Robert Beattie in dialog with Cameron Menzies, Inventive Director of Northern Eire Opera, and baritone Yuriy Yurchuk

I’ve been reviewing Northern Eire Opera’s productions for some years (hyperlinks to a few of my critiques may be discovered right here). I’ve been struck each by the very top quality and infinite number of their productions. They’ve produced a string of extra standard operatic productions, together with La bohème, La traviata and Tosca which have obtained glowing critiques from the Press. Opera Journal commented: ‘Northern Eire Opera’s La traviata means that the inventive director Cameron Menzies has in the end realised the area’s ambition to have a grand opera firm actually deserving of the title.’

As well as, they’ve additionally produced a number of profitable Broadway musicals together with Sweeney Todd, Kiss me, Kate and Into the Woods.  The Occasions commented on the latter: ‘Cameron Menzies’s manufacturing storms together with such irresistible zest and unflagging power that it deserves packed homes all through its run’. Extra just lately, they’ve moved into the sphere of chamber opera and produced a smaller scale manufacturing of The Juniper Tree by Philip Glass and Robert Moran. The Stage commented: ‘Appears pretty much as good because it sounds’.

Northern Eire Opera have produced an enchanting and once more extremely profitable ‘Salon Collection’ that includes opera, artwork music, cabaret and music theatre. These performances have taken place throughout totally different venues throughout Northern Eire together with the opulent rooms of Hillsborough Fort and the gloomy lobby of Crumlin Street Jail. Yearly they run the ‘Glenarm Pageant of Voice’ within the historic coastal village of Glenarm. Now in its thirteenth yr, this occasion brings collectively BBC Radio 3 recitals, outreach occasions, performances by rising artists and culminates within the Competitors Finale. Throughout the summer time they run a music recital sequence in partnership with First Church in Belfast.

I spoke to the Inventive Director of Northern Eire Opera, Cameron Menzies, and to baritone Yuriy Yurchuk about previous and future productions. I spoke to Cameron concerning the challenges concerned with taking on the position of Inventive Director in the course of the Covid pandemic and the corporate’s successes throughout this era. I additionally requested him concerning the forthcoming manufacturing of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and different work strands the corporate are taking ahead. I requested Yuriy how he approaches the position of Onegin and the challenges of this position. Yuriy is a British-Ukrainian citizen and he has made a variety of statements concerning the present conflict between Russia and Ukraine. I spoke to him concerning the impression which this battle is having on the world of classical music and for his views on this.

Robert Beattie: Cameron, you assumed your position of Inventive Director of Northern Eire Opera throughout the Covid lockdown interval. How did you negotiate the challenges related to this era?

Cameron Menzies: I used to be appointed in October 2020 which I used to be nonetheless residing in Australia. With all of the restrictions I used to be not capable of journey to Northern Eire till March 2021 which was at that time fully shut down due to Covid. We weren’t capable of do dwell performances, however we had been capable of movie so I shot a 40-minute movie known as ‘Previous Pals and Different Days’ which featured the music of William Vincent Wallace and considered one of his contemporaries, William Balfe, which gained a sequence of awards all over the world together with in London, Paris and Madrid.

I took over the corporate at a time when there was no programming in place as a result of all the things had been cancelled. Usually, whenever you take over an organization there’s a grace interval of 12-18 months when you possibly can comply with another person’s programming and watch and see how issues are performed. The fantastic thing about that problem was that we may do what we needed and tailor it to assets obtainable to us. I couldn’t get venues to open due to Covid however we had been capable of do a gap manufacturing of Puccini’s La bohème in a gorgeous, dilapidated previous church in North Belfast known as the Carlisle Memorial Church. This allowed me to succeed in out to a number of performers who had been obtainable as a result of restrictions positioned on them because of Covid. Yuriy was one of many individuals obtainable and he sang Marcello for us in that manufacturing. So, whereas this era was difficult, it additionally offered alternatives; we had been solely capable of get Yuriy at quick discover because of the restrictions imposed by Covid. It allowed us to get some amazingly gifted individuals into that manufacturing. We had been solely capable of play to 100 individuals an evening within the church. However we efficiently raised the stage and sank an orchestral pit within the venue. There have been about 35 instrumentalists within the pit, all of whom had been freelancers from throughout Northern Eire.  Covid additionally offered alternatives as there have been no guidelines round how greatest to come back out of it. So, the state of affairs offered us with the liberty to check out totally different new issues.

