Pegasus Opera Company In Association With Hagemann Rosenthal Associates Presents THE ASPERN PAPERS

Hagemann Rosenthal Associates has announced their first full opera composed by Philip Hagemann in association with Pegasus Opera Company. The Aspern Papers will be staged at Susie Sainsbury Theatre, Royal Academy of Music, Marylebone Road London, NW1 5HT on Friday 22 April at 7:30pm, Saturday 23 April, 7:30pm & Sunday 24 April, 2:30pm.

The Aspern Papers is a novella by American writer Henry James, originally published in 1888. One of James' best-known and most acclaimed longer tales, The Aspern Papers is based on the letters Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote to Mary Shelley's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, who saved them until she died. Set in Venice, The Aspern Papers demonstrates James's ability to generate suspense and the development of his characters. Philip Hagemann composed The Aspern Papers first as a one-act opera in 1980 and then revised it in 1988, where it was premiered at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. One of the operas curiosities is that Dominick Argento's opera, The Aspern Papers, also based on James' novella, premiered on the same night of 11 November, 1988 in Dallas, Texas.

The opera opens in Venice in 1888 and recounts the story of Henry Jonson, an American scholar, who goes to Venice to attempt to retrieve the papers of the early 1800s poet Jeffrey Aspern from Aspern's last lover, Juliana Bordereau, also an American, who has lived in Venice all of her adult life and who is now very old. Henry seduces Juliana's niece, Tina, in order to access these papers. His deception leads to dramatic confrontations and more drama than he anticipated. Hagemann's music heightens the drama and the characters to fully render James's powerful narrative.

Composer Philip Hagemann's most recent production in association with Pegasus Opera Company was the successful double bill Passion, Poison and Petrification and The Prodigal Son in 2021 and Shaw Goes Wilde in 2019 both at the Susie Sainsbury Theatre, Royal Academy of Music. He also composed Ruth and The Dark Lady of The Sonnets at the Actors Church, Covent Garden in 2018. Hagemann has published 75 choral compositions including a delightful Christmas novelty, Fruitcake, written with Penny Leka Knapp, which has sold over 200,000 copies and featured in the USA television series Nip/Tuck. Hagemann has composed ten one-act and two full-length operas, two of which have won competitions from the National Opera Association in the USA. Hagemann is only the second composer to transform Shaw plays into operas. Hagemann Rosenthal Associates have produced a number of plays on Broadway and in the West End, including the Broadway production of Network starring Bryan Cranston.

The Aspern Papers stars Jacob Bettinelli, a bass baritone originally from Hong Kong. He won third place in the Piemonte Opera Voci dal Mondo International Singing Competition in Italy; Lauren Easton, an Australian/Mauritian mezzo soprano who started her career 10 years ago at Glyndebourne Festival plus Melody Compton, Oscar Castellino, Monwabisi Lindi and Julia Daramy-Williams.

Artistic Director of Pegasus Opera Company and renowned soprano soloist Alison Buchanan plays Tina. She is the winner of many prestigious awards including the Kathleen Ferrier (Decca Prize), the Luciano Pavarotti, the Washington International and the Maggie Teyte competitions. Alison has performed with New York City Opera in Porgy & Bess and Don Giovanni. She has performed in venues throughout the world including Carnegie Hall, The Sydney Opera House, The Royal Opera House, Sadler's Wells for Pegasus Opera and for the London Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed with The Baltimore and Boston Symphonies as well as the Philadelphia Orchestra and in Brazil with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and has given concerts in St. Louis, Washington DC, Gibraltar, Zimbabwe and Kazan. She has worked with conductors such as David Robertson, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Simon Rattle, Andre Previn, Jane Glover and Marin Alsop. Most recently she performed for Opera Bergen in Norway and for the Symphony in Wroclaw Poland.

Pegasus Opera Company is a professional opera company based in Brixton, London with a family of widespread International Artists, participants and supporters. They produce high-quality performances and balance this with a focus on artist development of emerging artists of African and Asian heritage bringing their work onto eminent platforms. For almost thirty years, Pegasus Opera Company has been the go-to organisation for opera and musical theatre singers, composers, instrumentalists and directors predominantly, but not exclusively, from diverse African, Caribbean, and Asian backgrounds. Established in South London the Company has held true to their founder Lloyd Newton's credo of 'harmony in diversity'. Pegasus Opera has inspired many to love opera; and celebrate the music of rich African, Asian and Caribbean diasporas whilst weaving into the fabric of the British performing arts, using creativity to challenge and advocate for positive change. Patrons of Pegasus Opera are Sharon D Clarke MBE, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa DBE, Baroness Doreen Lawrence OBE, Kristin Lewis, Chuka Umunna MP and Roderick Williams OBE. The company also creates opportunities for underrepresented artists and breaks down the perception that opera is elitist.

Past productions include Carmen, Magic Flute, I Pagliacci on National Tours, Porgy and Bess at the Barbican Concert Hall, Delius' Koanga at London's Sadler's Wells and Treemonisha at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre and UK tour. In 2018 Pegasus Opera collaborated with Hagemann Rosenthal Associates to present their first double bill, Ruth and The Dark Lady of the Sonnets and in 2019 their second double bill Shaw Goes Wilde based on Oscar Wilde's The Nightingale and The Rose and George Bernard Shaw's The Music Cure. Most recently the company staged MAMI WATA to a sold out audience at the Royal Opera House.

Pegasus Opera delivers pioneering educational programmes through special workshops, outreach programmes and teaches thousands of children and young adults across London and the regions. The company has also launched an opera mentoring programme for the next generation of opera singers. Pegasus has commissioned Des Oliver with librettist Patricia Cumber to write Windrush the Opera which will tour England in 2023 marking the 75th anniversary of the Windrush generation.

BOOK HERE: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/pegasus-opera-company/e-kxyrog.

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