A note from the Director

PROGRAMME NOTES

Following the success of Great Expectations (2012) Hogarth’s Stages (2014) and Crime and Punishment (2016), the Royal College of Music presents five brand new mini-operas created by RCM composers and performed by outstanding RCM singers. Frankenstein (The Modern Prometheus) marks 200 years since the publication of Mary Shelley’s famous novel, with each opera packing a punch in just 15 minutes.

We are fortunate to welcome both Bill Bankes-Jones, inspirational founder of Tête à Tête, designer Sarah Booth and conductor Natalie Murray Beale, to help us bring these daring contemporary new interpretations to life on the Britten Theatre stage.

This event will be streamed live online on 13 May at Produced by the Royal College of Music in association with Please note that some of the operas contain adult themes.

www.rcm.ac.uk/live

A NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR

It’s a huge pleasure to return to RCM to continue this seminal collaboration between the College’s composers and singers, and the professional forces of Tête à Tête.

I’m lucky to have been involved in many mould-setting projects, and this is certainly one of them. Our first collaboration, Great Expectations, took place in 2012, followed by Hogarth’s Stages and Crime and Punishment. Now in 2018, it’s wonderful to see the alumni of our collaboration shine.

RCM graduate Laurence Osborn (composer, Una Tragedia di Proporzione Titaniche, 2012) has just premiered The Mother with Mahogany Opera Group. The second of his two Tête à Tête commissions, April in the Amazon, has been shortlisted for the International Society of Contemporary Music’s 2018 World Music Days Festival in Beijing.

As Glyndebourne Composer in Residence, Lewis Murphy (Now, 2014) wrote the epic Belongings. Lewis has also just premiered Then to the Elements with Scottish Opera and he wrote First Date for soundfestival Aberdeen, which I directed last year.

With new opera becoming increasingly popular, it’s fantastic to be able to add a powerful arrow to the quiver of a whole new generation of singers, too. Just like our composer alumni, many vocalists from our earlier collaborations are now deploying their skills by singing new works all over the world.

I hope you thoroughly enjoy our presentation tonight, and please look out for the very bright futures of all the talented artists involved.

Bill Bankes-Jones