Opera Scotland

Marx in London!

Tours by decade

2020s - 1 tour

2024 - Scottish Opera
Fully Staged with Orchestra

Tours by location

Music

Jonathan Dove (b 1959)

Text

Charles Hart

Source

Original idea by Jürgen Weber.

 

Premieres

First performance: Bonn (Theater Bonn), December 2018.

First Performance in UK: Glasgow (Theatre Royal), 13 February 2024.

First performance in Scotland: as above.

 

Background

Marx in London is a comic opera in two acts, lasting around 115 minutes.  The action takes place on a single day in 1871.  Marx is wrestling with constant financial difficulties, in which he is assisted by the much wealthier Friedrich Engels.  Meantime he faces issues with his wife Jenny, and daughter Tussi, and also her boyfriend Freddy.  He is also victim of the attentions of a spy.

 

Characters

Karl Marx (baritone)

Jenny Marx, his wife (soprano)

Tussi Marx, their daughter (soprano)

Freddy, Tussi's boyfriend (tenor)

Helene, the housekeeper (mezzo-soprano)

Friedrich Engels, Marx's friend (tenor)

Spy (tenor)

The Cast

Chief Inspector Littlejohn
 
Eleanor 'Tussi' Marx
 Karl and Jenny's youngest daughter, aged 16
Foreman
 
Franz
 a fellow socialist
Freddy
 a young man looking for his family, aged 18
Friedrich Engels
 Karl's best friend, aged 51
Helene Demuth
 the Marx family's housekeeper, aged 51
Jenny Marx
 Karl's wife of 28 years, aged 57
Karl Marx
 an (in)famous German socialist philosopher, aged 53
Melanzane
 a political theorist
Pawnbroker
 
Sergeant
 
Spy
 

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