Tag Archives: UC Opera

Libuše, UCOpera, University College, UCL, Bloomsbury Theatre, March 2019

Posted on 20 March 2019

The wise Libuše, mythical founder of the Czech people, is the subject of this ‘festival’ opera that Smetana originally composed for the planned coronation of Austrian emperor Franz-Joseph as King of Bohemia in the early 1870s. That never happened, so he saved it for the opening of the National Theatre in Prague in 1881. Apart …

Read more >

Polyeucte, UC Opera, Theatre Royal, Stratford East, March 2018

Posted on 20 March 2018

Every year UCL produces a little known operatic gem and this time it was the turn of Gounod’s Polyeucte, not previously staged in the UK. The story, based on a play of the same name by the 17th century playwright Pierre Corneille, was the basis for Donizetti’s Poliuto, later turned into a French opera as …

Read more >