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.
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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.