Barrie Kosky makes his Company debut with ENO’s first ever Rameau opera, Castor & Pollux
Date published: Wed 02 Nov 2011
In a landmark staging, ENO presents its first Rameau directed by leading opera and theatre director Barrie Kosky. Baroque specialist Christian Curnyn conducts, leading a strong cast featuring Allan Clayton and Sophie Bevan, both of whom are members of this year’s ENO Young Singers Programme, as Castor and Telaïre. Brothers Castor and Pollux are both in love with Telaïre, who loves only Castor. Pollux is immortal and Castor is not. The effects of this complexity are only intensified by Phoebe, Telaïre’s sister, declaring love for Pollux, which is unrequited. The battles and anguish of unending love, jealousy and fraternal duty are played out through the ages-old story, until the four meet their fates. Rameau’s operas are still relatively rarely performed today. Castor and Pollux is widely regarded as one of Rameau’s finest works. This brand new staging will present the opera as a very modern story, concentrating on the constellation of human emotions of love and jealously inherent in the piece. Timeless and without place, this production will evoke a fantasy world, while focusing on the human drama. A mythological tale of two brothers and two sisters whose relationships to each other create a tangled web of love and pain, this production will show that while time and place can change, human beings always remain the same.
Barrie Kosky has recently been appointed Intendant of the Komische Oper, Berlin’s home of avant-garde productions - a post he takes up in 2012/2013. Formerly Artistic Director of the Gigul Theatre Company Austria and the Vienna Schauspielhaus, he has worked with theatre companies and opera houses all over the world. With the Kosmische Oper he has directed a range of works as diverse as Le Grand Macarbre,The Marriage of Figaro and Kiss Me, Kate. The design team is complete with costume and set designer Kristin Lea Tag and lighting designer Franck Evin.
Christian Curnyn, one of the most sought after Baroque and Classical conductors and founder of The Early Opera Company, returns to ENO to conduct this exciting new staging. Christian made his ENO debut conducting Christopher Alden’s groundbreaking Partenope and most recently Katie Mitchell’s After Dido, staged at the Young Vic, both of which won him much acclaim.
Singing the title role of Castor, is rising star tenor Allan Clayton, with the excellent Roderick Williams as Castor’s immortal brother Pollux. Clayton was nominated for both the RPS Young Singers award and the South Bank Breakthrough Award in 2009, and made his ENO debut as Lysander in Christopher Alden’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Sophie Bevan, recently lauded for her Yum-Yum in Jonathan Miller’s The Mikado for ENO, sings the role of Telaïre in the first of two major roles at ENO this season, the second being Sophie in David McVicar’s Der Rosenkavalier in February 2012. The rest of the cast is made up of Laura Tatulescu as Pheobe, Henry Waddington as Jupiter, Andrew Rup as the High Priest of Jupiter and Ed Lyon as both Mercury and Athlete.
Castor and Pollux opens at the London Coliseum on 24 October for 08 performances – 24, 28 October & 4, 11, 14, 19, 24 November and 1 December at 7.30pm Pre-performance talk, Friday 28 October 5.30-6.15pm, £5 London Coliseum tour pre-performance, Saturday 19 November; tours start at 2.30pm, £10 per person A co-production with Komische Opera, Berlin New production supported by The Foyle Foundation and a syndicate of donors.
Notes to Editors: ENO is creating the future of opera by:
·Staging contemporary highly theatrical work which is world class
·Working with creative talent from across the arts
·Reaching new audiences
·Developing and supporting British talent
For further press information please contact: Liz Barrett Head of Press 02078459261
