Kezia Bienek News
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2024-04-25
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2023-12-29 08:43:00
2023 in Opera and Music Theatre: historically informed Berlioz & Wagner, dramatic Handel, a G&S rarity, RVW, Zandonai in Berlin, new Jonathan Dove
[…] at the Three Choirs FestivalItch rocks: science, adventure and Wagnerian parallels in the world premiere of Jonathan Dove's terrific new opera Itch at Opera Holland ParkVisually seductive and strikingly arresting: The Queen of Spades at The Grange Festival is a real study in obsessionColour, text & character: Dresden Music Festival launches its historically informed Ring cycle with gripping Das RheingoldMozart's late masterpiece: La Clemenza di Tito from Chelsea Opera Group with Helena Dix and Kezia Bienek Ida revealed: John Wilson & the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment take a fresh look at Gilbert & Sullivan's unjustly neglected Princess IdaNo ordinary evening: Christof Loy directs Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Sara Jakubiak & Jonathan TetelmanCompelling thriller: Handel's Arminio from Royal Opera's Jette Parker Young Artists'Let other pens dwell on misery and grief' - a joyous ensemble performance of Jonathan Dove's Mansfield Park from RNCM OperaAn enjoyable […]
2023-10-02 06:30:00
Modernising Monteverdi: The Coronation of Poppea from English Touring Opera in a radical new version by Yshani Perinpanayagam
Monteverdi: The Coronation of Poppea - Keith Pun (Love), Jessica Cale(Poppea), Amy J Payne (Arnalta) - English Touring Opera (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)Monteverdi: The Coronation of Poppea, arranged Yshani Perinpanayagam; Jessica Cale, Martha Jones, Kezia Bienek, Trevor Eliot Bowes, Feargal Mostyn-Williams, Elizabeth Karani, Amy J Payne, director Robin Norton-Hale, conductor Yshani Perinpanayagam; English Touring Opera at the Hackney EmpireReviewed 30 September 2023Robin Norton-Hale opens her tenure at ETO with an ambitious and stylish production of Monteverdi's masterpiece in a radical new version that showcases some fine individual performances.English Touring Opera's Autumn 2023 season opened at the Hackney Empire on Saturday 30 September 2023. This was the first season under new General Director, Robin Norton-Hale, and the opening production of Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea was directed by Norton-Hale and so, much anticipated. Conducted by Yshani Perinpanayagam with Jessica Cale as Poppea, Kezia Bienek as Ottavia, Feargal Mostyn-Williams as Otton, Martha Jones as […]
2022-06-14 09:51:00
Carmen – Kezia BienekDon José – Oliver Johnston Escamillo – Thomas Mole Micaëla – Alison Langer Frasquita – Natasha Agarwal Mercédès – Ellie Edmonds Zuniga – Jacob Phillips Moralès – Jevan McAuley Le Dancaïre – Themba Mvula Le Remendado – Mike Bradley Cecilia Stinton (director) takis (set designs) Johanne Jensen (lighting) Isabel Baquero (choreography) Children’s Chorus from Cardinal Vaughan School Opera Holland Park Chorus (chorus director: Richard Harker) City of London Sinfonia Lee Reynolds (conductor)Image: Ali Wright Carmen was the last opera I saw before the end of the world. Not necessarily what I would have chosen; for many of my friends it was Fidelio, whose absence from my truncated Beethoven Year I regretted deeply. But then none of us chose pandemic, lockdown, death, misery, and the rest. It was good, though, to have opportunity to exorcise another pandemic ghost, albeit in different guise. Cecilia Stinton’s new Holland Park production has […]
2022-06-06 11:49:00
Opera Holland Park's Carmen review – devil-woman clichés dispensed with as heroine radiates joy not lust
Opera Holland Park, LondonKezia Bienek is a charismatic Carmen at the mercy of Don José’s obsessive control in Cecilia Stinton’s cogent and pacey new production “If you love me, then beware.” When Kezia Bienek sings the last line of Carmen’s Habanera at Opera Holland Park she has her eyebrow decidedly arched: by that point it’s not herself she’s really singing about, but her own myth. In Cecilia Stinton’s new production it’s the myth of Carmen that the soldiers have become infatuated by, not the real woman – at first they aren’t even sure they recognise exactly which of the women she is. To her friends, however, she’s very real indeed: it’s not often you come out of a production of Carmen feeling that the murdered heroine will be genuinely mourned. How to put all Bizet’s glorious tunes on stage without presenting the audience with a reliquary of tired devil-woman cliches […]
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