The Francis Bacon Opera

Stephen Crowe's opera, The Francis Bacon Opera, fascinatingly takes the text of Melvyn Bragg's amazing 1986 interview with Francis Bacon and sets it word for word as an opera. Frank and inflammatory with music by a composer who himself studied as a painter. Excerpts from the opera, with Christopher Killerby (tenor) and Genevieve Ellis (piano) are being performed on Thursday 28 June during the Cortauld Gallery's late opening for their current exhibition Mategna to Matisse: Master Drawings. So you get to hear Crowe's setting of Bacon's views on his own work, Ingres, van Gogh and Monet, alongside the real thing.


If the opera appeals, then it is being performed  by the Crowe Ensemble from 19 to 27 August at C too, venue 4, Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Further ahead, on 6 September the final late opening of the exhibition will include choral music from Exaudi, conductor James Weeks, exploring the intersections between drawing and musical composition!

Cortauld Gallery
Courtauld Lates
Stephen Crowe
The Francis Bacon Opera at the Edinburgh Fringe