Alice's Adventures Under Ground, Royal Opera House

As if life for Alice under ground were not mad enough, here comes an opera in which all the familiar characters charge through a single crazy hour.

Alice's Adventures Under Ground by Gerald Barry condenses most of Lewis Carroll's storylines, many performers singing several different roles.

As the composer told Culture Whisper: 'You’ll get Alice falling down down down under ground at the beginning, the White Rabbit, singing bottles and cakes, the Duchess throwing the baby around, baby choruses, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, the Dormouse, the Knave of Hearts and his stealing the tarts, a cookery section on the making of tarts, the Red Queen’s Piano and Croquet Masterclasses delivered in German, French and English (my own invention!), the March Hare and the song Beautiful Soup....

Claudia Boyle shares the role of Alice with Jennifer France. Photo: Frances Marshall

'... a performance of the poem Jabberwocky in Russian, the chess board landscape, Alice running at high speed with the Red Queen, the train trip, The Wood of No Names, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Humpty Dumpty of course, the White Queen flying, the fight between the Red and White Knights, discussions of addition, subtraction, division, lightning, thunder and the killing of the Red Queen.'

No shortage of action, in short. And the cast represents the cream of British singing: in the title role, Claudia Boyle and Jennifer France, alternating performances, plus tenor Nicky Spence as the White King and Mad Hatter, bass-baritone Stephen Richardson as the White Knight, Cheshire Cat and Mock Turtle, and many, many more.

Tenor Nicky Spence portrays the White King and Mad Hatter. Photo: Raphaelle

Antony McDonald, director of the ROH Hansel and Gretel, designs and directs. This first staging of the opera, previously heard in concert version only, promises to be spectacular.

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Alice's Adventures Under Ground is sung in English with English surtitles. It is a co-production with Irish National Opera. Performances are on: 4 Feb and 6 Feb (7PM, 9.15PM); 8 Feb (11:30AM, 1:45PM); 9 Feb (12PM, 2:15PM), with a schools matinee on 3 Feb.