Wuthering Heights (musical)
Encyclopedia
Bernard J. Taylor
's musical/operatic version of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights first appeared in 1992 as a studio recording featuring Lesley Garrett
, Dave Willetts
, Bonnie Langford
and other stars of Britain's West End stage. The show has since been translated into six languages from the original English and has been extensively staged in the UK, USA, The Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Romania, Australia and New Zealand. In 2008 a production was being planned in Budapest, Hungary, where Taylor's Much Ado received its European continental premiere in 2007.
The adaptation had the support of the Bronte Society at Haworth in Yorkshire, whose curator at the time, Dr. Juliet Barker
, wrote: "Various other attempts at adapting Wuthering Heights for the stage have been submitted to the Bronte Society in the past but Bernard Taylor's adaptation is the first that I have really approved of and would be prepared to support."
Mark Seaward, Editor of the Bronte Society's magazine, wrote: "Wuthering Heights is an intensely dramatic work, charged with emotion; it is not surprising that many dramatists, choreographers, lyricists and composers have been drawn to recreate it for stage and screen. There have been seven major films between 1920 and 1991 and in addition there has been a ballet (1982), and opera (1967) and numerous adaptations and plays, including several for television — and not forgetting Kate Bush’s song “Wuthering Heights” which topped the charts! Bernard J. Taylor’s work marks the first time that the true spirit and drama of Emily Brontë’s masterpiece has been captured in a musical."
The summer, 1992 edition of Show Music Magazine, USA, reported: "Bernard J. Taylor's big, sweepingly romantic score sustains a feeling of dark passion entirely appropriate for an adaptation of Emily Bronte's novel concerning the ill-fated love between Cathy and Heathcliff."
Bernard J. Taylor
Bernard J. Taylor is the writer and composer of ten stage musicals and two stage plays. His musicals have been produced around the world and translated into German, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian, Spanish and Italian. He is also the writer of 14 novels and three non-fiction books.Taylor was born and...
's musical/operatic version of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights first appeared in 1992 as a studio recording featuring Lesley Garrett
Lesley Garrett
Lesley Garrett CBE is an English musician, broadcaster and media personality.- Early life :Garrett was born in the town of Thorne near Doncaster in South Yorkshire, into a musical family. She attended Thorne Grammar School, where she performed in school plays and musicals. As she grew up she...
, Dave Willetts
Dave Willetts
Dave Willetts is an English singer and actor known for having leading roles in West End musicals.Willetts is something of an enigma in that he has had no formal singing, dancing, or acting lessons. Before he was 20 he rarely visited the theatre...
, Bonnie Langford
Bonnie Langford
Bonita Melody Lysette "Bonnie" Langford is an English actress, dancer and entertainer. She came to prominence as a child star in the early 1970s then she subsequently became a companion of Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy's Doctor Who and has appeared on stage in various musicals such as Peter Pan:...
and other stars of Britain's West End stage. The show has since been translated into six languages from the original English and has been extensively staged in the UK, USA, The Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Romania, Australia and New Zealand. In 2008 a production was being planned in Budapest, Hungary, where Taylor's Much Ado received its European continental premiere in 2007.
The adaptation had the support of the Bronte Society at Haworth in Yorkshire, whose curator at the time, Dr. Juliet Barker
Juliet Barker
Juliet R. V. Barker FRSL is a British historian, specialising in the Middle Ages and literary biography. She is the author of a number of well-regarded works on the Brontës, William Wordsworth, and medieval tournaments...
, wrote: "Various other attempts at adapting Wuthering Heights for the stage have been submitted to the Bronte Society in the past but Bernard Taylor's adaptation is the first that I have really approved of and would be prepared to support."
Mark Seaward, Editor of the Bronte Society's magazine, wrote: "Wuthering Heights is an intensely dramatic work, charged with emotion; it is not surprising that many dramatists, choreographers, lyricists and composers have been drawn to recreate it for stage and screen. There have been seven major films between 1920 and 1991 and in addition there has been a ballet (1982), and opera (1967) and numerous adaptations and plays, including several for television — and not forgetting Kate Bush’s song “Wuthering Heights” which topped the charts! Bernard J. Taylor’s work marks the first time that the true spirit and drama of Emily Brontë’s masterpiece has been captured in a musical."
The summer, 1992 edition of Show Music Magazine, USA, reported: "Bernard J. Taylor's big, sweepingly romantic score sustains a feeling of dark passion entirely appropriate for an adaptation of Emily Bronte's novel concerning the ill-fated love between Cathy and Heathcliff."