Today : world première of 'Jack the Ripper' by Iain Bell in London (ENO)

Today, the English National Opera in London presents the world première of Jack the Ripper : The Women of Whitechapel, an opera composed by Iain Bell with a libretto by Emma Jenkins.

© Frances Marshall

It is the composer's fourth opera, after A Harlot's Progress (Vienna, October 2013), A Christmas Carol (Houston, December 2014), and In Parenthesis (Cardiff, May 2016).

A disadvantaged group of working-class women are drawn together in their determination to survive the murderous terror that stalks London's Whitechapel in 1888. Mary Kelly, who runs a doss house with her grandmother Maud, is teaching her daughter Iris to read and write to give her a chance to have a better life. But as the darkness descends and Mary watches the women in her life start to disappear, the community turn to her to find a way out of the labyrinth. (reproduced from the ENO website)

The cast includes soprano Claudia Boyle (Mary Kelly), soprano Josephine Barstow (Maud), soprano Janis Kelly (Polly Nichols), soprano Marie McLaughlin (Annie Chapman), soprano Susan Bullock (Liz Stride), soprano Lesley Garrett (Catherine Eddowes), baritone Alan Opie (The Pathologist), bass baritone Robert Hayward (Commissioner of Police) and tenor Nicky Spence (Sergeant Johnny Strong). Martyn Brabbins conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the English National Opera. Daniel Kramer directs.

The required orchestra is the following (reproduced from the Music Sales Classical website) :

- 2 flutes (doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (doubling English horn), 2 clarinets (doubling bass clarinet), 2 bassoons (doubling contrabassoon) ;
- 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, 1 tuba ;
- timpani, percussion, cymbalum, harp ;
- strings (12.10.8.6.4).

The opera is co-produced with Opera North.

New in my collection : programme books from Cardiff, Los Angeles and Long Beach

I have recently received a number of programme books from various opera theaters for performances (new productions or world premieres) of contemporary operas :

- Louis Andriessen : Theatre of the World, Los Angeles (Philharmonic), May 6, 2016 ;
- Iain Bell : In Parenthesis, Cardiff, Welsh National Opera, May 13, 2016 ;

- John Adams : The Death of Klinghoffer, Long Beach, March 16, 2014 ;
- Gavin Bryars : Marilyn Forever, Long Beach, March 21, 2015 (U.S. premiere) ;
- Stewart Copeland : Tell-Tale Heart, Long Beach, May 11, 2013 (U.S. premiere, double bill with Michael Gordon's Van Gogh) ;

- Philip Glass : Hydrogen Jukebox, Long Beach, May 30, 2015 ;
- David Lang : The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, Long Beach, June 22, 2014 ;
- Peter Lieberson : King Gesar, Long Beach, September 7, 2013 ;

 
- Gabriela Ortiz : Camelia la Tejana, Long Beach, March 24, 2013 ;
- Tobias Picker : Thérèse Raquin, Long Beach, January 24, 2015 ;
- Tobin Stokes : Fallujah, Long Beach, March 12, 2016.

I now have 430 programme books for contemporary operas. All scanned covers are available in this flickr folder.

Today : world première of Iain Bell's 'In Parenthesis' in Cardiff

Today, the Welsh National Opera presents the world première of Iain Bell's In Parenthesis, with a libretto by David Antrobus and Emma Jenkins after the epic poem by Welsh poet David Jones.

© Peter M Mayr

 
It is the composer's third opera after A Harlot's Progress (Vienna, 2013) and A Christmas Carol (Houston, 2014).

Private John Ball and his comrades in the Royal Welch Fusiliers are posted to the Somme. In Mametz Wood they enter a strange realm – outside of time, dream-like but deadly. Even here amongst the destruction, a fragile flowering of regeneration and re-birth can be found. (reproduced from the WNO website).

The cast includes tenor Andrew Bidlack (Private John Ball), baritone Peter Coleman-Wright (Bard of Brittannia / HQ Officer), soprano Alexandra Deshorties (Bard of Germania / Alice the Barmaid / The Queen of the Woods), baritone George Humphreus (Lieutenant Jenkins), baritone Marcus Farnsworth (Lance Corporal Lewis) and tenor Graham Clark (The Marne Sergeant). Carlo Rizzi conducts the WNO Chorus and Orchestra. David Pountney directs.

After performances in Cardiff at the Wales Millennium Centre, the opera will tour to Birmingham (June 10) and the Royal Opera House in London (June-July). The opera will be broadcast by BBC Radio 3 on July 2.

Today : world première of 'A Christmas Carol' by Iain Bell in Houston

Today, the new chamber opera composed by Iain Bell, A Christmas Carol, with a libretto by Simon Callow after Charles Dickens, will be performed in Houston.

The libretto is in fact based on the one-man version Dickens himself prepared for public readings and performed more than a 100 times.

Near the end of the workday on Christmas Eve, Scrooge, a penurious businessman, grudgingly gives his clerk Bob Cratchit the next day off for the holiday. When Scrooge returns home, he is visited by the ghost of his former partner, Jacob Marley, who died on Christmas Eve seven years previously. Marley wears a long, heavy chain and warns Scrooge that he faces the same fate unless he mends his selfish ways. Marley warns that Scrooge will be visited by three spirits. Scrooge is visited in turn by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come. At the end of the final visit, Scrooge implores the spirit to reverse his fate, promising to be a new man. (reproduced from Houston Grand Opera website)

The tenor Jay Hunter Morris will be the Narrator, accompanied by a 15-player chamber orchestra. Warren Jones conducts and Simon Callow directs. The opera will be performed at the Cullen Theater in the Wortham Theater Center.

It is Bell's second opera. His first, A Harlot's Progress, based on William Hogarth's engravings, was first performed in Vienna in October 2013.