Pimlico Opera
Pimlico Opera aims to build confidence through music education and performance. Today it works in prisons and in primary schools nationwide.
The company was founded in 1987 by Wasfi Kani CBE and was originally a touring company.
In 1989 Pimlico Opera performed two operas in Wormwood Scrubs: Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Walton’s The Bear. The first joint production with prisoners took place a year later with people serving life sentences. Sweeney Todd was front page news in The Times and described as the”coup de théâtre of the year“.
In November 1992, the collaboration with Wandsworth Prison, Guys & Dolls, was the subject of a BBC2 documentary “Guys, Dolls & D wing” which was nominated for a BAFTA.
Since then more 60,000 members of the public have been taken into prison and more than 1,000 prisoners have been involved in a production. The company has given crucial first employment to prisoners on their release. Over 10,000 prisoners have seen a performance. Prison co-productions are listed below.
In 1994 Pimlico Opera staged the UK (and European) premiere of Shostakovich’ musical Cheryomushki in the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. Pimlico Opera commissioned David Pountney to write an English text, and composer Gerard McBurney to create a reduced orchestration. The BBC made a documentary on the project (Another Bite of the Cherry) which included footage from the 1963 Lenfilm version. In 1995 it was recorded for BBC Music Magazine (Volume 3, Number 80).
Pimlico Opera's Lengthy Sentence
1989 HMP Wormwood Scrubs Le Nozze di Figaro
& The Bear
1991 HMP Wormwood Scrubs Sweeney Todd
1992 HMP Wandsworth West Side Story
1993 HMP Wandsworth Guys & Dolls
1995 HMP Wandsworth West Side Story
1996 Mountjoy Prison, Ireland West Side Story
1997 HMP Bullingdon, Oxfordshire West Side Story
1999 HMP Downview, Surrey Threepenny Opera
2001 HMP Winchester Threepenny Opera
2002 HMP Winchester West Side Story
2003 HMP Wormwood Scrubs Guys & Dolls
2004 HMP Ashwell, Leicestershire Assassins
2005 HMP Coldingley, Surrey Assassins
2006 HMP Bronzefield, Chicago
2007 HMP Wandsworth Les Misérables
2008 HMP Kingston Sweeney Todd (project cancelled)
2009 HMP Wandsworth West Side Story
2010 HMP Wandsworth Carmen – The Musical
2011 HMP Send, Surrey Sugar
2012 HMP Erlestoke, Wiltshire Les Misérables
2013 HMP Erlestoke, Wiltshire West Side Story
2014 HMP Bronzefield Sister Act
2015 HMP ISIS Our House
2017 HMP High Down Les Misérables
2018 HMP Bronzefield Sweet Charity
2020 HMP Bronzefield Hairspray
2022 HMP Bronzefield Betty Blue Eyes