Performing Arts News | Performing Arts

Outstanding Costume Award for Reiffenstuel at the Dora Mavor Moore Awards

We are pleased to announce that our client Brigitte Reiffenstuelhas won the award for ‘Outstanding Costume Design’ for the Royal Opera House production of Falstaff at the Dora Mavor Moore awards held in Toronto. Brigitte Reiffenstuel was born in Munich and studied at the London College of Fashion and St Martin’s School of Art. She has designed for Opera productions across the world including Adriana Lecouvreur, Faust and Elektra for the Royal Opera House, as well as costumes for Kate Bush’s Before The Dawn concerts in 2014. Falstaff went on to win several more awards: Outstanding Production, in the Opera Division Outstanding Performance – Male, in the Opera Division, went to Gerald Finley Outstanding Performance – Ensemble, in the Opera Division, went to the Ensemble of Falstaff Outstanding Scenic Design, in the Musical Theatre/Opera Division, went to Paul Steinberg Falstaff will be returning to the Royal Opera House July 2015.

Openings to start 2015

A new production of Andrea Chenier is opening at the Royal Opera House on 20 January with costumes designed by Tony award winning costume designer Jenny Tiramani and choreography by Andrew George. Over at the Trafalgar Studios Jon Clark is lighting The Ruling Class which opens a week later on 27 January, starring James McAvoy. Annabel Arden is directing a semi staged production of The Miserly Knight by Rachmaninoff and excerpts from Das Rheingold, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski with the LPO. Joanna Parker acts as Design consultant and the performance takes place at the Royal Festival Hall on 21 January.

Sad news about director Joss Bennathan

We are very sorry to announce that our client Joss Bennathan – director, teacher and theatre-maker – died on 26 November 2014 aged just 56. He died peacefully after a short illness, born with great dignity and courage. The son of late Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, he is survived by his daughter Ella, son Matt and two grand-daughters. He will be sorely missed by the many friends and colleagues he has worked with over the years, and particularly by all those young people who were lucky enough to benefit from his talent for using drama to develop their skills and transform their view of the world. A short tribute in the Evening Standard‘s Londoners’ Diary quoted Munira Mirza, London’s deputy mayor for education and culture, who was involved in Bennathan’s Present Moment Theatre Lab project, which puts on Shakespeare plays with east London schoolchildren. “I cannot stress enough how much I admired and respected him,” she said. “He spoke with conviction about how drama teaching could raise its game. He believed in the need for theatre which transforms young people’s world view and helps them transcend their own experience.” An obituary by Joan Walker was published in The Guardian. His biography gives more information about his career.

Edwards’s Don Quichotte at Grange Park ‘a real winner’

‘Grange Park has a real winner with this Don Quichotte’ writes David Mellor in the Mail on Sunday, going on to say that ‘director Charles Edwards’s ‘konzept’ really works.’ Edwards also designed the show, ‘And since Edwards is such a talented designer, the set – with Massenet’s cluttered study in the foreground, and an Edwardian operatic stage to the rear – is a feast for the eyes.’ Clive Bayley, who sings Massenet/Don Quichotte and conductor Renato Balsadonna were praised for giving ‘two outstanding performances’, as was David Stout for his brilliant support as Sancho Panza. Describing Massenet’s opera as having ‘an autumnal, elegiac score of considerable charm’ Rupert Christiansen in the Telegraphthought that Edwards showed ‘both wit and perception in his attractive recreation of Belle Époque taste: this is an affectionate and sensitive interpretation which does no violence to Massenet’s intentions.’ He, too, praised Balsadonna’s conducting, and concluded: ‘It’s one that Massenet fans like myself will be delighted to catch’. The Arts Desk saw Edwards’s production as ‘proof that Massenet’s Cervantes opera is a work of variety, poignancy and emotional depth’. The reviewer, Sebastian Scotney, thinks the ‘production uses the small stage to great effect’ and that this ‘thought-provoking and visually clever and attractive production is a milestone for the Grange Park company’.