What the deuce? Sherlock Holmes opera debut

The famously brusque detective belting out an aria is perhaps not what Sherlock Holmes fans have come to expect.

From video games to radio plays to Hollywood blockbusters, the Victorian sleuth is one of the most portrayed literary characters in history.

This is the first time though that the quick-thinking but impatient detective will feature in an opera - so how will it work for both musical theatre and Sherlock Holmes fans?

"He loves the reveal, disguising himself and going under cover so I thought we could do something theatrically and musically quite thrilling with this," Northern Opera Group's artistic director David Ward told the BBC.

Sherlock Holmes and The Sign of the Four, a story of murder and stolen treasure, will debut at this year's Leeds Opera Festival and will be the first of its kind.

This ambitious project began after Mr Ward, from Hull, read all Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes books during lockdown as he had "a lot of time on his hands".

"We chose The Sign of the Four because it's also a love story and there are more female characters in it," he said.

"There are some great set pieces in it too... wonderful moments and a great all-round evening of entertainment."

Rehearsals are in full swing at Leeds Beckett University, ahead of the 28 August opening night.

A sneak peek included seeing one of the most dramatic scenes of the story unfold - a frenzied boat chase down the River Thames.

A tense-looking Sherlock was accompanied with singing dialogue - known in operatic terms as recitative - and an orchestra.

It was quite unusual.

"Opera often struggles to tell these faster paced, action-driven stories and we wanted to show that we can do it," Mr Ward added.

The staging has been sourced from charity shops, Facebook Market Place and antique fairs, Mr Ward said, and Northern Opera Group has stayed faithful to the original "good old-fashioned Victorian detective caper".

The cast is small but strong, including bass Ed Hawkins - an "imposing" former trumpeter as Sherlock - and Scottish soprano Katy Thomson as Mrs Hudson, who could be heard practising in the toilets as the "acoustics in there are so good".

Though Mr Ward, 35, hopes it will be taken seriously by sceptical opera lovers, he was also keen to point out that "at the forefront, it's entertainment".

He added: "Some new opera can be a bit of an intellectual exercise and that's absolutely not what I am interested in.

"There's drama and humour in this and some great moments people will recognise. Sherlock has such wide, unlimited appeal, we're just using opera to tell his story in a slightly different way."

The production's composer and librettist Lliam Paterson was approached by Northern Opera after it saw his "wonderfully dramatic" previous work.

Originally from Aberdeen, one of the 33-year-old's biggest challenges was finding the right musical language to tell the story.

"The music is very rhythmical with repeating sections and themes we obsessively return to - to mirror how Sherlock's mind works," he said.

Mr Paterson explained one of his rules was to try to stick as closely as possible to the original Conan Doyle dialogue and not borrow from TV or film productions.

But after reading The Sign of the Four "many, many times", he realised he had to think about adapting it slightly.

"I modernised some of the language because it would be too difficult for the cast to sing in such antiquated phraseology - and for the audience to understand it," he said.

Mr Paterson uses the text from the book and his own added dialogue, but has kept all well-known phrases such as "what the deuce?".

"People should come and see it because opera brings something different - you can have all the action unfolding but you can see the interior worlds of the characters - a very unique way of bringing Sherlock to life.

"And lots of big dramatic solos to enjoy from Sherlock and Watson," he added.

Sherlock Holmes and The Sign of the Four runs from 28 to 31 August at Leeds School of Arts.

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