Oscar Wilde opera to premiere next month
Florence Lockheart
Friday, January 19, 2024
The Duchess of Padua will be premiered by the Music Troupe at The Space Theatre in London before touring across the UK in March
Small-scale opera group The Music Troupe is set to premiere a new chamber opera based on Oscar Wilde’s play, The Duchess of Padua next month. After an initial run at The Space Theatre in London from 20 to 25 February the production will tour across the UK in March.
Written during the 1880s, The Duchess of Padua was the Irish poet’s second play and tells the tragic story of an earnest young man who falls for the wife of a cruel Duke. With music by Edward Lambert, who founded The Music Troupe in 2014, the Duchess of Padua is an ‘intimate Italian-style opera’ for four voices and piano duo.
The new production is directed by stage director, accompanist and librettist Fleur Snow. Currently staff director at Theater St Gallen in Switzerland, Snow has worked as an assistant director with UK opera houses and festivals including Opera Holland Park and Welsh National Opera.
The production will star soprano Ellie Neate in the role of Beatrice, Duchess of Padua, alongside mezzo-soprano Anna Elizabeth Cooper, tenor James Beddoe as the Duke of Padua and Henry Grant Kerswell as Count Moranzone. Alongside in-person performances, The Duchess of Padua will be livestreamed on 22 February at The Space Theatre website.
