Faust launches Wolverhampton Light House season

Wolverhampton's Light House Cinema is hosting a unique Music on Screen season from this month, featuring a selection of opera, ballet and music, including live performances from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

The season will begin with Charles-François Gounod's ever popular and grand opera Faust, live from the Royal Opera House.

Faust still remains one of the greatest operas of all time dating back to 1859.

It will be screened live from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on Wednesday, September 28, 2011, seats to be taken at 6.45pm for a 7pm start. Tickets cost £18 adult / £12.50 (under 15s). The running time will be 172 mins and there will be an interval of 30 minutes between Acts 3 and 4.

David McVicar's interpretation of Gounod's Faust brings back to life this historic 20th century opera. In this musical tale, Faust sells his soul to the demon Mephistopheles in return for youth and possesion of the beautiful and innocent Marguerite.

Evelino Pido conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House as it steers through memorable pieces such as Marguerite's Jewel Song, the instantly memorable Soldiers' Chorus or the impassioned climactic trio between Marguerite, Mephistopheles and Faust.

Complete with the Act IV ballet taking a bravura twist and the massive forces of the Royal Opera Chorus with a cast that includes Angela Gheorghiu and Vittorio Grigolo, this Faust brings together everything that made it a world-wide phenomenon.

Curator of the season Frank Challenger comments: "We are hoping this season will be as popular, if not even more so than the Live From the Met and Summer at Glyndebourne seasons we featured earlier in 2011. The Royal Opera House are constantly delivering world class opera to their audiences and we are glad to be able to showcase this for opera and music lovers in Wolverhampton and the wider region."

The rest of the Music on Screen season is:

Der Rosenkavalier

Monday 10 October, 6.15 / 6.30pm

Tickets: £18 adult / £12.50 (under 15s)

Renée Fleming leads a stellar cast as the Marschallin with Sophie Koch in a breeches role as her young lover, Octavian, in this romantic comedy set in Vienna during the reign of Empress Maria Theresa. The perfect libretto by Hogo von Hafmannsthal is matched by some of Strauss's most soaring, poignant, vivid and glorious music. Rejoicing in opulent orchestration and voluptuous melodies, as well as some insidiously catchy waltz tunes, Der Rosenkavalier shows Strauss's special attachment to the female voice.

Operavox (Animated Opera)

Thursday 27 October, 7pm

Tickets: £5.80 full / £4.40 conc

Not one, not two, but six operas in one programme! For the first time on the big screen see The Magic Flute, The Barber of Seville, Carmen, Das Rheingold, Turandot and Rigoletto in half-hour abridged adaptations. Six different directors were chosen to animate these condensed versions of some of the most famous operas. The intention was to bring opera to new, young audiences in a fresh and accessible way. This programme will appeal to those who are familiar with the reportory and those who want to try something new.

Tosca

Thursday 10 November, 7.15 / 7.30pm

Tickets: £18 adult / £12.50 (under 15s)

In Tosca, Puccini uses 'leitmotifs', à la Wagner, to denote characters, places, objects and ideas which produce a dramatic force that continues to facinate performers and audiences since the premier in 1900. The evocative orchestral introduction to the third act presages Britten's use of the Sea Intervals in Peter Grimes.

Sleeping Beauty

Thursday 15 December, 7.15/7.30pm

Tickets: £18 adult / £12.50 (under 15s)

First performed in January 1890, Sleeping Beauty is one of Tchaikovsky's finest compositions and is a perfectly preserved example of Imperial Russian ballet in Marius Petipa's original choreography. This revival is a reconstruction of the 1946 Sadler's Wells Ballet's production created to celebrate the Royal Ballet's 75 years. It has additional choreography by Frederick Ashton, Anthony Dowell and Christopher Wheeldon. Peter Farmer has realised Oliver Messel's original 40s designs.

Cendrillion

Thursday 12 January, 7.15/7.30pm

Tickets: £18 adult / £12.50 (under 15s)

Encore: Sunday 15 January 2012, 3/3.15pm Encore Tickets: £14.50 adult / £7.50 (under 15s) For the first time ever, The Royal Opera presents Jules Massenet's delightfully tuneful version of the Cinderella story, Cendrillon, first performed in Paris in 1899. The part of Prince Charming is another breeches role sung in this production by Alice Coote. The 18th century is echoed in witty pastiche of galant music. Humour is evident in other parts of this enchanting work which features a bright and wordly ballet, a series of entrees at the ball of princesses who fail to impress the prince and a 'spectral' dance where the Fairy Godmother (Eglise Gutierrez) tests Cendrillon (Joyce DiDonato) by keeping her apart from Prince Charming.

To book tickets contact Light House box office on 01902 716055, email info@light-house.co.uk or visit www.light-house.co.uk