Past Events

THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME is a supremely well-sung and coolly contemporary look at one of the most intriguing questions of musical theatre – just what is it that makes a woman in trousers so appealing? From the swaggering cross-dressers of the Victorian Music Hall, belting out their innuendoes in black tie and tails, to the ambiguous boy-heroes of Mozart and Strauss, to the back-room Blues singers of the Harlem Renaissance, this is a provocative, flirtatious and deliciously personal one-woman guide to a forgotten chapter of female performance. Who were the women who sang in trousers? What did they sound like? What did their audiences make of them - and what happens when these wonderful old songs are given a very modern make-over ?

With just a piano, a microphone and a few well-chosen items of male attire, mezzo-soprano Jessica Walker and theatre director Neil Bartlett conjure up an entire world. The show is much more than a recital; the numbers range from Victorian and Edwardian Music Hall numbers – some re-discovered gems, some well-known hits like the achingly beautiful After The Ball –  through to Cherubino's ardent love songs from The Marriage of Figaro. Each one is illuminated by the stripped-down musical settings and by Walker’s very personal singing style, and by Bartlett’s characteristically deft and witty staging, using personal anecdotes and provocative gesture to bring alive both the songs and the stories of the women who sang them for a contemporary audience.

Devised by Neil Bartlett and Jessica Walker
Performed by Jessica Walker
Directed by Neil Bartlett
Pianist James Holmes
Commissioned and Produced by Opera North Projects