What’s So Great About Opera

2-4pm

M07

The Daffodil £36 Ticket includes a champagne afternoon tea Hillary Summers contralto Andrew West piano Programme to include: An introduction to Baroque Opera I’m a Puccini Heroine addict Thoroughly Modern Hilly Dido’s Lament (Purcell), Carmen’s Seguidillia (Bizet), and culminating in the acclaimed Summers/West Productions’ – The Essential Magic Flute a one woman, 25 minute reduction of Mozart’s masterpiece. Hilary Summers, a ridiculously tall Welsh contralto and Grammy Award winner, joins Andrew West, a slightly shorter, fabulous English pianist, for a hilarious romp through the highs and lows of opera. With songs and lyrics especially composed by the duo, alongside beloved arias of the operatic canon, the sublime and the ridiculous aspects of opera come under scrutiny, but leave the audience to decide – what IS so great about opera?

SATURDAY 9 JULY

SATURDAY 9 JULY

7.30-9.30pm

M08

Anoushka Shankar and Manu Delago in Concert

Cheltenham Town Hall

£10 £20 £28 £38 £48

Anoushka Shankar sitar Manu Delago hang & percussion The Strings of the Britten Sinfonia Multi-Grammy-nominated sitar player and composer Anoushka Shankar is steeped in the classical Indian tradition her father Ravi Shankar brought to a worldwide audience. Today she is a singular, genre-defying artist across the realms of classical, contemporary, acoustic and electronic music with seven Grammy nominations and an Ivor Novello nomination for her soundtrack for the BBC adaptation of A Suitable Boy.

Her BBC Proms collaborations with the Britten Sinfonia and percussionist Manu Delago have been triumphant – a rapturous melding of East meets West. Prepare for a hypnotic evening from a masterful musician.