Lovers of Mozart’s operas get a treat this summer when the Dorset Opera Festival stages its first ever productions of two of the Austrian composer’s greatest works, Don Giovanni and Cosi Fan Tutte.
Returning after last year’s enforced Covid-cancellation, the opera festival will run from July 19-24, at the usual venue, Coade Hall, at Bryanston School. But while it will be the first time in its 47 year history that Dorset Opera will stage Mozart, it will also be without one of its most important features, the chorus.
A key aspect of Dorset Opera Festival has always been the summer school for singers and technical theatre students from across the world who sing and work alongside the professionals. This year, sadly, the festival management feels it would be unwise to run the summer school.
“So, for the first time ever, we are presenting a MozartFest featuring operas that, as they have little or no chorus, we would never normally be able to consider,” says Dorset Opera Festival artistic director Rod Kennedy. As well as the two great da Ponte operas, there will also be a semi-staged version of Händel’s Acis and Galatea, using the Mozart orchestration.
There are options to go outdoors if social distancing is reintroduced. For this reason, tickets will initially be sold for a 50 per cents capacity audience. If the government lifts all restrictions on theatrical performance on 21st June, the remaining seats will then be released. Visit the website, dorsetopera.com, for more information.
Fanny Charles