Libretto by Basil Hood, revised by Lynn Binstock
2012 is a year of celebration with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics.
It is also the 150th anniversary of composer Edward German’s birth and Opera South is producing MERRIE ENGLAND in celebration of all things English, playfully adapted for today’s audiences
As a celebration of all things English, MERRIE ENGLAND exhibits a fascination with the past seen in the work of English artists of all kinds. Writers inparticular, including H.G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, E. Nesbit, Lewis Carroll, C.S Lewis and Philip Pullman, have shared an interest in time travel and alternate universes. Perhaps this is because the past is constantly present in England, in layer after layer around us. In MERRIE ENGLAND (and on certain magical days) – with the help of rabbit holes, a tardis, a wardrobe, plus potent brews and imagination – time becomes porous. The opera also pays homage in many ways to A Midsummer Night’s Dream; we might have re-titled our 2012 version A May Day’s Dream.
This playful adaptation for modern audiences begins in 1953, with a May Day celebration of our current Queen’s coronation. Will the Windsor community welcome Jill, a recent Jamaican immigrant? Will Tom marry her in spite of his family’s objections? And what happens when a very odd chap shows up – apparently from late Victorian times – and wants to join in the fun and games?
But the time travel isn’t over yet: Sir Walter Raleigh and other famous Elizabethans also stumble into the 20th century on this marvellous day. They have their own problems with love, and a jealous Queen who wants to stretch the boundaries of her power. Can the great Queen Elizabeth I be tamed and our parted lovers be united? Only if we travel back in time and turn to Britain’s ancient legends….

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