''Alice's Adventures Under Ground'' is a 2016 one-act

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

by Gerald Barry to his own

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

, based on

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

's 1865 children's book ''

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...

'' (the original manuscript of which had the title of ''Alice's Adventures Under Ground'') and its 1871 sequel ''

Alice Through the Looking-Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' is a novel published in December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford, Christ Church, University of Oxford. I ...

''. First performed in a concert staging at the

Walt Disney Concert Hall The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 23, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Av ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

on 22 November 2016 (a performance repeated with the same cast and conductor,

Thomas Adès Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès (born 1 March 1971) is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: ''The Tempest (opera), The T ...

, at the

Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London, England, and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings a ...

in London a few days later), it received its stage premiere at the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

on 3 February 2020. The staging was a joint production by the Royal Opera House, Irish National Opera and

Dutch National Opera The Dutch National Opera (DNO; formerly De Nederlandse Opera, now De Nationale Opera in Dutch) is a Dutch opera company based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its present home base is the Dutch National Opera & Ballet housed in the Stopera building, a m ...

, and was directed by

Antony McDonald Antony McDonald is a British opera and theatre designer and director. In 2013, McDonald won the Set Design Award at the International Opera Awards. He won the Golden Mask for best costume design in a musical production (Russia) for '' L'Enfant et ...

. The 54 roles in the opera are sung by a cast of seven.

Roles

Synopsis

The following synopsis is in accordance with the Royal Opera House production, 2020.Royal Opera House (2020b), p. /ref> The opera, which is in a single act and lasts for just under an hour, is a sequence of episodes or parts of episodes from both ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass''. It begins with Alice falling through the Rabbit Hole and meeting many of the characters of the first book, including the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Mock Turtle and the King, Queen and Knave of Hearts. Some of the poetry from the books also features, including "

Jabberwocky "Jabberwocky" is a Nonsense verse, nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll about the killing of a creature named "the Jabberwock". It was included in his 1871 novel ''Through the Looking-Glass'', the sequel to ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' ...

" which is sung in versions in

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

(to the tune of " It's a Long Way to Tipperary"), French and German. Moving to Looking Glass Land, Alice moves across the chessboard, meeting among others Humpty Dumpty and Tweedledum and Tweedledee, becoming a queen when she reaches the eighth square.

References

Notes

Sources

*Royal Opera House (2020a). Programme, ''Alice's Adventures Under Ground'' *Royal Opera house (2020b). Cast list, ''Alice's Adventures Under Ground'' {{Alice 2016 operas Operas Operas by Gerald Barry Music based on Alice in Wonderland English-language operas Opera world premieres at the Royal Opera House One-act operas