Opera – Summer/Autumn 2020

My first opera (title to be announced!), written with playwright Alice Birch, will be performed across the UK in summer and autumn 2020 – at the Aldeburgh Festival and at a number of venues on tour. It is a co-commission for Music Theatre Wales and Aldeburgh Festival.

The story concerns the inhabitants of a village which begins losing hours from its day – one night, an hour disappears. On day two, two hours are missing, on day three, three are gone. Our story takes place over 24 increasingly short days, as time drains from the world, until the opera snaps shut as the final hour disappears.

The cast and creative team are still to be finalised, but due to their new partnership with Music Theatre Wales, I’m delighted that the ensemble will be the London Sinfonietta.

Alice and I were supported by a Jerwood Opera Writing Fellowship from Snape Maltings from 2016-18 to develop something together, and there was a workshop in April where we tried out some material from the piece. A video is below:

More details to follow!