Covent Garden's Opera Shots

As part of their ROH2 strand to develop new opera, the Royal Opera House are presenting OperaShots from 8th to 15th April, an evening of two short operas by composers new to the genre. Both composers are well established in other fields.

Anne Dudley is an award winning film composer and has been composer in association with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Her first opera, The Doctor's Tale is written to a libretto by Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame). Terry Jones will also direct the piece, which is a Gogol-esque tale of a successful Doctor who is a dog and is put in the dog pound.

Stuart Copeland is a founder member of The Police. He is writing both words and music for The Tell-Tale Heart based on Edgar Allen Poe's story. He has written a number of ballets and has previous operas under his belt.

It is always interesting when artists from one genre move over into another. I am not entirely certain whether the way forward in contemporary opera is to look to composers well known in other forms. But opera is a broad church and there should be room for everyone, providing the pieces stand up dramatically. Certainly the composers fame in other musical genres should help attract the sort of lively and mixed audience which the ROH seems to be hoping for.