Great Gluck - and Mozart

We all know about the wooden horse, the face that launched a thousand ships '“ but what happened after the Trojan War?
Don Giovanni at the GrandDon Giovanni at the Grand
Don Giovanni at the Grand

The Olivier-award winning English Touring Opera propose to tell us – via Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride tomorrow night.

This isn’t one of your run of the mill, same old operas, where you go in knowing the villain is going to deflower his girlfriend, dump her and then return for their baby, leaving her to commit suicide.

Or knife her at a bull fight.

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Or dump her and then feel remorse when she dies of consumption.

Or… you get the picture.

Suffice it to say it’s great that Gluck, a composer who influenced Mozart and Wagner, manages to elbow Puccini, Tosca and Bizet aside – to get a look in with vampire-like villains and human sacrifice forming a bloodythirsty backdrop to this opera based on the aftermath of the Trojan War.

The opera tells the story of the reunion of Iphigenia and her brother in an eloquent heart wrenching masterpiece which is described by those in the know as one of the most refined and ‘perfect’ of operas.

It’s sung in French with subtitles.

Tickets cost £17 to £33 – and don’t forget the Student Stampede (£7 on the day of the performance).

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And if you book for this and Don Giovanni you save £5 per ticket in the stalls and dress circle. 7.30pm start for both.

If that doesn’t float your boat, or launch a thousand of them, the company presents the more mainstream Mozart’s Don Giovanni on Saturday (May 14), the ultimate anti-hero who charms and repels in equal measure.

Magnificent score – and a chilling (and far from stereotypical) conclusion.

Tickets are available from blackpoolgrand.co.uk or by calling 01253 
290190.