O19, the third edition of Opera Philadelphia’s annual season-opening festival, is set to launch on Sept. 18 with the world premiere of “Denis & Katya” at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre.

The new work, which was a nominee for the Fedora Generali Prize for Opera, is a chamber opera by composer Philip Venables and librettist-director Ted Huffman, the duo behind the award-winning Royal Opera House commission “4.48 Psychosis.”

The work is inspired by the true story of two 15-year-old runaways who became social media sensations when they live streamed an armed stand-off with Russian Special Forces that culminated in their own deaths.

Commissioned and produced in collaboration with Music Theatre Wales and Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier, “Denis & Katya” will mark the latest in a string of important new works first brought to life at Opera Philadelphia.

In a press release, Huffman stated, “I came across the story of Denis and Katya – as many others did – through a Facebook news item, a promoted link: two angelic faces over a lurid headline comparing them to Romeo and Juliet. The story had been chosen for me by an algorithm. I clicked. I forwarded the link to Phil and we started to chat about them, not only about their story but why we had been drawn into it, how it was that the internet cycle of news had brought them to us – these two, chosen from among what must have been thousands of tragic deaths and suicides that day, that week, that month, in the world.”

The production is set to star two casts. Cast one will feature Theo Hoffman and Siena Licht Miller, while Cast two will star Johnny Herford and Emily Edmonds. Ksenia Ravvina directs while Emily Senturia conducts.