Summer 2021 sees new productions of La Cenerentola and Manon Lescaut as well as a remake of Paul Curran’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

The season also includes three staged concert performances of My Fair Lady and spoken theatre for the first time with a new production of Shakespeare’s King Lear

The Grange Festival’s 2021 season is set to start on Thursday 24 June 2021 with an exciting programme of opera, a concert staging of a musical and their first ever presentation of spoken theatre. Having had to postpone the 2020 programme, this summer’s festival will see the productions of Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady that would have been performed last summer, as well as a new production of Shakespeare’s King Lear. The Festival’s residency partnership with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra continues with the orchestra accompanying nearly all productions during the 2021 season.

Opening the season on Thursday 24 June is Britten expert Paul Curran’s heralded production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was first seen in Valencia in 2016. English counter-tenor Alexander Chance sings Oberon with 2019 Grange Festival International Singing Competition prize winner Samantha Clarke as Tytania and James Platt as Bottom. Anthony Kraus conducts all performances.

Following their witty staging of The Barber of Seville in 2018, director Stephen Barlow and conductor David Parry reunite for more Rossini. Their new production of La Cenerentola boasts a strong international cast led by Sicilian mezzo-soprano Josè Maria Lo Monaco who returns to The Grange to sing the title role of Cinderella/Angelina, with the young Maltese tenor Nico Darmanin as her prince, Don Ramiro.

Francesco Cilluffo returns to The Grange Festival after his success in Falstaff in 2019. He conducts Puccini’s Manon Lescaut in a new production by Stephen Lawless which opens on Saturday 26 June. Having sung the roles of Alice and Ford in Falstaff, Elin Pritchard and Nicholas Lester now sing Manon and her brother Lescaut respectively, while Peter Auty performs the role of Des Grieux.

The Festival’s first musical - Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady - receives three concert performances (8, 16 & 18 July) and will be directed by Guy Unsworth and conducted by Alfonso Casado Trigo, who led the hugely successful Candide in 2018. After her Festival debut as Susanna (Figaro) in 2019, Ellie Laugharne shows her versatility as a singer by taking the principal role of Eliza Doolittle, while English singer and actor Richard Suart performs the role of Colonel Pickering.

The Grange Festival will present spoken theatre for the first time with Shakespeare’s King Lear. Directed by multiple award-winning director Keith Warner, the cast is made up of leading British opera singers who, rather than singing, will enact Shakespeare’s words in a unique project especially for The Grange Festival. Sir John Tomlinson leads the cast in the role of Lear with Sir Thomas Allen as Gloucester, while Lear’s daughters are played by Susan Bullock as Goneril, Emma Bell as Regan and Louise Alder as Cordelia.

Artistic Director Michael Chance comments: “The hunger for live performance is clear. We can all feel it. As we get nearer to opening the Festival when our theatre at The Grange will come alive again, we certainly expect further bumps in the road. But we are confident that 24th June will be a memorable day. We have not been idle during the Covid year: we have much better ventilation, completely new balcony seating, and 5 new productions we know will electrify our audiences. Our welcome will be heartfelt”.

The season brochure can be downloaded here.

Public booking opens on 20 April at 10.30am.

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24, 27, 29 June, 2 July 2021
The Grange, Northington
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Anthony Kraus conductor | Paul Curran director and set designer | Gabriella Ingram costume designer | Samantha Clarke Tytania | Alexander Chance Oberon | Chris Darmanin Puck | Roberto Lorenzi Theseus | Angharad Lyddon Hippolyta | Peter Kirk Lysander | Alex Otterburn Demetrius | Angela Simkin Hermia | Eleanor Dennis Helena | James Platt Bottom | Graeme Danby Quince | Ben Johnson Flute | Sion Goronwy Snug | Gwilym Bowen Snout | Johnny Herford Starveling | Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream

25, 28, 30 June, 3, 7 July
The Grange, Northington
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David Parry conductor | Stephen Barlow director | Andrew D Edwards designer | Heather Douglas choreographer | Josè Maria Lo Monaco Angelina | Nico Darmanin Don Ramiro | Christian Senn Dandini | Simone Alberghini Don Magnifico | Roberto Lorenzi Alidoro | Carolina Lippo Clorinda | Maria Ostroukhova Tisbe | Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Rossini La Cenerentola

26 June, 1, 4, 22, 24 July 2021
The Grange, Northington
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Francesco Cilluffo conductor | Stephen Lawless director | Adrian Linford designer | Lynne Hockney movement director | Elin Pritchard Manon Lescaut | Nicholas Lester Lescaut | Peter Auty Des Grieux | Stephen Richardson Geronte | Kamil Bien Edmondo, Dancing Master, Lamplighter | Angharad Lyddon Musician | Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Puccini Manon Lescaut

8, 16, 18 July 2021
The Grange, Northington
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Alfonso Casado Trigo conductor | Guy Unsworth director | Ellie Laugharne Eliza Doolittle | Richard Suart Colonel Pickering | rest of the cast TBA | Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Lerner & Loewe My Fair Lady

14, 15, 17 July 2021
The Grange, Northington
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Keith Warner director | John Lloyd Davies dramaturg & associate director | Ashley Martin-Davies designer | Nigel Osborne composer | Ran Arthur Braun fight director | Michael Hunt producer | Sir John Tomlinson Lear | Sir Thomas Allen Gloucester | Donnie Ray Albert Kent | Kim Begley Fool | Anthony Flaum Edgar | Oskar McCarthy Edmund | Susan Bullock Goneril | Emma Bell Regan | Louise Alder Cordelia | Richard Berkeley Steele Albany | Darren Clarke Cornwall | Christopher Gillett Oswald | Henry Waddington Burgundy | John Graham Hall Old Gentleman | Mark Saberton Cornwall’s Servant and Officer

Shakespeare King Lear