Lesley Garrett to give charity performance of new opera Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel

Opera star Lesley Garrett will sing an excerpt from the ENO’s upcoming Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel at a charity event this evening.

Garrett, who will star in Iain Bell’s new opera, is performing at a fundraiser on March 13 for Beyond the Streets, an organisation that works to end the sexual exploitation of women.

Taking place at the National Liberal Club, the soprano will also be interviewed by journalist Alex Clark alongside composer Bell, author and historian Hallie Rubenhold and Beyond the Streets co-director Josephine Knowles.

Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel, with a libretto by Emma Jenkins, is the story of Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane, the five women murdered in 1888 by an unidentified killer, whose anonymity has become more famous than any of the victims.

The panel will be discussing what life would have been like for these women 130 years ago, in the wrong place at the wrong time, and women on the streets today who fall into cycles of homelessness, sex work and violence.

Tickets cost £12.50 from eventbrite.co.uk and the full ticket price will be donated to Beyond the Streets.