Pimlico Opera is an opera company and registered charity founded in 1987 by Wasfi Kani.[1][2]
The company aims to use participation in opera to advance personal development–particularly with younger people and to engender a sense of community.[3][4][5]
The most recent production from Pimlico Opera was Sweet Charity staged in HMP Bronzefield in November 2018. Olivier award-nominated actress Laura Pitt-Pulford[6] played the leading role of Charity Hope Valentine.[7]
History
Though its focus today is solely in prisons and primary schools, Pimlico Opera was known for 19 years (1990-2008) as an Arts Council-funded small-scale touring company.[citation needed] In those years, repertoire included the Da Ponte trilogy, Cenerentola, Falstaff, Pagliacci, Turn of the Screw, Rigoletto, Gianni Schicchi and the company travelled from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Padstow in Cornwall.[citation needed]
Pimlico Opera staged the European première of Shostakovich's musical comedy Cheryomushki at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith on 20 October 1994. A translation was commissioned David Pountney and composer Gerard McBurney to create a reduced orchestration. A documentary was made by the BBC "Another Bite of the Cherry".[8]
In prison
Pimlico Opera has been staging productions in prisons since 1991.[9] In 1993, BBC Wales filmed the three-month process involved in putting on a show inside a prison. This was made into a documentary called Guys, Dolls and D-Wing that was aired on BBC2.[10]
Every week of the school year, Pimlico Opera gives 2,000 primary children a half hour singing class. Schools are selected in which there is little or no music provision, with KS2 results below the national average and a high percentage of free school meals.[23]
The project takes place in Hampshire, Surrey, Durham, Newcastle, and Nottingham.[24]
Chapman, Jeremy (Fall–Winter 2013). "A place for them: Pimlico Opera takes Sondheim shows (and others) to British prisons". The Sondheim Review. Vol.20, no.1. pp.28–30.