Dear Dickens Society members,
I’m delighted to announce that, in the year the
Society is staging its “Adapting Dickens” conference,
Retrospect Opera, a registered UK charity, is making a
recording of “Pickwick” (1889) by Sir Francis Burnand
and Edward Solomon. Though called an operetta in its
own day, this can now be recognised as the first great
Charles Dickens musical. Earlier musical theatre
versions of Dickens’s stories had been disjointed
spoken plays with incidental music added, but
“Pickwick” was essentially conceived in sung music
from beginning to end, by two of the luminaries of the
popular late Victorian stage. The famous
“misunderstanding” between Mr. Pickwick and Mrs.
Bardell is here elaborated in a series of sparkling
songs and duets, the general style being reminiscent
of Gilbert and Sullivan. Edward Solomon was indeed
widely considered to be Sullivan’s heir apparent (in
fact, sadly, he died at just 39).
This is a work guaranteed to please anyone who
enjoys the jolly side of Dickens, and it would also
teach very well on courses looking at Dickens and
adaptation or the intersections between Dickens and
the stage or Dickens and popular culture. Please do
read more about the project on the Retrospect website:
http://www.retrospectopera.org.uk/Pickwick.html
We are delighted that the acclaimed comic baritone,
Simon Butteriss, will be singing the role of the
immortal Mr. P:
http://www.simonbutteriss.com/home.html
Retrospect Opera has a crowdfunding scheme to raise
the necessary funds to make this recording with
professional musicians. Anyone who donates Ł25 or more
will get their name on the Retrospect website and a
copy of the recording, on CD, with accompanying
materials upon release, around the end of this year.
Anyone who donates Ł100 or more will additionally be
invited to the recording sessions in London this
September, and/or a semi-staged performance, also in
September. If this is something you believe in, please
do become a supporter – we are also trying to gauge
interest for possible future Dickensian projects. For
a list of existing supporters, including several
leading Dickens scholars, please see:
http://www.retrospectopera.org.uk/Pickwick_Supporters.html
Attached to this is a flyer for the project,
specifically designed for the Dickens Museum, but also
designed to serve as a general introduction to the
project. If there are people you can circulate this
to, or walls that you can display it on, please do so!
We’re extremely grateful to everyone who supports
us. I’m sure you all realise how difficult it is to
find funding for the arts nowadays.
Best wishes,
David Chandler
Retrospect Opera