Highlights
All Performances
Little Singers
Opera North Early Years Programme
Suitable for 0 - 4 years
Sing songs, explore instruments, play games and have fun with music in our weekly sessions. Sessions aim to support the development and well-being of children under the age of 4 and their families through high-quality musical experiences and activities.
Led by a professional musician, all workshops introduce live singing and music-making in a fun and creative environment suitable for all babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers with their grown-ups.
We also run Little Singers sessions (for 0-4s) in other areas of Leeds and Yorkshire:
| Morley Town Hall | Mondays at 11.15am |
15 Jan – 26 Mar (ex 12 Feb) 16 April – 9 July (ex 28 May) |
£5 per child, pay on door |
| Cast, Doncaster | Wednesdays 10am |
10 Jan – 28 March (ex 14 Feb) |
£3.50 per child, book via Cast |
| Colton Primary School | Thursdays at 10am |
11 Jan – 29 Mar (ex 15 Feb) 19 April – 12 July (ex 31 May) |
£4 per child, pay on door |
| ERT, Beverley | Thursdays 10.30am |
Starting Thurs 11 Jan – Thurs 29 Mar (ex 15 Feb) 12 April – 12 July (ex 31 May)
|
£5 per child, book via ERT |
For more information, contact Alex Bradshaw on alex.bradshaw@operanorth.co.uk
I love bringing my child; the space is beautiful and has a lovely atmosphere. It is brilliant that we have the chance to sing with a professional vocal artist. Coming to the sessions have given me more confidence to sing with my child at home.
— Little Singers parent
Follow our Little Singers playlist:
Bring-Along-A-Baby Choir
Suitable for adults with babies and young children
This is a wonderful opportunity for parents and carers to come along and enjoy all the fun of singing in a group, in a warm and friendly environment.
No singing experience (or talent!) is necessary, just a desire to join in and have a go.
Each individual session costs £6, or book all 8 sessions for the discounted rate of £40.
ON After Hours: Songs and Sonnets
14 May - 23 Jul 2018
Leeds
Howard Assembly Room
ON After Hours: Songs and Sonnets
Brush up your Shakespeare this spring with the ON After Hours Chorus as they explore some varied Shakespearean repertoire in celebration of the return to the stage of Kiss Me, Kate, Cole Porter’s witty retelling of The Taming of the Shrew.
Rehearsals will be led by friendly professional artists who will help you to learn operatic and choral pieces inspired by the Bard’s works, in preparation for a relaxed performance in front of family and friends on Monday 23 July.
To take part, you will need some experience of singing and be able to follow a music score.
Kiss Me, Kate
Cole Porter’s dazzling comedy of musical mischief will leave you feeling positively ‘WUNDERBAR’!
On the opening night of a musical version of The Taming of the Shrew in 1940s Baltimore, the tempestuous love lives of actor-manager Fred Graham and his leading lady (and ex-wife) Lilli Vanessi are set to collide.
Throw in Fred’s current paramour Lois Lane and her gambler boyfriend Bill – plus a couple of gun-toting gangsters who somehow get caught up in the show – and the stage is set for a funny and farcical battle of the sexes!
Cole Porter’s riotously inventive homage to the sparkling wit of Shakespeare, Kiss Me, Kate is an irresistible celebration of the joy and madness of working in theatre. With show-stopping songs including 'BRUSH UP YOUR SHAKESPEARE,’ 'ALWAYS TRUE TO YOU IN MY FASHION' and 'SO IN LOVE,' performed by an all-singing, all-dancing cast of international singers and West End stars, our spectacular production is simply ‘TOO DARN HOT’ to miss out on!’
Follow Kiss Me, Kate on social media:
Kiss Me, Kate is a co-production with Welsh National Opera
Music and lyrics by Cole Porter
Book by Bella and Samuel Spewack
Critical Edition by David Charles Abell and Seann Alderking
Running Time
Approximately 2 hours 45 minutes
Language
Sung in English
Official West End Trailer
BSL Introduction
The Music
Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill
Step into the glamorous world of cabaret as we celebrate one of the greatest, most influential musical theatre composers of the 20th Century.
