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Photo by @kentontristram
Marcia Bellamy and Stephen Plaice were commissioned to create a new version of Franz Lehár’s ever popular operetta The Merry Widow for the Glyndebourne Festival in 2024.
This followed Marcia and Stephen’s highly successful adaptation of Offenbach’s Mesdames de la Halle – In the Market for Love, performed at Glyndebourne during the pandemic.
The new production of The Merry Widow is directed by Cal McCrystal, conducted by John Wilson, and designed by Gary McCann. The Glyndebourne Festival run of 17 performances opened on June 9, 2024 to popular and critical acclaim.
Press notices
‘There are genuinely funny moments throughout: many provided by Marcia Bellamy and Stephen Plaice’s scintillating libretto (happily both dialogue and sung text are delivered in English), to which McCrystal has added his own contributions.’
Barry Millington London Evening Standard
‘The new book and lyrics by Stephen Plaice and Marcia Bellamy are expertly crafted…and there is a huge amount to enjoy in this colourful and clever entertainment that stands right at the peak of the entire realm of operetta.
David Truslove Opera Today
It’s a slick, sophisticated staging with a witty, tailor-made English translation by Stephen Plaice and Marcia Bellamy…this Merry Widow is this summer’s unmissable treat.’
George Hall The Stage
‘The new English-language version by Stephen Plaice and Marcia Bellamy is great fun…Glyndebourne has here the makings of a classic.’
Jessica Duchen I News
‘The opera is sung in a new English version by Stephen Plaice and Marcia Bellamy…with added puns and double entendres by McCrystal… very slick and giving 120 per cent towards hitting everyfunny bone in the body. This audience loved it, which in the end is recommendation enough.’
Richard Fairman Financial Times
‘The work is presented in English — definitely a good idea — in a witty new translation by Stephen Plaice and Marcia Bellamy.’
Mark Pullinger Opera Now
‘…a production that is so lush it could have originated from Disney, supplemented by a new English libretto courtesy of Marcia Bellamy and Stephen Plaice…a lavish fin de siècle style triumph…this could well be a hit for Glyndebourne for years to come.’
Dominic Lowe Bachtrack
See the Glyndebourne website for further details. The new libretto is now available in book form at Parvenu Press and from the Glyndebourne Shop.
recent work
Set in a Parisian market, this hilarious one act operetta was commissioned by Glyndebourne for performance in the gardens throughout August 2020. Marcia collaborated with Stephen Plaice to produce the new version of Offenbach’s 1858 hit, directed by Stephen Langridge, calling it In the Market for Love or ‘Onions are Forever’.
Having previously worked with Stephen Plaice to produce Offenbach’s work in Bouffe!, Marcia was thrilled to be part of the creative team to bring Offenbach to Glyndebourne for the first time, as part of their artistic response to the challenges of COVID-19.
Here is an introduction to the occasion from Glyndebourne’s YouTube channel.
“Wittily reworked by Stephen Plaice…Mesdames de la Halle is an Offen-ready treat.”
The Observer
“There’s a thrown-together, on-the-hop feel to it – the set is clearly a raid on the company’s store house – but it’s a full staging, with first-rate singers and a small but polished…That’s several causes for celebration right there.”
The Guardian ****
“In the Market for Love is a slight, daft piece and the gamble of this “Covid” production by Stephen Langridge, with a new English libretto by Stephen Plaice, is that it pushes to the foreground the things that some of us might like to forget, at least for an hour: masks, visors, 1/2/3-metre rules, squirts of sanitiser.”
The Times ****
“With boisterous direction, and the whole cast romping cheerfully over Offenbach’s bouncy galops and flirtatious waltz songs, it’s surely the most fun any of us will have in the opera house for the foreseeable future, and a million times more helpful, right now, than the incoming tide of earnest new-music commissions about the trauma of lockdown.”
The Spectator
“Irrepressible energy, irreverent wit and a terrific ensemble performance bring some brightness into the prevailing gloom.”
The Stage ****
Photo by Agness Clark
In March 2024 Marcia returned to the lead role of Harriet in the musical String! for two sold out performances at the Grove Theatre Eastbourne.
With music by Tony Biggin, book by Stephen Plaice, and featuring narration from beloved television actor John Bowler, String! is a story woven from the lives of the people of Hailsham and its historic rope making industry.
Photo by Foteini Christofilopoulou
Marcia is a featured soloist in Orlando Gough’s recorded score for the startling and visceral new Staging Schiele by Shobana Jeyasingh, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and on tour in the UK. Named on the Guardian’s Top 4 Dance Choices for Autumn 2019. Listen to a sample.
Collaborating with Stephen Plaice on a new singing translation of Rachmaninov’s The Bells, Marcia set the new text for a sensational première by the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra and Guildhall Symphony Chorus, conducted by Dominic Wheeler September 27th, 2019. Previously published with an English text based on the Russian translation, the new text attempts to bring the libretto closer to Poe’s original poem to revitalise this important work in modern performance.
Marcia created the role of Cassie in Bloom Britannia, a new People’s Opera by Stephen Plaice and Orlando Gough for Barefoot Opera. The first act of the opera was performed at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill in April 2019 to great acclaim, with the full opera receiving three performances in October 2021.