Broomhill Opera runs Wilton's Music Hall in London's East End - aiming to bring the best to the most, to the East End and further afield. The company moved into the semi-derelict Wilton's Music Hall two years ago and is the driving force behind the theatre's restoration and revival after years of neglect. Wilton's is a critical building in cultural and heritage terms (Grade II* Listed). It is the world's oldest surviving Grand Music Hall, and a unique example from the heyday of that Victorian populist art form.

When Broomhill took over, there was no heating, electricity, security or bathrooms. Windows were broken, the basement was flooded, the roof leaked, floors were dangerous and the space was filthy with years of accumulated rubbish. Wilton's had been largely boarded up since the 1960's - except for a remarkable performance of TS Eliot's The Wasteland by Fiona Shaw, directed by Deborah Warner, and had all but disappeared from public consciousness. Since re-opening the theatre in 1999 (following an intense drive to prepare it for public performance in only two months), the company has raised and invested over £450,000 on the building.

Broomhill Opera receives no public arts funding for its work at Wilton's but significant supporters include BP, amongst others. Capital funds from the Single Regeneration Budget through Cityside Regeneration, awarded in 1999, helped Broomhill begin the process of restoration.

Since its reopening in 1999, Wilton's has produced Kurt Weill's The Silverlake, directed by Gordon Anderson, conducted by Charles Hazlewood and translated by Rory Bremner. Then followed The Beggar's Opera conducted by Charles Hazlewood, scored by Jonathan Lloyd, directed by Jonathan Miller. Simon Callow recreated his original National Theatre one-man show of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. 2000 saw a chilling Turn of the Screw, conducted by Charles Hazlewood and directed by Elijah Moshinsky and a strange and wonderful modern children's opera The Wondrous Tale of Fanferlizzy Sunnyfeet, by Kurt Schwertsik, conducted by Charles Peebles and directed by Netia Jones. May to July last year saw the first UK performances of the South African YIIMIMANGALISO The Mysteries, and Carmen, in a new translation by Rory Bremner, with Xhosa dialogue.

The cast for YIIMIMANGALISO The Mysteries come from every background, every community and every circumstance. Over 1500 people from all over South Africa were auditioned by SAAPA - the South African Academy of Performing Arts, the training organisation set up by Mark Dornford-May and Charles Hazlewood as a result of their work in South Africa.

UPCOMING EVENTS INCLUDE:-
April: THE INLAND SEA by Naomi Wallace, directed by Dominic Dromgoole. The Oxford Stage Company are bringing their production of this world premiere to Wilton's in April 2002. In the early 19th Century, Capability Brown set out to re.dream the English countryside.
Inquiries: info@oxfordstage.co.uk or call 01865-723-238

THE BEGGAR’S OPERA, directed by Mark Dornford-.May. The Mysteries company will return to Wilton's Music Hall (dates TBC) with a new South African version of THE BEGGAR'S OPERA, set in maritime Cape Town in the 1700s. YIIMIMANGALISO The Mysteries is touring internationally in 2002/3, with the same company's CARMEN.

E-mail Wilton's at opera@broomhill.demon.co.uk with name and postal address to join the mailing list or call 020-7702-9555

latest revision in this section:-
Saturday 6th April 2002

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