RB: Northern Eire Opera has a variety of totally different work strands which it’s taking ahead in the meanwhile. You have got the principle productions and the subsequent one developing in September is Eugene Onegin. You even have smaller scale productions, and likewise your extremely profitable Salon Collection in addition to a summer time music recital sequence and the Glenarm Pageant of Voice. Are you able to inform us concerning the totally different work strands you’re taking ahead?

CM: We clearly do grand opera within the Grand Opera Home yearly, however we additionally current opera on plenty of totally different platforms throughout the 12-month interval of programming. The Salon Collection was one thing that I pitched after I was recruited as one thing that I want to attempt. The primary sequence consisted of six 50–60-minute live shows. They consisted of all the things from French opera to chanson, Irish songs, theatre music and cabaret as a little bit of a tasting plate throughout varied musical genres to show audiences to various things in addition to works they could already know and love. It additionally allowed us to tour round Northern Eire with a number of diverse music. The sequence has been an enormous success and really properly obtained by audiences throughout Northern Eire. We began a second sequence on the 22 June within the Palace Demesne in Armagh with ‘The Stars, the Moon and the Georgian Sky’. This live performance featured works by Gilbert and Sullivan, Handel, Poulenc, Verdi and Humperdinck celebrating the heavens. We have now a programme of summer time live shows on the Foyle Maritime Museum in Londonderry/Derry and the Flowerfield Arts Centre in Portstewart.

Earlier this yr we produced two smaller scale productions: a pastiche to have fun Valentines’ Day, ‘Cupid’s Bow’, and a Philip Glass/Robert Moran opera known as The Juniper Tree which was primarily based on considered one of Grimm’s fairy tales. These had been each very profitable as properly. Each these productions performed within the smaller Studio of the Grand Opera Home and this gave us a chance to do some chamber work. We do attempt to present opera in all totally different platforms and in any respect totally different entry factors.

RB: Your subsequent massive manufacturing is Eugene Onegin. What do you see as the important thing challenges of staging this work?

CM: All nice operatic works have their challenges. I’ve cherished Eugene Onegin for a really very long time; it’s such an exquisite piece. Musically, it is likely one of the most satisfying items of opera ever written and it has a few of the most shifting music. It presents as a chunk that matches Belfast and Northern Eire very properly in 2024. Once I was interested by singers that would carry out for this manufacturing, I concluded there have been very robust native feminine singers we may forged. The 4 feminine leads are all from Northern Eire or from the north of Eire. Mary McCabe, Sarah Richmond, Carolyn Dobbin and Jenny Bourke have been forged in these lead roles. I believe that could be a big achievement for the corporate to forged these roles regionally. Mary is making her foremost stage debut in her hometown. It additionally allowed Yuriy and I a chance to convey a mission to fruition which we mentioned in 2021 once we had been doing La bohème. Once I was considering of casting the male roles, Yuriy was the particular person in my head to carry out the position of Onegin.

Onegin works thematically for Northern Eire and it additionally works thematically for the world. At a frivolous flip throughout the piece, two greatest pals set themselves on a tragic path they can not come again from. Onegin kills his greatest buddy Lensky and arguably metaphorically dies as properly. The fantastically constructed duel which occurs in that opera has common impression. For me making an attempt to seize that sense of two sides who gained’t again down or attempt to discover a approach out of that battle is a legitimate matter to be placing on an operatic stage or certainly any stage in the meanwhile.

We have now beforehand performed La bohème, La traviata and Tosca; Onegin gives a chance to step outdoors of this Italian repertoire. It’s already proving extremely popular and tickets are promoting very properly. The music could be very accessible and delightful. If individuals love The Nutcracker and Swan Lake, they may completely fall in love with this as properly. Whereas each opera has its challenges, we attempt to meet them head on. With the forged and the crew now we have obtained it’s already proving to be an incredible expertise.

RB: I generally suppose with Onegin you could have the primary two acts that are longer acts and you’ve got the great Letter Scene within the second act with Tatiana. After which you could have the final two acts that are a lot shorter. In some methods it may be seen as a bit bit unbalanced as an opera. Yuriy, do you could have a view on that?

Yuriy Yurchuk: I believe it’s a aware alternative by Tchaikovsky. Typically with motion pictures, books or in theatre there may be a variety of motion however by the top of the work it has not made an impression and also you don’t care what occurs to the characters. This will occur as a result of the exposition to the work doesn’t correctly introduce the characters to the viewers. On this work you care about Lensky as you see him within the prime of youth and interested by love and his future life. We find yourself rooting for the characters whether or not or not it’s Lensky, Onegin or Tatiana. Tchaikovsky could be very calculated and good on this work in permitting us sufficient time to get to know the characters and floor ourselves within the story. The ending could be very quick paced however he takes his time organising the scene and permitting us to get to know the characters.

