Así que pasen cinco años: Edward Lambert's Federico Garcia Lorca-based opera, In Five Years' Time debuts at The Space Theatre

Federico García Lorca finished his play Así que pasen cinco años in 1931, five years to the day before he was executed. If was never produced during Lorca's lifetime and he said it would be impossible to stage. Now composer Edward Lambert has risen to the challenge and is presenting the work, as In Five Years’ Time, a drama in song about the Poet searching for an identity in the 'forest of life' with a cast of 8 singers playing some 14 roles.

Lambert and his company, The Music Troupe are presenting In Five Years' Time at The Space Theatre, London E14 3RS from 24 to 28 February 2026. The production is directed by Walter Hall with music director Alistair Burton and cast Rosalind Dobson, Lucy Gibbs, Mae Heydorn, Fiona Hymns, Jean-Max Lattemann, Chris Murphy, James Schouten, and Thomas Stevenson.

Edward Lambert (b. 1951) has written 21 small-scale operas for professional performance and since 2013 has successfully mounted 15 of them with The Music Troupe. The group's first project was Six Characters in Search of a Stage and this work received a new production in Moscow, December 2025. In 2023 The Last Siren was commissioned by the University of West London as a dementia-friendly opera and the following year the group made its first appearance at The Space, London, with The Duchess of Padua, an adaptation of the play by Oscar Wilde. 

Full details from The Space Theatre's website. 

Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra launches 2022/23 season under music director Joanna MacGregor

2022/23 sees the Joanna MacGregor's second full season as music director of the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra, and the orchestra leading up to its centenary in 2025. The season opens on 2 October with an all-American programme conducted by Sian Edwards including Gershwin with soloist Joanna MacGregor, Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man and Joan Tower's Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman. The season ends on 26 March 2023 with MacGregor joined by new leader Ruth Rogers and principal cello Peter Adams in Beethoven's Triple Concerto plus the Emperor Concerto, and Barber's Adagio.

Other concerts in the season include conductor laureate Barry Wordsworth directing Mahler's Symphony No. 4, with soprano Carolyn Sampson, and Robert Howarth directing Bach's St Matthew Passion. In January the orchestra strike out in a new direction, playing on Saturday evening rather than Sunday afternoon, and celebrating the natural world in a collaboration with visual artist Kathy Hinde. The music will mix avant-garde, minimalist, rock, jazz and more including Philip Glass, Rolf Wallin, John Luther Adams, Einojuhani Rautavaara and Jonny Greenwood.

There is also a chamber music programme including Joanna MacGregor and BPO principals in Frank Martin, Shostakovich and Brahms, Brighton Festival Chorus and BPO Brass in Gabrieli and Paul Mealor, and for Christmas Roger Allam narrates Dickens' A Christmas Carol. In the New Year, concerts include MacGregor and BPO principals in Rebecca Clarke and Elgar.

For those who have never seen a classical concert or heard the BPO before, there are a limited number of £10 LoveMusic tickets available for three of the concerts.

The orchestra was formed in 1925 by Herbert Mengs as the Symphonic String Players. By 1928 it had already moved into the Brighton Dome and become the fully orchestral Symphonic Players. Menges remained as Principal Conductor and in 1932 Sir Thomas Beecham was appointed as the orchestra’s first President (a position later held by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten). The orchestra became the fully-professional Southern Philharmonic in 1945, with annual seasons in Hastings and Portsmouth, before becoming the Brighton Philharmonic in 1958.

Full details from the BPO website.