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A comic opera by
JACQUES OFFENBACH

Fully staged, in a new English version by Paul Featherstone

 
New Sussex Opera has unearthed another neglected gem. Belle Lurette has not been staged in the UK for a hundred and forty years. Amazingly, Offenbach wrote it at the same time as he was writing The Tales of Hoffmann, as he was dying. The orchestration was completed by Delibes and it had its first performance a month after he died.
 
“The music is magnificent. In every way. For someone who wrote this score on his death bed the sparkle and tunefulness of every number is remarkable. And I mean really remarkable. The chorus of the laundresses is one big splash and sonic foam party. The ensembles are built with masterful care. And Lurette’s big solos have a bounce that will knock you flat”.
– Kevin Clarke – Operetta Research Centre
 
A film was made of a musical based on the opera in the DDR in 1958. It had more than three million visitors in East German cinemas, making it the most  successful operetta film in the DDR, or actually one of the most successful DDR films, full stop.
 

Malicorne – Paul Featherstone
Duc de Marly – Joseph Doody
Campistrel – Michael Ferguson
Belhomme – Charles Johnston
Marceline – Kristin Finnigan
Lurette – Rhiannon Llewellyn
Merluchet – tbc
Cigogne – Tristan Stocks
La Boisene  – Charles Johnston
Friquette – Rebeca Hughes

Conductor – Toby Purser
Director – David Foster
Designer – Victoria Bradley
Lighting – Jason Ahn
Choreographer – Eleanor Strutt

New Sussex Opera Chorus, St Paul’s Sinfonia

 

Lewes Town Hall
Thursday November 10 7.30

The Old Market, Hove
Sunday November 20 3.00 & 7.30

Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne
Friday November 25 7.00

Bloomsbury Theatre, London
Tuesday December 6 7.30

BOOKING OPENS SOON

 

 

PASSION
AT THE OPERA
An autumn concert by soloists and chorus of New Sussex Opera
Lewes Friday Sept 30
Petworth Saturday Oct 1
Click to book

 

 

A tour in May / June 2022

A double first for NSO – our first opera by Handel and also our first using period instruments.

Click for more details

 

**** “A Total Knock-out”

– George Hall, The Stage

Click to learn more about our last production

 

 

NSO’s world premiere recording of The Travelling Companion Click for details

(Production nominated – Rediscovered Work category – International Opera Awards 2019

 

New Sussex Opera is a community based company. If you would like to be involved beyond being a member of the audience at our productions, there are many possibilities. Click About NSO for more background information, and Taking part for more about what opportunities are available.

“One of the UK’s most enterprising small opera companies, New Sussex Opera constantly surprises with its ambition and the quality of its fully staged productions.” Opera Now September 2018

“From the first bar, this production had it in the bag.” Jacques Offenbach Society Newsletter – review of La belle Hélène

 

NSO is a founder company member