Charlie Parker's Yardbird

Hackney Empire & English National Opera present the European Premiere of Charlie Parker's Yardbird

A segregated hotel. Saxophonist Charlie Parker has just died in the room of a married Baroness. While she tries to stem a media storm, Parker’s ghost appears in a fantastical version of the infamous NYC jazz club Birdland with the aim of composing a last musical masterpiece before the news of his death breaks.

A pioneering improviser, Parker can’t pin the notes onto the page without revisiting those who have inspired his creative genius: the women who loved him, his partner in the jazz revolution: Dizzy Gillespie.

A jazz-infused bebopera about deferred dreams and redemption, with music by Daniel Schnyder and libretto from award-winning African American poet Bridgette A. Wimberly, Yardbird is as bold in its artistic vision as Parker was himself. In a commission from acclaimed Opera Philadelphia and accompanied by the English National Opera Orchestra, Lawrence Brownlee stars as the legendary saxophonist, showcasing the effortless, improvisational style that makes him one of the world’s most sought after tenors.

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