The Rest is History podcast co-host Dominic Sandbrook is writing an opera about the life of Margaret Thatcher that will cover her 11-year tenure as prime minister.
Released to mark the centenary of her birth, Mrs T is being described as “an intimate exploration of one of the most polarising and influential figures in British politics”.
This is Sandbrook’s first libretto but he has previously consulted on the BBC documentary Thatcher: A Very British Revolution and is one of Britain’s most respected historians of the 20th century.
He was recently described by Esquire magazine as “a sardonic student of the 20th century and critic of ‘hand-wringing’ approaches to British history”, while the Rest is History podcast – which he co-hosts with Tom Holland and is part of the stable of Gary Lineker’s Goalhanger Productions – is one of the most popular shows in the UK.
He wrote about Thatcher in his 2019 book Who Dares Wins, which focused on the dramatic and often chaotic first three years of her time in office.
Described as “even-handed and enjoyable”, his writing on Thatcher often attempts to interrogate perceived wisdom about her tenure and show the truth as being more complex.
Sandbrook will work with the composer Joseph Phibbs, who has previously tackled August Strindberg’s Miss Julie and whose own compositions, including Flame and Shadow, have won critical plaudits. He has featured at the BBC Proms, Aldeburgh festival and Tanglewood.
Mrs T will be directed by Lucy Bradley, with the mezzo-soprano Lucy Schaufer in the title role. The author, journalist and radio presenter Libby Purves will feature as a newsreader, and the casting of other roles including Thatcher’s chancellor Geoffrey Howe and Ronald Reagan will be announced later.
More information is expected to be released in the spring and parts of the opera will be showcased this autumn in London.
Mrs T is being billed as the “the first ever opera of Thatcher during her time as prime minister” but there have been others. In 2013, an opera subsidised by the French government portrayed her relationship with Gen Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator.
Titled Aliados (Allies), that opera opened just outside Paris and focused on her meeting with Pinochet in 1999, when he was under house arrest in London. It was also performed in Strasbourg and Rome.
Thatcher was not a huge opera fan but did once tell a Guardian journalist that Handel was one of her favourites because of “all those marvellous tunes”.
