Organization

Conductor

Nicholas Jenkins

Stage director

Harry Fehr

Set designer

Eleanor Wdowski

Costume designer

Singer

Mezzo-soprano

Victoria Simmonds

Mignon

Soprano

Ruth Jenkins-Róbertsson

Philine

Tenor

Ted Schmitz

Wilhelm Meister

Bass-baritone

Wyn Pencarreg

Lothario

Christopher Diffey

Laërte

Choreographer

Victoria Newlyn

Lighting designer

Claire Childs

New Sussex Opera

London

United Kingdom

Cadogan Hall

Eastbourne

Devonshire Park Theatre

Lewes

Town Hall

Mignon Thomas,A

Public

Approved

Our setting for this once hugely popular Opéra Comique was in 1920s Berlin, during the Weimar Republic. Harry Fehr’s conception featured vintage suitcases of all shapes and sizes (including two massive ones that served as portals), to indicate a cast constantly on the move. The scene opened in a sleazy nightclub full of out-of-work actors and traveller musicians, all taunting the unfortunate Mignon (Victoria Simmonds) to perform the ‘egg dance’.

The most lavishly costumed production of recent years, this opera includes a scene where the entire cast from a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream come on stage (strange to see Oberon return, after the eponymous Weber opera the year before) and a brilliantly choreographed scene where Philène as Titania (Ruth Jenkins-Róbertsson) exerts her magic over the cast during her  dazzling coloratura  Polonaise – one of the most over-the-top arias in all opera (and surely a parody of the likes of Rossini and Bellini).

The original story by Goethe has a tragic ending, but we used the version preferred by French audiences in which Mignon is reunited with her long-lost father and marries Wilhelm Meister (Ted Schmitz).

English

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Kast

Ekwipaġġ