(Credit: Jose M. Spínola)

The Royal Opera has launched “Dark Nights,” a new Linbury Theatre series featuring one-off performances by vocal innovators and experimental composers.

The series occupies evenings when the Linbury stage would otherwise be dark, offering artists a platform for intimate, boundary-pushing work. Five performances are planned across the season, each led by a different artist.

The first of these, scheduled for Sept. 23, 2026, will feature singer, composer, and actor Keeley Forsyth in “Hand to Mouth To,” a performance expanding on her 2025 EP “Hand to Mouth,” created with longtime collaborator Matthew Bourne. The work incorporates projections designed in response to the Linbury’s architecture and text by French writer Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, which intertwines with Forsyth’s song cycle across music and monologue.

Then on Nov. 9, 2026, vocalist, movement artist, and composer Elaine Mitchener presents “Late Joys,” an “alt-variety evening” unfolding as a sequence of provocations, encounters, and interventions for voice, instrumentation, and movement.

Three additional performances are scheduled for January 12, March 17, and May 12, 2027, with artists to be announced.

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