Mañana
A New Opera for Television
Directed by George R. Foa
Plot
Broadcast on 1 February 1956, composer Arthur Benjamin's Mañana was the first opera commissioned by the BBC. "The small Andalusian village comes to life in a sequence of short scenes introducing its inhabitants: a group of gossiping washerwomen, the prying eyes of the old rich widow looking down from her window, the neglected boy playing in the square, the pickpocket at work, the lazy man stretched out snoring in the midday sun, the Wise Man who mends china and writes letters for the poor and is fed in turn by the community. What will happen on the day when his food is given to a boy wrongly imprisoned in the local gaol and the Wise Man goes hungry? His anger is such that he prophesies the end of the world for mañana (tomorrow morning) and the credulous village repents and makes ready to meet its doom." —George R. Foa
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Cast
Frederick Sharp
The Wise Man
Edith Coates
The Widow
Heather Harper
Luisita
Carlos Montes
Pedro
Naida Labay
Conchita
Patricia Kern
Pia
Sheila Young
Third woman
Ivor Evans
The Mayor
William Dickie
The Innkeeper
Tani
Dolores
Ronald Lewis
Jose
David Langford
Carlos
Edmund Donlevy
The Pickpocket
Niven Miller
The Lazy Man
David Oddie
First Villager