The Great American Songbook

Revisit the golden age of American song with two great singing actors, American mezzo-soprano Sandra Piques Eddy and Dutch baritone Quirijn de Lang, currently taking the lead roles in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti over on Opera North’s mainstage.

Performing works familiar and less well-known, including Let’s Face the Music and Dance by Irving Berlin, Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered by Rodgers & Hart and Stranger in Paradise from Kismet, they are accompanied by Opera North’s Principal Guest Conductor Antony Hermus on the piano, and a small ensemble from the Orchestra of Opera North.

Period images set the scene, and the songs, curated by Quirijn, tell a story of music, moonlight, love and romance…

“Programming a Great American Songbook concert is quite daunting when you have hundreds of well-known and much-loved songs to choose from. Knowing that both Sandy and I like to play characters and are partial to a dramatic arc, and the fact that these songs are not standalone, but were written for shows, I wanted to see if we could make our own story with these songs, and that is what we have done.”
-Quirijn de Lang

This event is part of a preview weekend for the Howard Assembly Room’s reopening season.