Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Will Todd Original commission by Opera Holland Park, based on designs by Leslie Travers

27 August

Belcombe Court, Bradford on Avon

Eleven-year-old Alice is jolted out of her daydreams when she meets a talking rabbit who insists she follow him to a mysterious Wonderland. In this fantastical place, Alice comes across a number of peculiar characters, including a relaxed caterpillar, a happy cat, a depressive hare, a white knight, a romantic duchess, a mad hatter and a sleepy dormouse. She learns that all is not well in Wonderland because a mysterious and very cross Queen of Hearts seems keen to chop off everybody’s heads…

Will Todd’s music is a wonderfully eclectic mix of jazz, musical theatre and opera –there’s the basso profondo Caterpillar’s rumbling Wonderland Blues, a coloratura diva’s Drink Me Bottle and a furiously flustered pantomime dame of a Queen of Hearts. Maggie Gottlieb’s witty libretto moulds Lewis Carroll’s original into an irresistible story that remains true to the spirit of the book – and like all good children’s stories, there’s lots for the adults to enjoy too!