Rough for Opera, Second Movement’s platform for new opera and work in progress, returns for its 18th edition with relaxed performances of three new operas on themes of identity and experience, belonging and becoming, and neurodiversity and disability.

belly/back Ella Jarman-Pinto and Jennifer Farmer

Rest Annie Lee

her bed // dream wake piece Calla Esperanza and Hannah Calascione

Ella Jarman-Pinto and Jennifer Farmer present work in progress toward belly/back, an interactive communal musical experience evoking what it means to not only retain, but to centre your softness when existing in Black neurodivergent femme and politically feminised bodies. Multidisciplinary composer, performer and artist Annie Lee’s Rest is a conceptual opera that subverts the fundamentals of music to highlight the power of rest – in both a musical and physical sense, inspired by experiences of chronic pain. Calla Esperanza and Hannah Calascione brings her bed // dream wake piece a new work in progress exploring self actualisation through voice, within the transfem experience.

Each performance will be followed by a discussion with the Rough for Opera #18 composers and performers led by Peter Brathwaite.

Since 2011 Rough for Opera has presented new operas and work in progress from more than 50 young, emerging and established composers and ensembles. It is a significant catalyst for opera making in the UK with many participants writing for opera for the first time, experimenting with new approaches or creating work specifically for the series, with all works being brought to the stage for the very first time.

Rough for Opera #18 is a relaxed performance.

www.roughforopera.com