SALISBURY audiences can get the chance to see local resident, and international opera star Rosalind Plowright performing nearby at the Dorset Opera Festival this summer.

Ahead of performances in Vienna and Tokyo, the Salisbury-based singer will make a rare local appearance in the Festival’s lavish production of Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball), alongside a starry cast which includes Russian soprano Svetlana Kasyan in Verdi’s masterpiece.

The other opera at the heart of this year’s Festival (held at Bryanston from 21-25 July), is Donizetti’s light-hearted comic love story L’elisir d’amore (The Elixir of Love) which stars Italo-American heartthrob tenor, Leonardo Capalbo.

Dorset Opera’s music director, Jeremy Carnall, flies in from Leipzig where is Kapellmeister with the legendary Gewandhaus Orchestra, to take charge of Un ballo in maschera. The production will be directed by Paul Carr. This ‘dream team’ has been responsible for Dorset Opera’s hugely successful production of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman and Verdi’s Aïda in the past two seasons.

L’elisir d’amore is in the expert hands of the exciting young conductor Timothy Henty - who is making a name for himself throughout Europe - with Dorset Opera stalwart David Phipps-Davis in charge of direction.

A first during this year’s Festival will be a free lunchtime concert of Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle for the people of Blandford Forum (in aid of the Cupola Project). It will take place in the Church of St Peter and St Paul, in the Market Place at 13:00 on Thursday 23 July. This uplifting oratorio will feature Dorset Opera soloists and a chorus of over 80 singers from around the world.

Dorset Opera Festival Artistic Director, Roderick Kennedy, is bringing to Dorset possibly the greatest line-up of singing talent in the company’s 41-year history. Famous soloists from Austria, Canada, Mexico, Russia, Sweden and the USA will be descending on Dorset for this year’s performances, and we are promised a fine young chorus of more than 80 - the vast majority of whom are in the 16-25 age group.

Kennedy was also keen to acknowledge a substantial grant from Arts Council England through the National Lottery fund.

LEONARDO CAPALBO | Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore

American tenor Leonardo Capalbo makes his long-awaited return to the Dorset Opera Festival after his huge success as Nadir in Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers in 2008. Known for his rich, lyric voice, Capalbo has made a name for himself at opera houses across Europe and America and has performed the role of Nemorino at Glyndebourne, at the Berlin Staatsoper, and with several major American companies. He makes a significant Royal Opera House debut next season.

ROSALIND PLOWRIGHT OBE | Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera

The great British mezzo-soprano who lives in Salisbury, is one of the most-celebrated artists of our time. She portrays the fortune-teller Ulrica. As a soprano, Rosalind appeared in every major opera house in the world, singing the foremost dramatic roles in the repertoire. She has sung with each of the Three Tenors and with some of the greatest conductors of the era, and has performed the title role in Aïda with Pavarotti at the Royal Opera House and in front of an audience of 25,000 at the great Arena di Verona in Italy. She last appeared with Dorset Opera in the title role of Massenet’s Hérodiade in 2006.

SVETLANA KASYAN | Amelia in Un ballo in maschera

The young Russian soprano is rapidly making a name for herself in the major dramatic roles of the repertoire in opera houses around Europe. She began her career by singing at the Bolshoi in Moscow, after training on their young artists’ programme. She has sung such roles as Elisabetta in Verdi’s Don Carlos in Turin and Madama Butterfly at La Fenice in Venice - where she will soon sing Tosca. Dorset audiences had the opportunity of hearing Svetlana when she sang the soprano soloist in Britten’s War Requiem with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra earlier this year.

JEREMY CARPENTER | Belcore in L’elisir d’amore and Silvano in Un ballo in maschera

Dorset-born baritone Jeremy Carpenter, returns to the UK from his home in Sweden where he and his family are now based, to sing two major roles at this year’s Festival. The first is the handsome, swaggering Captain Belcore in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore who vies for the love of the rich landowner Adina, with the simple farmhand, Nemorino. His second role is that of Silvano in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera. Jeremy, whose father Ray (former principal clarinet with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra) still lives in Bournemouth, has appeared in major roles at the Royal Opera House in both 2013 and 2014.

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