A Fairy Queen at Iford

By Charlotte Valori, 26 July 2016

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“Jake Arditti... with such unnervingly good acting at close quarters”

Reviewed at Iford Manor, Bradford on Avon on 23 July 2016

Purcell, The Fairy Queen (A new performing version based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights Dream with the music of Henry Purcell)

If Opera

Timothy Nelson, Director

Lucy Page, Soprano

Ciara Hendrick, Mezzo-soprano

Jon Stainsby, Bass

Frederick Long, Bass

Rose Setten, Mezzo-soprano

Gfeller Simon, Tenor

Jake Arditti, Countertenor

Early Opera Company Orchestra

Escape to the country: Bernstein's Candide at Iford

Charlotte Valori, 29th May

Jeff Clarke's characteristically high-octane style seems made for the sarcastic, hyperactive existential madness that is Candide in this little gem of a production for Iford.

****1

So foul and fair a day: Verdi's Macbeth at Iford

Charlotte Valori, 11th June

Iford's stone cloister makes a suitably eerie setting for a fine traditional account of Verdi's Macbeth, notable for its powerful male leads, from Iford Festival Opera and the CHROMA Ensemble.

****1

Agrippina: Power-dressed and power hungry

Charlotte Valori, 25th July

Bruno Ravella's version of Handel's Agrippina moves the action from Classical Rome to the avaricious Eighties in a sharp, amusing night at Iford.

***11

Getting behind the mask: an intense Ballo at Iford

Charlotte Valori, 6th June

While it may seem perfectly formed for the full grand opera treatment, Verdi's classic Un ballo in maschera can also work extremely well on a small scale, as shown by this intimate and compelling treatment by Timothy Nelson at Iford.

****1

Some enchanted evening: La rondine at Iford

Charlotte Valori, 14th June

Rapturously romantic, intimate, moving, unforgettable: more English summer opera should be like Iford. And the garden is like Narnia in the spring.

****1

Breaking bonds: a staged Messiah from Wild Arts

Dominic Lowe, 9th December

It's not Christmas without Handel's Messiah, and in the delightful Smith Square Hall, the oratorio is given a staging by Wild Arts which may not completely convince, but moves nonetheless.

***11

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Charlotte Valori

Charlotte Valori read Classics at Christ Church, Oxford. As a classicist, her main interest is Greek tragedy and its reception by later cultures, which has led to a continuing passion for theatre and opera. Charlotte reviews for several online magazines, and won the Bachtrack Opera Award 2015 for Best Written English Review. Follow her on Twitter @operissima.

Embracing anew: A Fairy Queen at Iford