New season of French opera for English Touring Opera

Olivier Award-winning opera company English Touring Opera is offering all things French with its new season of opera. Settings including raucous French taverns and a castle by the sea will provide the backdrops for passionate productions of Debussy’s Pelléas & Mélisande, Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann and Massenet’s Werther.

The company will perform the fully-staged and costumed new operas at Buxton Opera House from 16 October to 18 October.

James Conway, ETO’s General Director, said: ‘We set out to find three of the very best French operas, with compelling dramas that could be especially well told on an intimate scale – and decided on three that are essentially “French”, though they could hardly be more different from each other.’

Werther, a love story, offers some home-grown talent with the accompanying children’s choir provided by Buxton Opera House’s Young Company. The performance is the children’s second collaboration with ETO this year, after providing a well-received children’s chorus for La bohème in May 2015.

Pelléas & Mélisande is famous for Debussy’s sensuous and captivating music. Set in a mysterious castle by the sea, King Golaud brings a young maiden, Mélisande home. But things take a dangerous turn when the king’s half-brother Pelléas, who lives at the castle falls in love with her.

The Tales of Hoffmann starts when the penniless writer Hoffmann is waiting in a tavern for his latest mistress to arrive. To pass the time he tells the stories of his previous three lovers.

The opera’s many catchy and exciting tunes include the Barcarolle, famous from the Oscar-winning film Life is Beautiful (La vita è bella).