FOCUS goes to the OPERA: Revolutions

Join us for the grand finale of the season as FOCUS presents the highly anticipated third opera performance of the year!

Following the resounding success of our previous events, we’re thrilled to extend an exclusive invitation to FOCUS members for another unforgettable evening of culture and music.

Hear six brand-new short operas created by RCM composers and performed by RCM singers working in association with opera company Tête à Tête.

Each short work draws the audience into a different world, offering a unique opportunity to hear contrasting approaches to opera from these up-and-coming young composers. The programme includes The Anthem by Jasper Eaglesfield, who is also featured in the RCM Philharmonic’s Orchestral Masterworks concert on 18 April, and Fanny and Stella’s Last Day Out by Jasper Dommett, whose music was praised in The Scotsman for its ‘crystalline gestures’ and ‘languid lyricism’.

PROGRAMME:

Airtime
Music: Ed Driver, Words: Samir Chadha
1927. The whole of Paris regulates its timepieces by the rhythm of the city’s most regular breather, Philippe N Dulum, until this regularity is disturbed and the city thrown into turmoil…

Church on the Blood
Music and Words: Jasmine Morris
Russia, July 1918. The Romanov family are held captive in Ipatiev House, Yekaterinburg. Their lives and those all around them are about to be catapulted into a deadly revolution…

Fanny and Stella’s Last Day Out
Music: Jasper Dommett, Words: Jessica Walker
April 1870, London. Fanny and Stella are gleeful Victorian female impersonators, celebrated for the joy they share – until they are brought to trial and brutally cross-examined…

INTERVAL

I (Romance)
Music and Words: Alisa Zaika, based on the 1924 novel by Mykola Khvylovy
1920’s Ukraine under the Bolshevik rule. Secret police agent “I” faces the tensions between duty to the state and the conscience of his own human self.

The Drifterman
Music and Words: Connie Harris
1970s Norfolk. Danny is the only drifterman still fishing in the traditional manner from his small boat. Trapped at sea with his grandson, he is plagued by a sinister presence…

The Anthem 
Music: Jasper Eaglesfield, Words: Harry Davies
Monarchy is no more. While Court Composer Nicholas Lear is forced to create a new national anthem, his journalist wife, Imogen, uncovers the nefarious political forces hellbent on the destruction of democracy itself.

Please note these productions contain adult themes and may not be suitable for children.

Produced by the Royal College of Music in association with Tête à Tête.