Following last year’s successful run of Ruth and The Dark Lady of the Sonnet, Pegasus Opera Company have put together another opera double bill called Shaw Goes Wilde. The productions are based on Oscar Wilde’s The Nightingale and The Rose and George Bernard Shaw’s The Music Cure and will take place on Friday 12, Saturday 13 at 7.30pm and Sunday 14 April at 2.30pm at the new Susie Sainsbury Theatre, Royal Academy of Music, London, NW1 5HT.
The first act is The Nightingale and the Rose features themes of love and rejection. Oscar Wilde’s bittersweet production sees astudent who falls for a young maiden, who demands the student show his feelings by giving her a red rose. Unable to find one, a nightingale offers to make a red rose for him.
The show stars Alison Buchanan, award winning baritone Peter Brathwaite (Effigies of Wickedness at Gate Theatre), Oliver Brignall, Thomas Bennett, Angela Caesar (Caroline or Changeat Playhouse Theatre), Katie Grosslet, Amal Khalidi and Nick Morton. The second act is The Music Cure, a satirical comedy set in the 1900s, which sees Lord Reginald being investigated by Parliament for insider trading. This unwanted scrutiny makes the Lord depressed, so his beloved mother hires a famous, dynamic female concert pianist to cheer him up. This tale of love, desire and corruption is played out with outstanding, specially adapted music. The Music Cure stars Alison Buchanan, Peter Brathwaite and Oliver Brignall.
Both productions have been adapted by composer and conductor Philip Hagemann who first collaborated with Pegasus Opera Company in 2018.
Pegasus Opera Company was founded in 1992 by Lloyd Newton and is the home of multicultural opera. Alison Buchanan became the new Artistic Director in 2017 and the Patrons are Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Kristin Lewis and Chuka Umunna MP. Pegasus Opera has a long track record of staging high-quality productions with outstanding professional, whilst developing new audiences and presenting productions with which they can identify.
Past productions include Carmen, Magic Flute, I Pagliacci on National Tours, Porgy and Bess at the Barbican Concert Hall, Delius’ Koangaat London’s Sadler’s Wells and Treemonisha at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre and UK tour.
LISTINGS INFORMATION: Shaw Goes Wilde will be performed on Friday 12, Saturday 13 at 7.30pm and Sunday 14 April at 2.30pm. Susie Sainsbury Theatre, Royal Academy of Music, London, NW1 5HT. Tickets are £15, £25, £35, Box Office: 020 7873 7373 Website: tickets.ram.ac.uk @PegasusOpera www.pegasusoperacompany.org
