Lliam.
--------------
Opera inspired by unsolved murder
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The mystery surrounding a 60-year-old tale of black magic and murder in a Worcestershire village, has become the unlikely subject of a new opera.
The grim discovery of a skeleton in a hollow wych-elm tree in Hagley Wood, Hagley, has been the subject of numerous investigations and news articles.
Three teenage boys from Stourbridge were out bird nesting in the wood in 1943 when they discovered the skeleton of a young woman.
Her mouth was stuffed with taffeta and a gold wedding ring, some crepe shoes were found nearby and one of her hands was missing - a possible sign of black-magic execution.
She was aged about 35, five feet tall, with brown hair, had given birth at least once and had died two years before in October 1941.
No one is sure who she was, they're not sure whether she was Dutch, or whether she was a witch, whether she was part of a spy racket, or whether she was a gypsy or a prostitute
Simon Holt
The coroner confirmed it was murder with asphyxiation as the probable cause.
The identity of the victim was never discovered but the body became known as Bella as a result of graffiti found throughout the West Midlands reading "Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?"
Speculation about the discovery remains rife with tales of black magic, witchcraft and even spy rackets.
After reading a newspaper article describing the macabre story, Lancashire-born composer Simon Holt was inspired to write an opera surrounding the tale entitled Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm?
Mr Holt said he had become "gripped" by the unsolved mystery.
Exhaustively investigated
"The simple tale of how three boys discovered the decaying body of a 35-year-old mother-of-one in early 1943, stuffed down inside an old wych elm, posed a number of questions," he said.
"Apparently one of the boys died of shock soon afterwards.
"I was gripped by Richard Askwith's article in the Independent in 1999 and it struck me as being suitably claustrophobic for a music theatre piece."
The case was exhaustively investigated back in the 1940s and the police reconstructed a picture of the woman from her remains.
A black magic execution was the first theory, arising from the woman's severed hand which was found buried nearby.
Other possibilities included theories that she had been a spy, had been made pregnant by a GI or was a gypsy.
"It seems the case is still open because the body soon disappeared from Birmingham University Medical School and they never managed to find any dental records," said Mr Holt.
"No one is sure who she was, they're not sure whether she was Dutch, or whether she was a witch, whether she was part of a spy racket, or whether she was a gypsy or a prostitute.
"You can put on your own angle on this story it's so open ended - that's why everyone likes it."
As with everyone who gets involved in the unsolved murder, Mr Holt has his own theory on why she was killed which is revealed in his new opera.
Simon Holt's Who put Bella in the Wych Elm premiered at Aldeburgh Festival in Suffolk on Thursday.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/west_midlands/3002260.stm