It’s another feast of theatre and opera coming up at Palace Cinema, with offerings from Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and the Royal Opera.
Audiences at screenings of the Globe Theatre’s previous plays, Henry V and Twelfth Night, are already aware that seeing a performance on the world’s most famous stage this way is as close to being there in person as possible. The productions are digitally captured in high-definition and broadcast in pristine digital cinema quality, with full 5.1 surround sound. The Globe season concludes with The Taming of the Shrew on Saturday July 20 and Sunday 21.
Shakespeare’s notorious battle of the sexes gives us one of theatre’s great screwball double-acts in the shape of Katherina and Petruchio – a couple hell-bent on confusing and outwitting each other right up to the play’s controversial conclusion. Director Toby Frow creates ‘a riotous mixture of verbal dexterity and slapstick’ in an exhilarating production that delighted audiences at the Globe. Katherina is played by Olivier Award-winning actress Samantha Spiro, who returns to the Globe as Lady Macbeth next season.
A completely different romance tale is La Donna del Lago, presented by The Royal Opera. The ultimate bel canto cast is assembled for this important yet rarely performed masterpiece. Based on Sir Walter Scott’s poem The Lady of the Lake, La Donna del Lago is the most romantic of Rossini’s Italian operas, with expansive ensembles and shimmering orchestration that generate an opulence seldom heard in the composer’s comic works.
In the hands of three of the leading bel canto voices of our time, Juan Diego Flórez (Count Almaviva in the Royal Opera’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Tonio in the Royal Opera’s La Fille du Régiment), Joyce DiDonato (who sang the title role in Cendrillon with the Royal Opera last season), and Colin Lee (Tonio in the 2012 revival of La Fille du Régiment), La Donna del Lago promises to be a musical revelation. Screening at Palace Byron Bay Cinema on Sunday July 21.
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre presents The Taming of the Shrew, Palace Byron Bay Cinema, Sat July 20 & Sun July 21, 1pm.
Royal Opera presents La Donna Del Lago, Palace Byron Bay Cinema, Sunday July 21, 1pm.
