Rough for Opera

Alexander Campkin

Second Movement's Rough for Opera returns on 7 April at the Cockpit Theatre with another intriguing evening of new opera. Not finished pieces, but works in progress; we are to be treated to extracts from three new operas by Alexander Campkin, Phil Poppy and Michael Betteridge. Each piece is followed by a Q and A, allowing the audience to contribute their thoughts on the new pieces.

Phil Poppy's The Island (libretto by the composer) is for three voices, chorus, brass band and electric guitar, telling interweaving stories of displacement on an idyllic island. Alexander Campkin's opera Possession! (libretto by the composer) weaves its tale from the letters of Robert and Elizabeth Browning, Helen Hanff and M&S. Whilst Michael Betteridge's Zoe Trope (libretto by Thomas Ellison) is set in dystopian future on a distant world.

Phil Poppy studied saxophone and improvisation at Goldsmiths College, and is co-founder of Tala Quintet. Alexander Campkin is a young British composer and conductor, Michael Betteridge is co-founder and co-director of Collectives and Curiosities, and musical director of New Space Productions.