| Performances by Opera North | Opera North present: - Don Giovanni by Mozart on Wednesday 30 March and Saturday 2 April, 2005 at 7.15pm. The performance is sung in English.
- One Touch Of Venus by Kurt Weill on Thursday 31 March, 2005 at 7.15pm. The performance is sung in English.
- The Thieving Magpie by Rossini on Friday 1 April, 2005 at 7.15pm. The performance is sung in English.
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Lovers of musical theatre in Norfolk are in for a treat as Opera North presents the first full-scale British staging of the Broadway musical One Touch Of Venus by composer Kurt Weill. The original show opened on Broadway in 1943 and ran for 567 performances with Mary Martin in the title role of Venus. The music is reminiscent of Cole Porter but with a twist, set to the witty lyrics of poet Ogden Nash. Performed at the Norwich Theatre Royal on Thursday 31 March, the cast includes Karen Coker as Venus, the statue of the goddess awakened from her 3,000-year sleep by the downtown barber Rodney Hatch, played by Los Angeles-born Loren Geeting. Ron Li-Paz is the wealthy New York art collector Whitelaw Savory who is obsessed with Venus and New Yorker Christianne Tisdale is cast in the role of Molly, his spiky secretary. Christianne is the first to admit, she wasn't sorry to leave the world of opera for a life in musical theatre.
"I worked in 'proper opera' until I was 30, but it wasn't for me and I wasn't for it and we happily parted company. I don't think opera wept when I left. Within two years I was working in a Broadway show and I haven't had to do anything else," she said. "What's nice is that I have what I call the loud training, so I can work with opera companies in a musical theatre way and still be heard." After studying music theory at Yale and earning her masters at the Manhattan School Of Music, Christianne has had to change the way she sings for roles in theatre. "I had to alter my operatic training greatly," she said. "I sounded far too posh for about a year and had to get rid of what I call the opera twinge. But that's what so great about the UK opera singers in this production – they can switch styles in a heartbeat. "One Touch Of Venus is a piece of musical theatre, not an opera. Kurt Weill has written it in a Broadway style so it's sung in a Broadway style. Weill is a brilliant mimic, a brilliant composer, it's his music but he has fun with it. "It's a definite valentine to the 1940s. It's done to a '40s style and the Opera North orchestra takes on a great big band sound at times," she added. This Broadway show lightly satirizes American suburban values, artistic fads and modern sexual attitudes - but it also has deeper moments, typified with the ballad Speak Low. Other famous songs include I'm A Stranger Here Myself and West Wind, both of which have become popular cabaret pieces.
 | | Christianne Tisdale as Molly |
The tour of One Touch Of Venus is proving popular with audiences and Christianne is enjoying life on the road around Great Britain. "The show is fun because it's smart, because it's got a lot of heart and because it's an adventure. I'm out of my own country, working in a different many theatres and my colleagues are delicious," she said. "If you're scared of opera, come see this – it's a great introduction to Opera North, but I must admit that Thieving Magpie is also amazing. Opera North go at it from another direction, they don't dumb it down, but they make it so accessible." Despite her passion for musical theatre, the call of opera remains in Christianne's life. "I'd still love to play Musetta from La Bohème and Sophie in Der Rosen Kavalier. I've played Musetta before and her person suits me. Sophie in Rosen Kavalier suits me vocally," she said. Opera North perform three works at Norwich Theatre Royal between Wednesday 30 March and Saturday 2 April, 2005. For ticket information call 01603 630000. | 
