The production is rarely shown because there are so many things happening on stage at one time, which takes time, effort and a lot of skill to put together. However it is almost impossible to stage unless you really know what you are doing like the man himself.
Opera Holland Park ended its opera season with a production of La Wally by Alfredo Catalani on Wednesday, 10th August 2011. Opera Holland Park had its new and first ever production of this opera since its first performance in La Scala in Milan on 20th January 1892. It is a delightful, emotional, moving and tragic piece that is set in the Austrian Tyrol where the free-spirited but vulnerable Wally is in love with the handsome Giuseppe Hagenbach, the son of her father's implacable enemy. This affliction of love leads to the inevitable disastrous conclusion. This tragedy is best known for its aria "Ebben? Ne andrò lontana". The opera offers some of the most richly romantic music and is an absolute gem of the late nineteenth century. La Wally is not an easy opera to stage, but the strong cast of Gweneth-Ann Jeffers as Wally and Stephen Richardson as Stromminger made the opera well worth watching. Our reporters Charlotte, Nkechi and Silvia were at the Opera Holland Park to ask fans about their interest in the tragic romance, if they had been to an opera production before and their highlights of the show. We would like to know what YOU think, so please post a comment to this wall!