Alice’s Adventures Under Ground: Royal Opera House

 

Alice’s Adventures Under Ground: Royal Opera House programme.

From the 2020 production of the one-act opera by Gerald Barry.

The opera lasts less than an hour, and the 54 parts are sung by a cast of only seven.

From the Opera House site:

Fun, furious, frantic, and utterly fantastic! The surreal world of Lewis Carroll’s Alice, both in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, is given an extra twist in Gerald Barry’s operatic treatment. At less than an hour for the whole opera, this short, sharp shot of mayhem is ideal as a family treat. Antony McDonald (of 2018/19’s Hansel and Gretel) directs and designs this new production – the first ever staging of this musically virtuoso opera – with more than a touch of the Victorian toy theatre. The Red Queen, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter: meet a kaleidoscope of colourful characters in this joyful, headlong rush into a world gone deliciously mad.

Five star review in the Guardian: Alice’s Adventures Under Ground review – brilliant in every surreal detail.

 

Alice’s Adventures Under Ground 1964

Alice’s Adventures Under Ground by Lewis Carroll

This edition published by University Microfilms Inc., Ann Arbor, Mi, 1964.

Hardback in original clear cover with slipcase. Really rather a pretty edition.

According to the British Library:

This manuscript – one of the British Library’s best – loved treasures – is the original version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, the pen-name of Charles Dodgson, an Oxford mathematician.

Dodgson was fond of children and became friends with Lorina, Alice and Edith Liddell, the young daughters of the Dean of his college, Christ Church. One summer’s day in 1862 he entertained them on a boat trip with a story of Alice’s adventures in a magical world entered through a rabbit-hole. The ten-year-old Alice was so entranced that she begged him to write it down for her. It took him some time to write out the tale – in a tiny, neat hand – and complete the 37 illustrations. Alice finally received the 90-page book, dedicated to ‘a dear child, in memory of a summer day’, in November 1864.

You can read the full text and see the pictures on their site.

This is the original version of the Mouse’s Tale:

…and this is the version in Wonderland:

Available in various editions on amazon, but I don’t see this particular one on there…

Bought in Quintos for a tenner. Bargain.