Week 2: Friday Events

Begins, at 7pm, with 'Thrashing the Sea God', a little Chinese opera for solo percussion composed by John McLeod, who adapted the words from a traditional Cantonese libretto. At 7.05pm, Tête à Tête presents a double bill by Osnat Schmool: 'One Small Step', which charts the emotional journey of a couple as they witness their child's first faltering steps, and 'The Magic Mirror', a love story about a princess and prince who find each other through a magic mirror. At 7.45pm concepts of non-linear-narrative come together in Simone Spagnolo's 'It Makes No Difference', whose text is assembled from writings by Gogol, Dostoyevsky, Calvino, Goethe, Spagnolo, several newspapers and magazines. At 7.50pm, Sarah Denbee and Linda Hirst star in Elfyn Jones's 'The Trial of Jean Rhys', an opera about the writer Jean Rhys's inelegant struggle. At 9pm, Size Zero Opera Company present Laura Bowler's 'The Sandman', which follows the reality and dream worlds of a young girl called Olympia. Then at 9.05pm, Fourfortytwo and The Blackburn Company mount Philip Venables's 'Unleashed', an anti-opera about maleness.