Pimlico Opera
Pimlico Opera is an opera company and registered charity founded in 1987 by Wasfi Kani.
The company aims to use participation in opera to advance personal development , particularly with younger people and to engender a sense of community.
The most recent production from Pimlico Opera was Sweet Charity staged in HMP Bronzefield in November 2018. Olivier award-nominated actress Laura Pitt-Pulford played the leading role of Charity Hope Valentine.
01History
Though its focus today is solely in prisons and primary schools, Pimlico Opera was known for 19 years (1990-2008) as an Arts Council-funded small-scale touring company. In those years, repertoire included the Da Ponte trilogy, Cenerentola, Falstaff, Pagliacci, Turn of the Screw, Rigoletto, Gianni Schicchi and the company travelled from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Padstow in Cornwall. Pimlico Opera staged the European première of Shostakovich's musical comedy Cheryomushki at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith on 20 October 1994. A translation was commissioned David Pountney and composer Gerard McBurney to create a reduced orchestration. A documentary was made by the BBC "Another Bite of the Cherry".
02In prison
Pimlico Opera has been staging productions in prisons since 1991. In 1993, BBC Wales filmed the three-month process involved in putting on a show inside a prison. This was made into a documentary called Guys, Dolls and D-Wing that was aired on BBC2.
Prison projects since 1991:
1991: HMP Wormwood Scrubs Sweeney Todd
1992: HMP Wandsworth West Side Story
1993: HMP Wandsworth Guys & Dolls
1995: HMP Wandsworth West Side Story
1996: Mountjoy Prison Dublin West Side Story
1997: HMP Bullingdon, Oxfordshire West Side Story
1999: HMP Downview Threepenny Opera.
2001: HMP Winchester Threepenny Opera
2002: HMP Winchester West Side Story
2003: HMP Wormwood Scrubs Guys & Dolls
2004 HMP Ashwell, Leicestershire Assassins
2005: HMP Coldingley, Surrey Assassins
2006: HMP Bronzefield Middlesex Chicago
2007: HMP Wandsworth Les Miserables
2008: HMP Kingston Sweeney Todd (Project cancelled)
2009: HMP Wandsworth West Side Story
2010: HMP Wandsworth Carmen - The Musical
2012: HMP Erlestoke, Wiltshire Les Miserables
2013: HMP Erlestoke, Wiltshire West Side Story
2014: HMP Bronzefield Sister Act
2017: HMP High Down Les Miserables
2018: HMP Bronzefield Sweet Charity
03In primary schools
Every week of the school year, Pimlico Opera gives 2,000 primary children a half hour singing class. Schools are selected in which there is little or no music provision, with KS2 results below the national average and a high percentage of free school meals.
The project takes place in Hampshire, Surrey, Durham, Newcastle, and Nottingham.
Sources and credits
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