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        • Iain Bell

        • Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel (2019)

        • Chester Music Ltd (World)

        Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel was commissioned by English National Opera and Opera North. It premiered at London Coliseum on March 30, 2019 directed by ENO Artistic Director Daniel Kramer.
        Unavailable for performance.

        • 2+pic.2(ca).2(bcl).2+cbn/2221/timp.perc+cimb/hp/str(12.10.8.6.4)
        • 2 hr 15 min
        • Emma Jenkins
        • English

        Programme Note

        BRIEF SYNOPSIS

        Mary and her grandmother Maud run a doss house in Whitechapel in London’s East End, where the poor gather for rest. Mary and doss house regulars Annie (wished-for mother to Mary), Catherine and Liz (who have been earning substantial money posing for a photographer) befriend Polly, recently thrown out by her husband. Following the murder and autopsy identification of one of their own, the women seek solace and distraction in the local pub. At closing, Polly wanders off into the street by herself looking for a customer. She is consumed by the darkness of the street, prey to an unknown killer.

        With a faceless, depraved murderer on the loose and an apathetic, corrupt police force indifferent to the women’s’ plight, hysteria, fear and speculation grip the streets of the East End. Our band of working friends start to suspect every man they meet as they struggle to survive in this forgotten corner of industrial London.

         

        CAST
        Mary Kelly - Dramatic coloratura soprano
        Maud - Dramatic soprano
        Polly Nichols - Soprano 
        Annie Chapman - Mezzo-soprano 
        Liz Stride - Soprano
        Catherine Eddowes - Soprano
        The Writer - Tenor
        Squibby - Baritone 
        The Pathologist - Baritone 
        The Commissioner of Police - Bass-baritone 
        Sergeant Johnny Strong - Tenor 
        The Photographer - Baritone 
        The Coroner - Baritone 
        Man in Crowd - Baritone 
        Magpie - (non-singing) a girl, 10-12 years old

        Media

        Reviews

        An impressive achievement.
        Barry Millington, The Evening Standard
        1st April 2019
        Iain Bell's powerful new opera is dark and unsettling ... The score is huge – and hugely varied. Iain Bell writes brilliantly for his singers and the wonderful ENO Orchestra.
        Ruth Hansford, Planet Hugill
        1st April 2019
        …Bell’s music (superbly conducted by Martyn Brabbins) is expertly crafted… It works up plenty of orchestral creepiness yet it is disarmingly sweet and lyrical in places. Indeed, some of the writing for the five victims and the women’s chorus has a Straussian opulence.
        Richard Morrison, The Times
        1st April 2019
        …Bell writes so fluently and lyrically for the voice and has a fine ear for orchestral sonorities (the cimbalom provides the frisson of spookiness). The music’s idiom is tonal and approachable, without sinking into pastiche…
        Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph
        1st April 2019
        …Bell is writing with thorough knowledge of each of his divas’ vocal strengths, something you rarely get in opera now.
        David Nice, The Arts Desk
        31st March 2019
        Bell is an experienced and accomplished composer whose last opera – ‘In Parenthesis’ – was successfully launched by Welsh National Opera in 2016. Like that piece, his new work demonstrates impeccable technical skills in all facets of operatic composition…
        George Hall, The Stage
        31st March 2019
        Bell’s score, conducted by Martyn Brabbins with exemplary fervour and played by an ENO Orchestra on rousing form, is packed with tonal ingenuity and makes an immediate impact
        Mark Valencia, Bachtrack
        31st March 2019
        An important addition to the operatic repertoire ... The opera opens with a quiet sustained string strain from which the music evolves, and from the outset there is a notable translucency of orchestral texture, which certainly aids the singers in getting their words across with point. Deft yet restrained use of percussion and the occasional highlighting of particular instruments, such as harp and oboe, lend distinctive colour, while some of the interludes allow the brass more opportunity … The string-writing, by dint of its airiness and tonal ambiguity, brings much of the tension and the atmosphere of an ever-present but indefinable menace.
        Alexander Campbell, Classical Source
        30th March 2019
        Iain Bell's colourful score is full of such references [echoes of Benjamin Britten], and the orchestration very fine. An eerie cimbalom rings through the dark streets, high strings represent the chances to escape to the light, and often very spare instrumentation reflects the barebones lives on stage. Big choruses and plaintive arias rise and fall, and a grim, realistic drinking story manages to steer well clear of 'Oom Pah Pah'; Oliver! casts a long shadow over musical depictions of Victorian poverty....
        Claudia Pritchard, Culture Whisper
        30th March 2019