Sparkie Wings his Way to Berlin
Sparkie the Budgie with June Holmes
One of the Great North Museum: Hancock’s most unusual residents is to have an opera performed about his life.
Sparkie, the Geordie talking budgerigar is the inspiration for an opera to be performed in Berlin by the world-renowned musician Michael Nyman and fellow artist and musician, Carsten Nicolai, aka Alva Noto.
Sparkie the Budgie (1954-1962) had a repertoire of more than 500 words and eight nursery rhymes and became a national celebrity after fronting an advertising campaign for Capern’s bird seed, and making a record which sold 20,000 copies.
After he died he was on show at Newcastle’s Hancock Museum which has now been redeveloped and will re-open on 23 May as the Great North Museum: Hancock, where visitors will be able to see Sparkie himself.
June Holmes, archivist at the Natural History Society of Northumbria, says:
“Sparkie is part of the Natural History Society of Northumbria's specimen collection and I will be accompanying him as he jets off to Berlin to appear in Sparkie: Cage and Beyond, at the Berlin Festspiele. He will then return to Newcastle to take up his perch at the Great North Museum: Hancock which opens to the public on 23 May.”
Steve McLean, project manager for the Great North Museum, explains:
“Sparkie is just one example of the huge range of exhibits which will be on show at the Great North Museum: Hancock, and the new Museum is a fitting home for such a famous resident of the region!”
The new opera is a collaborative work based on Michael Nyman’s 1977 piece Pretty Talk. The original piece used material from a record made by Capern’s bird-food company to help customers teach their pet birds to talk. This 7'' Flexi Disc played short sentences spoken by Sparkie’s owner, Mrs Mattie Williams, to encourage her pet followed by replies from Sparkie himself. Sparkie: Cage and Beyond will also feature further recordings from the ‘Sparkie’ archives of the Natural History Society of Northumbria.
Visitors will be able to see Sparkie at the Great North Museum: Hancock, a new £26million Heritage Lottery Fund-backed visitor attraction housing internationally-important collections.
The new Museum incorporates collections from the Hancock Museum and Newcastle University’s Museum of Antiquities, Shefton Museum and Hatton Gallery, bringing together the North East’s premier collections of archaeology, natural history and geology under one roof.
Entry to the Great North Museum: Hancock will be free.