Time Zone Theatre Ltd Announces Second OPERA IN THE CITY FESTIVAL

For the second year, Time Zone Theatre Ltd in collaboration with the Bridewell Theatre presents Opera in the City Festival. The boutique festival focuses on rarely performed classics and new, experimental works by emerging British and International Artists.

This year's highlights include the in-house season UNDERWORLD with Orpheus and Eurydice by Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714 - 1787) and Faust, Alberta, a commissioned piece by award-winning composer Simone Spagnolo, which will premiere at the festival.

Gluck's opera Orpheus and Eurydice will be presented in a new, English translation and with a musical arrangement for piano, violin, flute and harp by musical director Andrew Charity. The operatic spectacle Faust, Alberta explores the tragic story of Doctor Faustus and his fatal deal with Mephistopheles from a contemporary angle. Scored as a mono-opera for one singer and four musicians, this new piece by Simone Spagnolo with a libretto by Giordano Trischitta asks which sacrifices we are willing to make. The role of Doctor Faustus will be sung by Benjamin Bevan, whose engagements include Henry Cuffe in Britten's Gloriana and Der Sprecher in Zauberflöte (Royal Opera House), Lescaut in Boulevard Solitude by Henze (Royal Danish Opera and Welsh National Opera), and work with BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others.

Strong female stories take centre stage in our further festival programme. Moremi Ajasoro - The Storytelling Opera by April Atinuke Koyejo is inspired by her own ancestry and the desire to bring the Yoruba culture to the operatic stage. The multi-disciplinary work with music composed by Pierre Audiger takes inspiration from folklore, with an honest yet exciting rendition of Yoruba folk music reimagined in a western classical style. British-American soprano Kathryn Frady presents UK premiere of the one-woman opera Amelia Lost by Larry Delinger, a haunting and inspirational story about a homeless woman who believes herself to be aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart. The film screening Opera Shorts embraces the collaboration of opera and film with a selection of shorts from various countries and cultures, presented by Everyday Arias.

www.opera-in-the-city.com / @TimeZoneTheatre, @OperaCityFest, @BridewellCentre / fb: timezonetheatre