The story of Sweeney Todd first appeared on the stage in London in 1847 at Britannia Theatre, Hoxton, in a melodrama, ‘The String of Pearls’, based on a popular “penny dreadful” serialised story. Now it returns to London’s East End in a new production at historic Wilton’s Music Hall – the only surviving Grand Music Hall in the world.
Theatres like the Britannia at that time had large permanently employed orchestras, and the first ‘Sweeney Todd’ would have been performed with a score of orchestral music.
Now Opera della Luna is restoring the musical element of story-telling with an orchestra of 10 musicians, and music penned by British opera composers of the Victorian age.
Advertising the show they say: ‘Come and be shocked, terrified, and amazed; and most important of all: hiss the villain, – the notorious Fiend of Fleet Street!’
Jeff Clarke, Artistic Director of Opera della Luna said: “‘Sweeney Todd’ had music when it was first performed, but all those scores have long been lost. When the Grecian Saloon (one of the many East End theatres that would have presented Sweeney) in City Road closed, its library of music went to the Drury Lane Archive now in the British Library. Although it contains the music for a number of melodramas, ‘Sweeney Todd’ has not survived.
“Both the Grecian Theatre and the Britannia Theatre in Hoxton, which commissioned the first stage version of ‘Sweeney’ permanently employed orchestras of 10-12 players. That is why we have commissioned a score for 10 musicians for our production.
“We have turned to theatre music of the period, or rather music by theatre composers of the period: Michael William Balfe who wrote many English Operas for Drury Lane, and Julius Benedict who was resident Musical Director at Drury Lane and wrote a number of orchestral scores. We are using themes from their works and integrating them into the production in the way that we see other music was used in melodramas of the time.”
Opera della Luna, founded in 1994, is a British touring theatre troupe of actor-singers focusing on comic works. Led by artistic director Jeff Clarke, it takes its name from Haydn’s operatic setting of Goldoni’s farce Il mondo della luna.
The company presents innovative, usually zany and irreverent, small-scale productions and adaptations of Gilbert and Sullivan, Offenbach and other comic opera and operetta, in English. OdL is a registered British charity.
Wilton’s Music Hall, Graces Alley, London E1 8JB from Tuesday 25 – Saturday 29 April. Times: Tuesday – Saturday at 7 30pm and Saturday at 2.30pm.
Admission: £17.00 – £32.00 (£14.50 – £29.50 concessions).
Booking: http://www.wiltons.org.uk/ – 020 7702 2789
