Mansfield Park

Mansfield Park is a 2011 chamber opera in two acts by Jonathan Dove with a libretto by Alasdair Middleton based on the 1814 novel by Jane Austen. Initially composed for four handed piano, it has been set to music for 13 piece orchestral ensemble. It tells the story of poor relation Fanny Price, sent at age 10 to live with her uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, at his family estate, Mansfield Park. Performance history The opera was commissioned by the touring opera company Heritage Opera in 2008. The vocal score was finished in December 2010, the world premiere performance, directed by Michael McCaffery, followed on July 30, 2011 at Boughton House in Northamptonshire. The opera premiered in its initial version scored for four handed piano. It was accompanied by Paul Greenhalgh and Jonathan Ellis, under the musical direction of Chris Gill. The world premiere tour comprised mainly heritage venues in the northwest of England, and one performance at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston, East London, as part of the Grimeborn Festival. Royal Academy Opera gave two performances of the opera in May 2012, and Hampstead Garden Opera gave ten performances in a new production directed by Bruno Ravella in April 2013. In 2015 the opera received its American premiere in Baltimore, Maryland. It was performed by the Peabody Chamber Opera of the Peabody Institute at the Baltimore Theatre Project. Eileen Cornett served as music director, with Mark Streshinsky as artistic director. Johanna Kvam and Hanna Shin performed the score for four hands piano. The opera was given its Australian premiere in April 2016 at the Independent Theatre in Sydney in a production by opera company Operantics. The director was Joseph Restubog, pianists where Nathaniel Kong and Geena Cheung, conducted by Keiren Brandt-Sawdy.