John Lewis Opera
The John Lewis Music Society is an amateur society organised by employees ('partners') of the John Lewis Partnership retail business. A major part of the Society's activities from 1947 until 1991 was the production each year of an opera.[1] [2] The annual John Lewis Operas became notable for the rare and unusual works that were chosen,[3] and merited an entry in the 1964 and 1979 editions of the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera.[3]
The Society gave the first stage performances in England of a number of works. The first of these was Dvořák’s Rusalka in 1950, and the last was Tutti in Maschera by Carlo Pedrotti in 1991.[1] These performances allowed audiences to see operas, performed to a high artistic standard, that were not in the repertoire of the country's professional companies.[1] [2] The Times commented in 1950: "It is left to amateurs to stage for us those operas by composers however eminent which do not get into the international repertory".[4]
The early performances took place in the restaurant of the Peter Jones department store in Sloane Square, but in 1960 they moved to an auditorium in the rebuilt John Lewis store in Oxford Street.[1] [2] To inaugurate the venue the society had organised a competition in 1957 for a newly-written full-length opera suitable for an amateur production.[5] [6] The winner was The Tunnel by Hugo Cole, and the piece was given its premiere in the new auditorium in 1960.[7]
The Oxford St. store was the venue for productions until 1988, when the auditorium was closed. Performances were subsequently given in 1989[8] and 1991[9] at the Britten Theatre of the Royal College of Music, but then ceased.[1]
List of productions
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Terry Jenkins: "Never knowingly undersung", Opera, Vol. 73, No. 10 (October 2022), pp. 1219-22.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Caroline Dilke: "The Partnership's Opera", The JLP Gazette, 26 October 1985, pp. 910-914.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Harold D Rosenthal: Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera (Oxford, OUP, 1979), p. 249.
- ↑ The Times, 12 May 1950, p. 8.
- ↑ Daily Mail, 10 December 1957, p. 3.
- ↑ The Times, 11 December 1957, p. 3.
- ↑ The Times, 25 October 1960, p. 14.
- ↑ Arthur Jacobs: "The Beggar Student", Opera, Vol. 40, No. 7 (July 1989). pp. 876-7.
- ↑ Julian Budden: "Tutti in Maschera", Opera, Vol. 42, No. 7 (July 1991). pp. 848-9.
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