A co-production with West Yorkshire Playhouse in association with City Varieties Music Hall
Join us on an exhilarating tour of highlights from the Kurt Weill songbook, from the smoky cafés of 1920s Berlin to the Broadway stages of the 1940s.
Weill’s show-stopping hits include standards such as ‘Mack the Knife’ and ‘September Song’ and a host of other numbers made famous by artists ranging from Sinatra to Bowie, from Streisand to Simone.
Directed by one of the most inspirational figures in British theatre, Giles Havergal, whose work for Opera North includes popular hits The Barber of Seville and The Merry Widow, this unique show features a fabulous ensemble of singers drawn from the award-winning Chorus of Opera North, stars of Opera North’s acclaimed productions of Carousel and Into the Woods. Together they’ll bring you a cabaret of delights in the atmospheric surroundings of Leeds’ beautiful Victorian music hall, the City Varieties.
Running Time
Approx. 2 hours 15 minutes (including 20 minute interval)
Language
Sung in English and German
Join in on social media with #BerlinToBroadway
Music by Kurt Weill
Lyrics by Maxwell Anderson / Bertolt Brecht / Michael Feingold / Paul Green / Alan Jay Lerner / George Tabori / Marc Blitzstein / Jacques Deval / Ira Gershwin / Langston Hughes / Ogden Nash / Arnold Weinstein
Text and Format by Gene Lerner
Musical arrangements by Newton Wayland
Originally directed by Donald Saddler
Originally produced by Gene Lerner and Hank Kaufman
Performed by arrangement with Music Theatre International (Europe) Limited
The Path to Heaven
An opera by Adam Gorb and Ben Kaye
A powerful tale of extremism, expedience and deceit, The Path to Heaven exposes the disintegration of the loves, lives and hopes of a family struggling to survive during the Holocaust.
Sara, Hanna, Dieter, Magda and Hans return home from a party to find that having ‘danced too long in the moonlight’, evil stalks them from the darkness.
The discovery that their adoptive parents have disappeared triggers a descent into a nightmare from which none will escape unchanged. A meticulously-researched series of individual real stories has been woven into a thrilling new opera for the 21st Century.
Performed by musicians from Psappha and The Royal Northern College of Music.
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou
The legendary orchestra from Benin celebrates 50 years together. Undisputed kings of voodoo music, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo blends traditional Beninese music, American soul and funk, Nigerian Afrobeat, Congolese rumba, French pop and Afro-Cuban rhythms.
The oldest active African orchestra, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo are also one of the continent’s most prolific collectives, releasing hundreds of EPs and dozens of albums throughout the 60s and 70s.
Their magnificent live show and unparalleled musical output shows them truly worthy of their full name: Le Tout Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou (The All Powerful Polyrhythmic Orchestra of Cotonou).
Aeons: a Sound Journey for Newcastle
22 Jun - 30 Jun 2018
Gateshead
Gateshead Millennium Bridge
Aeons: a Sound Journey for Newcastle
Four walks a day between 22 June – 7 September (excluding Sundays, Monday 23 July and Monday 20 August)
Come to the river! Collect a pair of our headphones and disappear into an adventure in sound along the river’s edge, through millennia, and far out of the everyday.
Music by composer and accordion wizard Martin Green (Lau), with the Chorus and Orchestra of Opera North, draws you into a journey along the River Tyne through the heart of Newcastle, exploring the vastness of time in the geographical landscape and the centuries of human history laid onto it.
Part of the Great Exhibition of the North, Aeons also features the vocals of Ryton’s own Becky Unthank (The Unthanks), Mogwai’s Dominic Aitchison and binaural field recordings made along the river, to accompany you during this half-hour walk.
