Gothic Opera and Battersea Arts Centre Will Collaborate For MARIA DE RUDENZ By Gaetano Donizetti

This Halloween, Gothic Opera are presenting Maria de Rudenz, a spooky opera which premiered in Venice in 1838. It is a dark and brutal tale, described by the famous tenor Adolphe Nourrit as an "abominable butchery." Inspired by Matthew Gregory Lewis's quintessentially gothic novel The Monk, the opera tells a gory story of deceit, murder, betrayal, and resurrection from the dead, in which ultimately the female protagonist takes back her own narrative. The world famous Battersea Arts Centre, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, will form a suitably gothic backdrop for this intense and dramatic tale.

The conductor for Maria de Rudenz is Anna Castro Grinstein, a Britten Pears Young Artist who debuted at Opera Holland Park this summer in The Barber of Seville. She is working with Stage Director Lysanne van Overbeek, who has recently worked with IF Opera and English Touring Opera among others. Leon Haxby, the composer whose previous work for Gothic Opera was praised in Opera magazine for its "haunting magic" and "compassionate insight," has created a new chamber orchestration of the opera for six instruments.

This Halloween's exciting production follows on from Gothic Opera's critically-acclaimed revival of Der Vampyr this summer at the Grimeborn Festival, their production of Rip Van Winkle at Hoxton Hall in 2023, their double bill Le Loup-garou + Le dernier sorcier in 2022, and their 2021 UK premiere of Gounod's La Nonne sanglante, which won the Opera Production category at the Off-West End Awards.

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