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Dateline: 19th September, 2010
A New London Opera House Australian Adam Spreadbury-Maher, artistic director of the Cock Tavern Theatre which won the Empty Space... Peter Brook Awards' Dan Crawford Pub Theatre Award in 2009 and of OperaUpClose, and who was announced in March as the new artistic director of the King's Head Theatre (see our news story of the time), is to relaunch the King's Head as London's first new opera house for forty years. London’s first fringe venue, the King’s Head, opened in 1970 in the back room of a Victorian pub in Islington by American Dan Crawford, was the first pub theatre in England since the days of Shakespeare. "This (the new development) marks an end to the distinguished Crawford family artistic leadership and the start of the next phase in the King’s Head’s great history," Spreadbury-Maher said. "The King’s Head, as London's Little Opera House, will be an alternative to ENO and Covent Garden, and will create a new generation of audiences, composers and performers." His OperaUpClose production of La Bohème, which opened at the Cock Tavern and is currently playing at the Soho Theatre, is an example of his aim of presenting "new, challenging and classic operas in intimate spaces using young world-class trained singers and directors". He formed the company "to bring opera to life for new audiences, and to offer the extraordinary opportunity to experience the dramatic and musical event of opera up close." Jonathan Miller, one of the world's leading opera directors, has agreed to as Patron and will also direct productions at the 120-seat venue. Playwright Mark Ravenhill has been appointed Associate Director, and will write and direct two operas there in 2011. The venue will produce a mixture of reimagined opera classics and showcase new operas and musicals in late night experimental slots. The opening production is The Barber of Seville (or Salisbury), which runs from Wednesday 6th October to Saturday 13th November. Other projects will include a new version of Madam Butterfly and two UK premieres of Phillip Glass operas. The Barber of Seville (or Salisbury) transports Rossini’s The Barber of Seville to Jane Austen’s England, a world of rich, eligible bachelors, feisty heroines and snobbish relations. Obsequious Doctor Bartleby has designs on his ward Rosina, but she is far more interested in the attentions of a handsome stranger (actually a womanising Count in disguise). The whole affair is stage-managed by Figaro, the barber who knows everyone’s business and can fix your hair and love life with ease.
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