Philharmonic, Adelaide, Baltimore, Bournemouth, Polish National Radio and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestras. Since 2014 he has been Music Director of Shadwell Opera – an East London company that works with exceptional young musicians to champion contemporary British repertoire and experiment with new operatic forms.
Britten Sinfonia is a different kind of orchestra. It is defined not by the traditional figurehead of a principal conductor, but by the dynamic and democratic meeting of its outstanding individual players and the broad range of their collaborators – from Steve Reich, Thomas Adès and Alison Balsom to Pagrav Dance Company and Anoushka Shankar. Rooted in the East of England, where it is the only professional orchestra working throughout the region, Britten Sinfonia also has a national and international reputation. It is renowned for its adventurous programming and stunningly high-quality performances, and equally for its record of commissioning new music, nurturing new talent, and inspiring communities across the East of England. Britten Sinfonia is an Associate Ensemble at London’s Barbican, Resident Orchestra at Saffron Hall and performs regularly at London’s Wigmore Hall.
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