Details

A comedy behind the scenes featuring the man himself, Mr Charles Dickens and the final rehearsal of his rarely performed early work The Village Coquettes, an operatic burletta in two acts. In late December 1835 Charles Dickens and English composer John Hullah wrote a comic operetta entitled The Village Coquettes. Dickens was 23 and not yet the literary star that we now know him to be. Hullah was also 23 and a rising star of the music world. They began working on the piece - Hullah was inspired by the great work of the Italian opera and Dickens wanted to create an English drama where the characters would act and talk like everyday folk. The result was a critical disaster, being famously mauled by critic John Forster. However, within the piece lie the seeds of future greatness ? Dickens's superb characterisation, dialogue, and comedy. Hullah with his following Melodies and rollicking choruses. The Village Coquettes, a tale of country maidens seduced by slimy types from Town, of quarrels and evictions, and all with a happy ending, hit the stage in 1836. It was immediately eclipsed by the enormous success of The Pickwick Papers, closely followed by Oliver Twist, and Dickens's destiny as a novelist rather than a librettist was sealed. The libretto was published, but has never been widely known. Dickens and the Great Operatic Disaster takes us backstage to the final rehearsal and we see the bickering, the tension, the nerves, the rewriting...

Cast/Performers

David Owen Norris (piano)

Creatives/Company

Music: John Hullah
Producer: The Nuffield (in association with the University of Southampton Music Department)
Director: Russ Tunney