The Lodger is an opera in two acts composed by Phyllis Tate. The libretto is by David Franklin, after the 1913 novel of the same name by Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes.[1] The opera was commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music, and the premiere took place there on 16 July, 1960.
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The opera took three years to write, and the planning and libretto-writing took longer than the composing. Tate started with a synopsis, and after Franklin had turned it into a libretto, she acknowledged that "his great experience as a singer at Glyndebourne and Covent Garden has been of enormous help to me." Originally, the first scene would have lasted for eight hours, but "we managed to whittle it down so that the whole opera lasts a mere two and a quarter hours now."[2]
| Role[3] | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 16 July, 1960 (Conductor: Myers Foggin[4]) |
|---|---|---|
| George Bunting | bass | William McCue |
| Paper Boy | treble or tenor | |
| Emma Bunting | mezzo-soprano | Jean Evans |
| Policeman | bass-baritone | |
| Daisy | soprano | |
| Three cockneys | baritone, mezzo-soprano, bass | |
| The Lodger | high baritone | David Bowman |
| Joel Chandler | tenor | John Wakefield |
| Chorus (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, bass) | ||
Emma Bunting, a poverty-stricken landlady in Victorian London, takes in a gentlemanly lodger who gives financial help to her and her husband George. Slowly it emerges that the lodger is not what he seems, and his religious mania indicates mental and other problems. As the tension mounts and the atmosphere becomes more sinister, Emma agonises over whether to report him to the authorities. The lodger's identity is revealed as Jack the Ripper.[2]
After the premiere at the RAM, the opera was broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on 2 February, 1964, with Johanna Peters (Emma), Joseph Ward (the Lodger), Alexander Young (Joel Chandler), Owen Brannigan (George), conducted by Charles Groves.[5][6] The first professional performance took place on 10 March 1965 at the St Pancras Festival. The Royal Northern College of Music performed the opera in 1970.
Lewis Foreman describes the opera as dramatically effective, "with its fog-and-gaslight atmosphere, and a divided set showing two rooms simultaneously. All this is lightened by a series of jolly choruses and the idiosyncratic use of polkas and waltzes. It remains the composer's most considerable operatic achievement."[7]