Royal College of Music & Tête à Tête Team Up for Five World-Premiere Operas

By David Salazar
(Credit: Jeremy Richardson)

The Royal College of Music and Tête à Tête will present “Fantasy & Fairytales” this July.

The program features five world-premiere short operas by RCM composers, on July 3, 4, and 6 at 7 p.m. in the Britten Theatre at the Royal College of Music in London.

All five operas will be performed by RCM singers and instrumentalists under the direction of Bill Bankes-Jones and conducted by Michael Rosewell, with designs by Sarah Jane Booth and lighting by Coraline Eversdijk.

Deniz Dortok’s “The Boy Who Went to Find Fear” follows a mischievous boy who ventures out to seek an emotion he has never experienced.

Daniel Musashi’s “Ogga Loggas” takes the form of a father’s cautionary tale about environmental stewardship.

Asher Joyce’s “Three Lives” centers on a young girl who turns to video games to escape her mother’s unwelcome new romance.

Lasha Kharkhelauri’s “Ramona” unfolds inside a puppet theatre, where two locomotive puppets’ love story plays out alongside the final performance of their puppeteer.

The program closes with Ruvin Meda’s “The Nightingale and the Rose,” inspired by Oscar Wilde story of a nightingale who sacrifices her life for the sake of two young lovers.

“With every iteration this collaboration becomes more and more significant not just in music education but also for the opera sector as a whole. As UK opera companies are increasingly tightening their belts and choosing to leave the development of new opera to other nations, particularly the USA, these productions really are some of the best resourced — and best — new work being developed in the UK. We are unearthing some really extraordinary talents at a very young age,” Bankes-Jones said, per an official press release.

The production marks the eighth installment of the two organizations’ ongoing creative partnership.

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