Head on over to the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, put on a set of our headphones and disappear into a sound adventure, walking the epic span of the Bridge, with a world of sound in your ears. Wear comfortable shoes and be prepared for whatever the weather can throw at you.
Aeons will open as part of the spectacular Get North! opening event on Friday 22 June at the Great Exhibition of the North’s Quayside Hub, which also includes the Get North Water Sculpture, an 80m tall fountain that will perform to a soundtrack of three specially commissioned music compositions.
| Dates: | 22 June – 9 September, every Monday – Saturday (excluding Monday 23 July and Monday 20 August). |
| Running times: | 10am 11.30am 1pm 2.30pm |
| Tickets are free but please book in advance |
Little Big Sing
Suitable for 0-4s and their families
Join us for a multi-sensory journey through the magical world of opera.
Meet lots of interesting characters and learn some new songs, as well as singing some our Little Singers favourites. With live instrumental music, lights, projections and a whole heap of fun included.
Ryedale Festival: Orchestra of Opera North
Part of Ryedale Festival
Renato Balsadonna (Conductor)
Kathryn Rudge (Mezzo-soprano)
Hammer blows of fate open Beethoven's most famous symphony and mark the beginning of an epic journey from turbulence to resounding optimism. Eighty years later, Brahms was still wrestling with Beethoven’s legacy when he produced some of the deepest and most profound music of the century in the emotional catharsis of his final symphony.
These two great and much-loved works are separated by an English masterpiece, as one of the fastest-rising young British singers performs Elgar’s famous Sea Pictures in an elegant venue with stunning views across Scarborough’s South Bay.
| Beethoven | Symphony No. 5 in C minor |
| Elgar | Sea Pictures |
| Brahms | Symphony no. 4 in E minor |
Inspiration Choir: Another Day of Sun
With the Orchestra of Opera North
The massed voices of Inspiration Choir and the Orchestra of Opera North present a feel good concert for the summer, with songs from the smash hit film La La Land and other toe-tapping numbers.
Liz Green – Presenter
Gary Griffiths – Conductor
For more information about Inspiration visit www.inspirationuk.com.
The Symphonic Sounds of Back to Basics
Part of Millennium Square Summer Series 2018
The soundtrack to your summer is back and bigger than ever!
Featuring some of the most infectious and energetic dance anthems from over the past three decades, this open-air concert is packed with club classics reworked and performed live by a 50-piece symphony orchestra.
The heart of Leeds will once again beat to a different rhythm as the Orchestra of Opera North, legendary Back to Basics DJ Dave Beer and an array of amazing special guest artists and vocalists come together on stage to deliver an epic musical celebration. Join us to show how spectacular and vibrant the city of Leeds is in showcasing two of its much loved and contrasting musical institutions.
With special guests
Robin S, Utah Saints, Alison Limerick, Shades of Rhythm, Saffron, Robert Owens, Rachel McFarlane, Sara Garvey and Ralph Lawson
For all the latest event information, follow us on Twitter @millsqleeds, @Opera_North @backtobasics91 or find us on Facebook.
The Symphonic Sounds of Back to Basics is the first of a series of three events marking the Opera North in the City Festival and part of the annual Millennium Square Summer Series.
| Doors | 6pm |
| DJ sets | 6.30pm |
| Symphonic Sounds of Back to Basics | 8pm |
| Event ends | 10.30pm |
...stunning… took dance music to another level.
— Yorkshire Evening Post
Immense combined skill, fantastic voices and bloody brilliant sound.
— Culture Vulture
Watch trailer
Additional information
Suitable for ages 14+. Under 16s to be accompanied by an adult.
Standing tickets only. Full venue information available in the Millennium Square FAQ.
Ticket information
General Admission -
£32.50 (from 1 February 2018)
Concessions: £29.25 (10%)
Leeds City Council Leeds Card Breezecard Opera North Friends, Patrons and Associates