Abigail stars as Nanny to a well received audience in Jamaica - Sept 2016
A roomful of opera lovers came out to 'Sacred Mountain' - Incidents in the life of Queen Nanny and the Maroons that took place at Vera Moody Concert Hall, Jamaica. The audience also came to meet composer Dr Shirley Thompson (recently enlisted as one of the 10 most influential Black people in Britain 2016) and soprano Abigail Kelly, UK-based classical musicians of the Jamaican diaspora.
Judging from the applause when the opera ended and the animated discussion which followed between Thompson and the audience, the opera was well received.
Thompson's 45-minute opera Sacred Mountain: Incidents in the Life of Queen Nanny of the Maroons was presented in the Vera Moody Concert Hall at the Edna Manley College's School of Music. Untraditionally, the opera was written for only one singer (with some narration) and it was Kelly who sang.