Heber Opera are promising “a bit of a gem” for their latest production

SussexWorld

Heber Opera are promising “a bit of a gem” for their latest production, Verdi's King for a Day, an opera which bombed at its first performance and was immediately pulled but which in much more recent times has started to get the recognition it deserves.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon. My name is Phil Hewitt, group arts editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely this

00:06afternoon to speak to Michael Withers. Now, exciting times. You are about to go on the

00:11road with Haber Opera, with Verdi's King for a Day, with dates including Linfield, Uckfield,

00:17Stenning and Perth's Pierpoint. Michael, you're the music director. Tell me about this opera

00:22as one that almost slipped through the net, but has been somewhat rescued in the last

00:27sort of 50, 60 years, hasn't it? Indeed so, indeed so. Yes, it did almost

00:33slip through the net because after the first performance, it was pulled because the audience

00:39didn't like it very much, and I might say the press didn't like it either. But luckily,

00:45it was recovered in the 1960s and brought back into vision, and I'm delighted to say that

00:54there have been a number of performances over the past decade or two, and ours, I hope,

01:01will be as successful as some of the others have been. We're performing it in the round

01:06in a variety of venues next month.

01:11And as you're saying, in the circumstances, Verdi's circumstances, personal circumstances

01:15in the time were very, very sad, weren't they? Very, very difficult. And yet this is, as you

01:21say, a sparkling comedy. It's remarkable. While he was writing it, he lost his wife,

01:27he lost his two children shortly before that, and yet he still managed to create a score which

01:34is brimming with melody and sparkling tunes, and a lovely plot as well.

01:43And what makes it the kind of opera that you wish to do as a company? How does it qualify in

01:48that sense? Well, partly because it's so approachable. Audiences, I think, will immediately relate to the

01:57characters and what they're going through in the various comedic situations. And the way in which

02:04we stage it with the in-the-round approach, I think, should make it all really a piece of

02:13of musical storytelling, really, rather than opera with a capital O.

02:18Fantastic. Well, it sounds hugely appealing. Dates in Linfield, Arkfield, Stenning, and

02:23Erspier Point, and it's Verdi's king for a day. Michael, really lovely to speak to you. Thank you.

02:29Thank you very much for your time.

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