RED SQUIRREL Opera Company Launches to Champion Unknown and Neglected Works

A new opera company, called Red Squirrel, has been launched to champion unknown and neglected works, Gramophone reports. The company was launched by Conductor John Andrews, and its first production will be The Dancing Master, which premieres at the 2021 Buxton International Festival.

"There is such a wealth of wonderful repertoire lying buried in libraries and archives that comes immediately alive on stage," said Andrews. "It is tragic not to see these gems performed, and this company will bring them to the widest possible audience in collaboration with festivals and theatres."

The name of the company itself pays homage to its mission - "endangered, digging up long-buried morsels," Andrews says.

The company aims to co-produce one staged project and one recording each year, researching and uncovering mainly English-language theatre works from the 18th - 20th Centuries from composers such as Thomas Arne, Arthur Sullivan, Malcolm Arnold, Malcolm Williamson, John Joubert and Lennox Berkeley.

The Dancing Master opens at Buxton International Festival on July 9, 2021 and runs until July 22.

Read more on Gramophone.