As part of the Frontiers Festival, James Oldham directs a ‘brutal reworking’ of the 1764 singspiel – first delivered by WPOC in 2013. Bastien will be played by Matthew Durkan, Bastienne by Sophie Pullen, with Luke Deane talking the role of the frivolous magician, Colas.
Waste Paper Opera Company’s Bastien und Bastienne will run from 7:30-8:30pm, with tickets priced at £8 and £5 concessions.
Bastien und Bastienne was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1768, when the composer was only 12 years old.
Bastien und Bastienne’s original libretto tells the story of a love struggle between its eponymous characters, the later becoming jealous of the former’s infatuation with the ‘lady of the manor’. Enter Colas, a questionable magician, who plays one lover off against the other with purported spells and the ‘treat them mean, keep them keen’ adage. Finally Bastien and Bastienne reconcile their love and praise the arguably divisive help of their mutual magician friend, Colas. Bastien und Bastienne has always been performed as a comedy, and stands as a parody to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s one act opera, La devin du village.
Waste Paper Opera Company was formed in 2012 and ‘specialises in humour and the clichés of opera’.
Run by James Oldham (Artistic Director), Ed Denham (Producer) and Thomas Payne (Conductor), WPOC have also produced and performed an original opera alongside their reworking of Bastien und Bastienne – Oldham’s ‘metaphorical warped fiction’ debut, Off the Beaten Track.
Ed Denham also currently produces for the London Arts Orchestra, Gestalt Arts, the Orchestra of Moving Pictures and Southampton Youth Opera. Thomas Payne is also Musical Director of The Ludlow Orchestra, Leamington Sinfonia and Shrewsbury Cantata Choir, alongside his role as Principal conductor with The Film Orchestra and Co-conductor of Hereford String Orchestra.
To see samples of Waste Paper Opera Company’s 2013 production of Bastien und Bastienne, click here or on the image below:
Waste Paper Opera Company brings Bastien und Bastienne to The Rainbow on Tues 25th & Weds 26th March – as part of the Frontiers Festival. Althea Patterson will be there for a Birmingham Review.
For further event info & tickets, visit http://www.birmingham-box.co.uk/event/waste-paper-opera-presents-james-oldhams-bastien-a/
For more on Waste Paper Opera Company, visit http://www.wpoc.co.uk
For more on the Frontiers Festival, visit http://www.frontiersmusic.org
For further listings from The Rainbow, visit http://www.therainbowvenues.co.uk