In the Veins of America / The musical
Opera North (UK)
Kiss Me, Kate
music and lyrics Cole Porter
libretto Bella e Samuel Spewack
critical edition David Charles Abell and Seann Alderking
conductor James Holmes
director Jo Davies
revival director Ed Goggin
set and costume designer Colin Richmond
choreographer Will Tuckett
revival choreographer David James Hulston
lighting designer Ben Cracknell
sound design Autograph Sound
Orchestra and Chorus of Opera North
a project by Opera North (UK) in co-production with Welsh National Opera
Italian premiere
Cole Porter, together with George Gershwin and Irving Berlin, is the lighthouse of Broadway and of American cinema. And his Kiss Me, Kate is a watershed in the musical comedy of the first half of the XX century: such songs as “Another Opening, Another Show” and “So in Love” are no isolated acts, but rather support and enliven both the plot and the characters. This masterpiece is dated 1948, a time when 57-year-old Porter was considered by many to have reached the end of the career he had embarked on at the age of ten, writing operettas with help from his mother Kate. The characters in this “backstage musical” double up as Shakespearean actors and real-life people, easily switching from stage acting to backstage chattering. This is meta-theatre, in a production using the original manuscripts found in Manhattan.
Duration:
1st Part 1h 20’ – Intermission 20’ – 2nd Part 1h
Total 2h 40’
