Tim Benjamin

His Sorrowful Lamentation and Last Farewell to the World

An English estate, 1720: A young woman stumbles into a secret cellar, the faded trappings of past glory decaying all around. Who is she? Why does she collapse, exhausted, craving sleep? Her final moments have arrived. We hear her tale, of riches and love won and lost, and we learn the terrible truth of the price of her struggle to survive.

Silent Jack: His Sorrowful Lamentation and Last Farewell to the World is a one-act opera with a libretto by Anthony Peter and Tim Benjamin.

Silent Jack tells the story (very loosely based upon a historical character) of a woman, Amy Beddoes, born to a family that became wealthy thanks to the "spoils of war", who marries her childhood sweetheart ... but it all goes horribly wrong, thanks to the South Sea Bubble. She turns to highway robbery to survive, becoming a rare "highwaywoman" - but her survival becomes short-lived, in an intriguing twist. In this opera we hear her life story, told in a sequence of flashbacks in her final moments.

For production photos, reviews, and more, please see the Silent Jack page on the Radius Opera website.

“A death scene of rare power that is profoundly tragic and deeply credible”

— The Stage

Characters

• Silent Jack / Amy Beddoes (mezzo-soprano)