Mark Bogert is a gifted guitarist we know from the band Knight Area. In 2019 he surprised us with a rock opera under the name Magoria named JtR 1888 telling the story of the UK serial killer Jack The Ripper.
Now he proudly presents Hollingworth Mansion based on a story that inspired him.

Mark Bogert (►more pics)

This story is about the large mansion of the family Hollingworth that caught fire in the year 1808. Levinia, Jefferso and his mother Elizabeth died. Levinia and Jefferso had an unfulfilled desire to have children.
The mansion has been restored and more than a century later the family Welbourne, Howard, Dolores and daughter Joanna move in. Joanna unintentionally gets in contact with the twilight zone where the Hollingworth family is waiting for an opportunity to fulfil their child wish. Levinia desperately tries to get Joanna into the spirit realm by seducing her father Howard. Will she succeed? What are the consequences for the family Welbourne?

Mark Bogert started a project to make a complete rock opera based on this story in the vein of his successful first one. He wrote (almost) all the lyrics and music and invited several renowned artists to support him.
On March 30, 2024 we witnessed the result. The CD was already available for some time, but now we could enjoy the first live performance. And impressive it was! Beautiful costumes, lighting, video projections and sound made it a real treat.
Often rock operas have songs with a lot of text to tell the story while the music is playing a supporting role. Mark avoided this, he used a narrator to explain the story briefly, supported by on screen text.
The songs are well elaborated, both musically and verbally. Plenty of musical highlights. Not only the magnificent

Maria Catharina (►more pics)

guitar playing but also keyboards are remarkable. Never a dull moment!
When I listened to the album I was already pleasantly surprised. But now a visual spectacle was added the experience was complete. Especially the performance of the vocalists was impressive. They gave everything in expressing their emotions. Cindy Oudshoorn did a perfect job to replace Mirjam van Doorn in her role as Elisabeth Hollingworth. Not only because of her beautiful singing, she proved to be a very good actress too. The same for Maria Catharina in her role as Levinia Hollingworth. Also the other vocalists Nadine Pruim, Jan Willem Ketelaers, Rodney Blaze, Inge Rijnja and Edward Reekers did a perfect job.
Two lead guitarists (Remy Hanssen and of course Mark Bogert) gave me goosebumps and tears in my eyes. But also the keyboard parts from Koen Stam and the Cleem Determeijer were extraordinary. Luuk van Gerven replaced Peter Vink on bass and formed a solid rhythm section with Harmen Kieboom on drums.

A nice detail was the way we could recognise the 'ghosts': they were wearing a white contact lens in one eye.

After one and a half hour the show came to an end and the artists lined up. The audience could grasp for air and take a drink. But this was not the end of the evening. The artists changed their costumes and after the break we were treated with highlights of the "Jack The Ripper 1888" show (►pictures).

At the end Mark took the opportunity to thank all the artists and crew individually with a personal note.

Text and pictures by Arthur Haggenburg