3 minute read
Opera & Ballet
“Le Cigne” A Live performance by the German-Italian Duo Heike-Angela Moser (piano) and Angelica Faccani (violin)
The German-Italian Duo “Le Cigne” was first scheduled to arrive around Easter 2020 to celebrate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary but was prevented by the COVID-19 travel ban. Two more attempts, in 2020 and 2021 were similarly thwarted. They have now rescheduled their flights for the fourth time and it seems very likely that their perseverance will finally be rewarded.
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Their programme of music will remain the same as originally chosen to celebrate Beethoven and Clara Schuhmann whose centenary fell in 2019. Clara Schuhmann also happens to be a direct ancestor of Heike Angela. Much of their time in Kenya has been devoted to teaching at “Ghetto Classics” and preparing the young, talented violinist Lamech Otieno, to join them in this performance.
“Le Cygne” will be performing live on Thursday 6th April in the Ballroom at
Based on the well- loved 1948 film “The Red Shoes”, this is Matthew Bourne’s wholly danced version. It is set in London and Monte Carlo during the late 1940s and early 1950s. The ballerina Victoria Page is talent-spotted by the ballet impresario Boris Lermontov, who is based in Monte Carlo. He commissions the composer Julian Craster to compose a ballet based on Hans Christian Andersen’s tale, “The Red Shoes.” Victoria takes the lead in the ballet, and she and Craster fall in love. Victoria must choose between her love and her career. Matthew Bourne said “The image of the red shoes that, once put on, will not allow the wearer to stop dancing has long been a potent one for creative minds. My challenge has been to capture some of that surreal, sensuous quality of film within the more natural live theatre.”
“The Red Shoes” Ballet will be screened on Thursday 28th April in the Garden Room at 11.am
Carmen has been the most popular Opera in the world for over a century. This Carmen comes in the form of a feature film, which brings the drama and pathos of the tragedy much nearer. Filmed on location in Andalusia and Seville has resulted in some spectacular photography. Although the greatest tenor – a young Placido Domingo and baritone, Ruggero Raimondi - take up the two main male roles, Julia Migenes’ gamine-like Carmen is the chief glory of this production. Her strutting, her dark, messy hair and her sexual availability attracts Don José and drives him crazy. Carmen, who is true to her instincts, represents everything he tries to repress. After he has deserted the Army and lost the respectability that meant everything to him, he feels she owes him lifelong devotion. Carmen’s fatal mistake was in thinking she could take him as a lover on her own terms.
“Carmen” will be screened on Thursday 12 May in the Ballroom at 6.30pm.
This biographical film based on the life of one of the most intelligent, witty, controversial characters in British history, leaves me grasping for words to do it justice. I leave this task to the critics…
The New York Times wrote, “Playing the large dandyish writer with obvious gusto, Stephen Fry looks uncannily like Wilde and presents an edgy mixture of superciliousness and vulnerability.” The San Francisco Examiner said the film “benefits from its lush period costumes and settings but gains even more from an accomplished cast of British film and stage actors. Stephen Fry slips right under the skin of the title character and presents a multidimensional portrait of a complex man.”
“Oscar Wilde” will be screened in the Ballroom on Thursday 9th June at 6.30pm.
