Murray Rosenthal of Pegasus Opera Firm discusses Roman Fever
Philip Hagemann is an American composer of a dozen operas and 75 further choral works. He’s finest identified within the UK for his operatic diversifications of the works of George Bernard Shaw, having set The Music Remedy, The Darkish Girl of the Sonnets, The Six of Calais and Ardour, Poison and Petrification to music. Within the UK, Hagemann’s music takes the stage in partnership with UK based mostly Pegasus Opera and his affiliate, Murray Rosenthal.
Rosenthal is the previous Dental Director for New York Metropolis. ‘I loved being a dentist however my brother was an actor, over in Hollywood’, Rosenthal tells us over Zoom earlier this month. ‘Swiftly he was singing, and his finest good friend was Judy Garland!’ Regardless of by no means having been a performer, Rosenthal has at all times discovered roles for himself within the theatre. When his brother got here residence to New York from the west, he would sit in rehearsals and provides him notes. Later, Rosenthal was president of the American charity Opera Index, which helps the event of younger singers.
Hagemann-Rosenthal Associates and Pegasus Opera are bringing the UK debut of Hagemann’s 1989 adaptation of Edith Wharton’s Roman Fever to the stage on the Royal Academy of Music. It is going to premier in a double invoice with twentieth century French composer Poulenc’s La voix humaine (The human voice). The previous stars Pegasus Opera Creative Director, Alison Buchanan and soprano Bernardine Pritchett as Grace Ansley and Alida Slade, two Manhattan widows. The jealousy between the 2 ladies breaks out and tensions rise, resulting in stunning revelations of deceit and deception between the pair and their late husbands. Soprano Nadine Benjamin MBE, a former recipient of the distinguished Harewood Artists programme at ENO, who made her Royal Opera Home debut in 2020, will sing the soprano position in La voix humaine. It is a implausible alternative to catch a singer on the prime of her recreation, in such an intimate venue because the Susie Sainsbury Theatre.
Pegasus Opera Firm was based by the late tenor Lloyd Newton, who carried out with firms akin to ENO and Glyndebourne below the title ‘Bernard Abervandana’. It continues to supply prime quality opera; with a concentrate on partaking singers, instrumentalists and administrators predominantly (however not solely) of numerous African and Asian heritage. After Lloyd’s demise in 2017, Buchanan took over the reins and has co-produced quite a few Hagemann operas with Hagemann-Rosenthal Associates.
It’s an unlikely, transatlantic partnership however it works. Rosenthal met Buchanan singing on the Wexford Pageant, and so they hit it off right away. ‘She is superior in the way in which she engages an viewers. She has that particular one thing that nice artists have. Judy Garland had that manner of bringing the viewers to you. Alison has the identical potential.’
Rosenthal’s intention was for Pegasus Opera to stage Hagemann’s operatic works, while it secured itself within the wake of Newton’s passing – ensuring that it may nonetheless have interaction singers and produce work because it discovered its manner into the long run. It has now almost accomplished producing Hagemann’s again catalogue and final 12 months the corporate was awarded standing as a Nationwide Portfolio Organisation by Arts Council England, which is able to assure its funding for the subsequent 4 years.
When requested what Rosenthal needs to see subsequent, now that Hagemann’s work is nearing completion, he stated ‘hopefully operas composed by composers of color, asian, latino and black composers, and hold giving jobs to good singers. I like assembly these younger people who find themselves on the verge of getting such wonderful careers’. Fittingly, Pegasus Opera’s subsequent venture might be a tour of Windrush: The Journey, that includes a brand new opera fee by composer Des Oliver with libretto by Edson Burton. To his delight and pretend disappointment, he tells us that ‘everytime we do an opera, I say ‘hey, let’s have this man or this lady again – she’s fabulous’ it’s at all times ‘no, she’s busy, he’s busy, dammit, they’re all too profitable’.
Toutes les femmes – ‘Roman Fever’ and ‘The Human Voice’ performs on the Royal Academy of Music 12-14 April. Extra data obtainable right here.
Windrush: The Journey A number of venues 31 Could – 28 June. Additional data obtainable right here.
