The eighth annual Grimeborn Festival runs at London's Arcola Theatre from 4 August.
Described by the venue's artistic director Mehmet Ergen as a “breeding ground for original voices and some of the stars of tomorrow,” the Festival gives new and emerging composers, directors and singers a platform to present their work whilst challenging traditional perceptions of opera.
This year's Grimeborn has ten productions of both new operas and radical small-scale reworkings of works by Monteverdi, Massenet and Handel:
- San Domino: A New Musical by Tim Anfilogoff and Alan Whittaker—a story of those imprisoned for being gay under Mussolini’s regime. Recommended for ages 12+.
- The Medium by Gian Carlo Menotti—composed in 1946, this “musical drama” is the story of a fraudulent psychic woman. Recommended for all ages.
- Werther by Jules Massenet, French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann—a tragic tale of forbidden love between young poet, Werther, and his muse, Charlotte. Recommended for 12+.
- Acis and Galatea by Handel—Eboracum Baroque present Handel's telling of the story of Acis, Galatea and Polyphemus with a small orchestra of period instruments. Recommended for all ages.
- Madame X by Tim Benjamin—a new opera inspired by Jacobean revenge drama and Handel’s Italian operas. Recommended for ages 14+.
- Women Box—a triple bill of music theatre and opera celebrating the inclusion of Women’s Boxing in the Commonwealth Games and the rise of the female conductor. Recommended for ages 16+.
- The Coronation of Poppea by Monteverdi in a new translation by John Warrack—an ‘immorality tale’ of power, lust and corruption in Imperial Rome. Recommended for all ages.
- Shadows of Time with music by Mario Lavista, George Crumb and Laura Bowler—shadow puppets and a trio of intruments tell the story of a planet travelling through time. Recommended for all ages.
- Aikainen by Miika Hyytiäinen—an opera presenting the aspects of time: endings, realtime, generations, spacetime and memories using 3D-printed Ocarinas, Möbius strip score, 3D-Norns, real-time composition, performance art, and the whole spectrum of the human voice. Recommended for all ages.
- Façade music by William Walton and text by Edith Sitwell and Eight Songs For A Mad King music by Peter Maxwell Davies and text by Randolph Stow and George III—an unusual pairing that looks at twentieth-century musical innovation and exploring what it means to be truly mad. Recommended for all ages.