RB: I agree. The characters are fantastically shaped and he’s utilizing Pushkin’s great poetry to assist flesh out the characters. How do you method the character of Onegin? He’s generally seen as very conceited however there are additionally extra nuanced elements to the character.

YY: Some individuals say the opera needs to be known as ‘Tatiana’ as she is the principle character, and we see her journey via the opera from a younger, inexperienced woman to the mature, subtle younger girl we see on the finish of the opera. While you play Onegin you can’t consider your self as a nasty man. While you stand on stage you might want to have your personal causes to justify your actions and what you say. His refusal to take up Tatiana’s preliminary declaration of affection to him is commonly seen as conceited however I don’t suppose that’s the case. His foremost folly is his lack of ethical compass but in addition his youth and inexperience. His foremost crime is killing his buddy, it’s not turning away Tatiana.

Onegin’s smaller crime takes place on the finish of the opera when he declares like to Tatiana despite the truth that she is married. It was in fact unattainable at the moment for a married girl to elope with one other man with out destroying her title and character. Onegin is extra mature concerning the methods of the world and the courtroom than his buddy Lensky. Despite this he doesn’t take the required motion to resolve the battle with out killing his buddy. This is likely one of the issues which makes this opera so related to trendy audiences. It exhibits how occasions can escalate within the blink of an eye fixed to an irreversible tragic consequence. It’s necessary for the viewers to dwell via the occasions of the opera. In future conflicts to come back it would remind individuals of the necessity to step again and take inventory earlier than permitting a battle to escalate additional.

RB: You have got taken on main roles in a variety of Italian operas up to now together with Marcello in La bohème and likewise in Un ballo in maschera and Andrea Chénier. How is the position of Onegin totally different to earlier roles?

YY: Onegin is in Russian and that is my native language and what I grew up talking. Tchaikovsky is commonly known as the grasp of melody and also you come out whistling a few of the tunes from the opera. The journey of Onegin can also be fairly attention-grabbing to discover. Onegin shares the title position with Tatiana and it’s attention-grabbing to have a look at how this relationship develops. It’s a very totally different opera to Andrea Chénier, which is a extra heroic work. We have to keep in mind that Onegin is barely 18 throughout the time interval of this work however he feels he has seen all the things and performed all the things. You possibly can see his preliminary rejection of Tatiana as an try to save lots of this inexperienced younger woman from making a idiot of herself. The outcomes are devastating for her as she has invested a lot on this one man and is constructing a fortress within the air which Onegin then tears down.

RB: What are the vocal challenges of singing Onegin?

YY: There are challenges within the final scene the place Tchaikovsky makes use of a relatively thick orchestration. Onegin has been unable to recover from the lack of his buddy and he sees Tatiana as his one hope of salvation. Dramatically, you need Onegin to look into Tatiana’s eyes. Nevertheless, you can’t do that as it’s important to mission over massive orchestral forces, so you might want to face the viewers immediately. Tchaikovsky was a grasp of vocal writing and his rating offers all of the performers a chance to shine. You possibly can her the quantity of labor he has put into the rating in each phrase and set piece quantity.

RB: I generally want opera homes would carry out extra Tchaikovsky operas within the West. Except for Onegin and The Queen of Spades the opposite operas are not often carried out. In Russia and Japanese Europe the opposite operas are carried out way more steadily.

CM: Iolanta is an incredible work however it’s in all probability more durable to promote outdoors of Japanese Europe.

YY: We carried out Iolanta within the Royal Albert Corridor within the Spring beneath the baton of Vasily Petrenko. It’s a nice piece.

RB: Yuriy, I do know that as a British-Ukranian you could have expressed views on the latest battle between Russia and Ukraine. Within the classical music world some Russian singers have been banned from performances and Russian opponents have been barred from competitions because of the battle. Within the latest Queen Elizabeth Competitors, the successful violinist refused to shake palms with a Russian choose. What view do you’re taking of those points?

