Page 683 - Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Coverage Book 2023-24

08 August 2025

ancashire’s Caroline Clegg takes Sir Paul

McCartney’s opera Liverpool Oratorio to the

USA

By LDN Collaborator
• 29 June 2024
• 9 minute read

Lancashire born Caroline Clegg is an internationally acclaimed stage director and
she is directing the first ever staging of Sir Paul McCartney’s ‘Liverpool Oratorio’
for Cincinnati Opera, USA where it opens at the Cincinnati Music Hall on the 18th
July.

In 1991 Sir Paul McCartney with Carl Davis, created the ‘Liverpool Oratorio’ to celebrate
the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society’s 150th anniversary. The text is Paul’s own;
his memories from his childhood in wartime Liverpool and his youthful aspirations
into adulthood. This timeless piece speaks to us all about the hopes, joys and crisis of
modern life and finding our way. It has beautiful arias and wonderful chorus melodies
underpinned with the Latin text of Paul’s school motto that means “not for ourselves,
but for the whole world were we born”. It’s a powerful story, full of heartfelt lyrics and
soaring melodies that are immediately accessible and resonate deeply today. The
original oratorio was recorded and performed in Liverpool Cathedral by Kiri Te
Kanawa, Sally Burgess, Wilard White and Jerry Hadley with the Liverpool Philharmonic
Orchestra and chorus.

Caroline explains

“I am delighted to be creating the first staging of this piece. I am very fond of
Liverpool; it is a city with warmth and wit and this piece is a passionate love letter
to Paul’s home city. It asks us all to ponder the ups and downs of life, and to cherish
what we have with our family. I am privileged to be working with acclaimed stage
designer Leslie Travers, a fellow Northerner whose work I have admired for a long
time.”
Caroline is passionate that theatre and opera should be accessible to all in the North and
said:

“I really hope we can bring this opera back to its hometown of Liverpool so those
who it might resonate with the most actually get to experience it for themselves.”
Caroline Clegg has enjoyed a dynamic career so far, which is an eclectic fusion of opera,
theatre and musical theatre that aims to delight audiences of all ages with the sheer joy