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About 'Hollingsworth Mansion' New Rock Opera

Storyline

The date is December 11, 1808, when due to a tragic accident (or was it not an accident...) the castle completely burns down. Jefferso Hollingsworth, Lavinia Eden-Hollingsworth and Jefferso’s mother, Elizabet, lose their lives in the fire. Jefferso and Lavinia always wanted children, but that wish was never fulfilled.

123 years later … 1931, the castle, rebuilt, is immaculate and known as one of the top castles in the country.

The prosperous family Welbourne moves from the city to the remote castle. Howard Welbourne is a successful businessman and is seeking to grow (focus on) his career. His wife Dolores is an artist and hopes that the tranquility will feed her artistic capabilities in order to create beautiful paintings. Joanne is the family’s daughter and is 9 years old. Due to the remote location of the castle, she is taught by Selina Blackaby, the house servant who came with the purchase of the castle. Selina appears to have been living in the castle for quite a while …

The family is happy, free of any hardships. Life is going well for them.

The castle has had various owners over the many years following the fire.

However, due to inexplicable events, the inhabitants never stayed for a long period of time. Through the years numerous rumors and stories were told about the mysterious castle. The unsuspecting family Welbourne moved into the castle without knowing its history and all its consequences.

One of the rumors following the fire, was that the family Hollingsworth has always remained living in the castle. Former inhabitants even claim they saw the Hollingsworths.

Since the building of the castle (1617), Selina Blackaby has been the house servant. Selina is 3 centuries old, miraculously, and is neither alive, nor dead. For the living she appears as a middle-aged woman. She knows all the inhabitants of the castle, both living and otherwise, and has the gift to communicate with them all. Moreover, Selina appears to be the ‘window’ to the other side.

Through Selina we will become acquainted with the family Hollingsworth, the original inhabitants of the castle who died in the fire. (If they were the original inhabitants, then the castle was empty—except for Selina—for almost 200 years after it was built—that seems odd.) Will the family Hollingsworth nevertheless be able to fulfill their wish to have a child? Lavinia is prepared to give up everything in order to fulfill this wish. Will her mother-in-law, Elizabet, be able to save Joanne from this nightmare? Elizabet will not allow any contact of the dead with the living… Jefferso, and especially Livinia, think otherwise.

2nd Single Release HM 'Diamond In The Dark'

Single Release HM 'When Our Time Will Come'

About JtR 1888 Rock Opera

‘Jack the Ripper rock opera’ is a new project of Mark Bogert in which he translates the ‘conspiracy theory’ into music. He invited some of the best singers and musicians from the Netherlands to cooperate on this project. Welcome to this new website of JtR1888.

Storyline

August 31, 1888, had a rainy night, it was cold and the people of London were already lighting their coal fires. The city smelled like brimstone, soot and open sewers. It was misty and along the Jewish graveyard of Whitechapel a dark pile was laying against the gate. It appeared to be a woman, a prostitute, dead. Her throat was slit en her stomach was cut open showing her intestines. Jack the Ripper killed for the first time.

Prince Victor enjoyed coming to East End because he fancied the catholic girl Annie Crook. Annie was a shopkeeper and married secretly to Prince Victor. This would be a disgrace for the Protestant English dynasty and when she got pregnant by Prince Victor, she was put into a mental institute swiftly. However, Queen Victoria (the grandmother of Prince Victor) found out about the scandal. This secret would have to disappear completely, but who all knew about this?

On September 8, 1888, Jack the Ripper created his second victim. However, this murder was even more brutal than the first one. The cut in her throat was so deep that it almost decapitated her, and this time the intestines were torn out of her stomach.

After her childbirth Annie Crook was taken care of by prostitute Mary Jane Kelly.Besides prostitution Mary Jane Kelly took every other possible job to make some money. The scandal of Prince Victor spread like a wildfire in the world of prostitution. Queen Victoria had to solve this matter in any way whatsoever.

Victoria had connections within the freemasonry of London. This job could not be executed by herself and she invited a member to handle this matter quickly and clean. All women that knew about the scandal, would have to die. Not did she know that this man would call himself “Jack the Ripper” and would execute the murders so brutally.

In the meanwhile Whitechapel (a familiar but very poor neighbourhood in London) was very tumultuous. Inspector Abberline was recruited again by Scotland Yard to solve this mystery, but there was no proof. Scotland Yard was plagued with letters of Jack the Ripper and could not do a thing.

Three other murders occurred of which the last one was the most brutal. Mary Jane Kelly, her breasts amputated, the flesh cut of of her face and the room splashed with blood. Still no single piece of evidence of the murders.

Does Queen Victoria know how to stop Jack the Ripper? Will Scotland Yard succeed in capturing Jack the Ripper, or will he get away with it? JtR 1888 rock opera will make you experience “The Conspiracy Theory” in a complete new, modern and fascinating way, as has never been done before.

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