YY: In some methods this can be a advanced concern however in my opinion it is usually a easy one. The present Russian invasion of Ukraine is unlawful, immoral and felony. Each particular person within the civilised world is making an attempt to assist cease it or to help these most affected by it. Northern Eire Opera has performed some work to attempt to elevate donations for Ukraine. I’m in opposition to discrimination primarily based on somebody’s private traits whether or not that’s race, gender or sexuality. I converse Russian myself and my girlfriend is Russian. Nevertheless, discrimination primarily based on what an individual says or does is a special matter. I do know a variety of Russian and Ukrainian artists who don’t condemn the invasion and carry out for Putin. Permitting these individuals to carry out within the West and to profit from the Western public appears unsuitable to me. I additionally know a variety of Russian artists who dwell within the West and who actively assist Ukraine. Equally, there are individuals who dwell in Russia who’re against the conflict and the present authorities though protest is turning into more and more troublesome in Russia. If Russian artists are against the conflict then it doesn’t appear proper to discriminate in opposition to them.

There are some attention-grabbing methods through which Ukrainian tradition affected Tchaikovsky and his music. Within the nineteenth and twentieth centuries there was an effort to assimilate Ukraine into the bigger Russian empire and to disclaim the nation its identification and proper self-determination. Tchaikovsky’s household had been from Ukraine and he spent a variety of time within the nation. His opera Mazeppa encompasses a Ukrainian hero. His music in some ways is influenced by each Russia and Ukraine and is a shared heritage for each nations. Tchaikovsky was an brazenly homosexual composer however many homosexual individuals in Russia face widespread discrimination these days. Tchaikovsky exhibits in Eugene Onegin how battle and violence can emerge out of nowhere. It’s necessary to show younger individuals to the concepts within the opera and to point out them the broader hurt which violence may cause. If extra younger persons are uncovered to the concepts on this and different operas, maybe they may also help affect them to make higher decisions in future.

Most of my efforts within the final couple of years have been to convey as a lot consideration to the conflict as attainable. Because the conflict drags on, it’s not being reported so prominently within the information. It’s necessary to remind individuals all over the world of the continued violence within the conflict and the way it’s impacting on the lives of abnormal Ukrainians. I consider we must always do all the things we will to assist the individuals of Ukraine and to lift funds to assist them.

RB: Folks generally don’t realise that Prokofiev is a Ukrainian composer. He was born in a metropolis situated in modern-day Ukraine despite the fact that he’s usually seen as Russian. There may be in fact an amazing custom of Russian musicians defying the official authorities coverage. Rostropovich, for instance, made his emotions very clear concerning the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia when he was performing the Dvořák Cello Concerto on the BBC Proms when he held up the rating on the finish of the efficiency. So, there’s a position for Russian musicians to publicise their views about what is going on in Ukraine though I think about it’s more and more troublesome for individuals residing in Russia to try this. Cameron, what are your future plans for Northern Eire Opera?

CM: Our main precedence is staging Eugene Onegin in September. I’m additionally making an attempt to construct the corporate and to develop a brand new programme. We additionally have to safe extra authorities funding – now we have been on standstill funding since 2013 – in an effort to assist us develop a brand new, bold and inventive programme. We’re trying to carry out a chamber piece once more at first of the yr and we’ll proceed to tour round Northern Eire with smaller items which lend themselves to being extra cellular.

RB: Are there any explicit items which you want to stage?

CM: The Philip Glass opera, The Juniper Tree labored very properly and was properly obtained by the viewers. I’m enthusiastic about exploring related repertoire, maybe by Bernstein, though I haven’t come to any agency views on this.

RB: I really like Philip Glass operas and I’m at all times happy when firms stage them.

CM: The Fall of the Home of Usher is considered one of my favorite Glass operas.

RB: Yuriy, which future roles are you planning to tackle?

CM: In per week’s time I’m beginning work on Mozart’s Don Giovanni in Finland. I’ve been forged within the title position and am trying ahead to engaged on it. After that I will likely be engaged on Verdi’s Don Carlos in France after which I will likely be working with Cameron on Onegin. I actually loved my expertise of working with Cameron and his inventive crew on La bohème so it’s good to come back again and discover new repertoire with them.

RB: Don Giovanni is considered one of my favorite operas and there have been so many tremendous performances of the title position.

YY: I used to be lucky to have the ability to spend a while working with Thomas Allen on the position. He’s superb when it comes to the insights he brings to the piece and the character. One factor which hyperlinks Don Giovanni and Onegin is that each the principle characters are unsuccessful in love. Don Giovanni doesn’t handle to seduce any of the ladies within the opera and Onegin can also be unable to forge a relationship with Tatiana.

RB: In that sense, they each get their simply deserts. Cameron and Yuriy, thanks very a lot for speaking to us.

Robert Beattie