Murray Rosenthal of Pegasus Opera Company discusses Roman Fever
Philip Hagemann is an American composer of a dozen operas and 75 additional choral works. He is best known in the UK for his operatic adaptations of the works of George Bernard Shaw, having set The Music Cure, The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, The Six of Calais and Passion, Poison and Petrification to music. In the UK, Hagemann’s music takes the stage in partnership with UK based Pegasus Opera and his associate, Murray Rosenthal.
Rosenthal is the former Dental Director for New York City. ‘I enjoyed being a dentist but my brother was an actor, over in Hollywood’, Rosenthal tells us over Zoom earlier this month. ‘All of a sudden he was singing, and his best friend was Judy Garland!’ Despite never having been a performer, Rosenthal has always found roles for himself in the theatre. When his brother came home to New York from the west, he would sit in rehearsals and give him notes. Later, Rosenthal was president of the American charity Opera Index, which supports the development of young singers.
Hagemann-Rosenthal Associates and Pegasus Opera are bringing the UK debut of Hagemann’s 1989 adaptation of Edith Wharton’s Roman Fever to the stage at the Royal Academy of Music. It will premier in a double bill with twentieth century French composer Poulenc’s La voix humaine (The human voice). The former stars Pegasus Opera Artistic Director, Alison Buchanan and soprano Bernardine Pritchett as Grace Ansley and Alida Slade, two Manhattan widows. The jealousy between the two women breaks out and tensions rise, leading to shocking revelations of deceit and deception between the pair and their late husbands. Soprano Nadine Benjamin MBE, a former recipient of the prestigious Harewood Artists programme at ENO, who made her Royal Opera House debut in 2020, will sing the soprano role in La voix humaine. This is a fantastic opportunity to catch a singer at the top of her game, in such an intimate venue as the Susie Sainsbury Theatre.
Pegasus Opera Company was founded by the late tenor Lloyd Newton, who performed with companies such as ENO and Glyndebourne under the name ‘Bernard Abervandana’. It continues to produce high quality opera; with a focus on engaging singers, instrumentalists and directors predominantly (but not exclusively) of diverse African and Asian heritage. After Lloyd’s death in 2017, Buchanan took over the reins and has co-produced a number of Hagemann operas with Hagemann-Rosenthal Associates.
It is an unlikely, transatlantic partnership but it works. Rosenthal met Buchanan singing at the Wexford Festival, and they hit it off straight away. ‘She is awesome in the way she engages an audience. She has that special something that great artists have. Judy Garland had that way of bringing the audience to you. Alison has the same ability.’
Rosenthal’s intention was for Pegasus Opera to stage Hagemann’s operatic works, whilst it secured itself in the wake of Newton’s passing – making sure that it could still engage singers and produce work as it found its way into the future. It has now nearly completed producing Hagemann’s back catalogue and last year the company was awarded status as a National Portfolio Organisation by Arts Council England, which will guarantee its funding for the next four years.
When asked what Rosenthal wants to see next, now that Hagemann’s work is nearing completion, he said ‘hopefully operas composed by composers of colour, asian, latino and black composers, and keep giving jobs to good singers. I love meeting these young people who are on the verge of having such amazing careers’. Fittingly, Pegasus Opera’s next project will be a tour of Windrush: The Journey, featuring a new opera commission by composer Des Oliver with libretto by Edson Burton. To his delight and faux disappointment, he tells us that ‘everytime we do an opera, I say ‘hey, let’s have this guy or this girl back – she’s fabulous’ it’s always ‘no, she’s busy, he’s busy, dammit, they’re all too successful’.
Toutes les femmes – ‘Roman Fever’ and ‘The Human Voice’ plays at the Royal Academy of Music 12-14 April. More information available here.
Windrush: The Journey Multiple venues 31 May – 28 June. Further information available here.
