Week 3 continues, at 6.40pm, with 'Salty Sarah', a free foyer event by Dimitri Scarlato and librettist Alexia Anastasiadis exploring the unspoken tensions of male-female relationships against the backdrop of an intrusive fishing village. Then, at 7pm, 'The Physicists (Part I)', Timothy Burke's fusion of spy-thriller, sci-fi and farce, in which murder sparks mayhem in this satirical take on insanity and the atom bomb. (Renard Music Theatre; words: James Waterfield after the play by Friedrich Dürrenmatt.) Meanwhile, at 7.05pm, the Constella Orchestra under Leo Geyer presents 'The Mermaid of Zennor'. Based on a Cornish legend, the opera brings the mermaid to life in a dramatic collision with the twenty-first century, exploring the ever shifting boundaries of memory, myth and reality. (Words: Martin Kratz; directed by Florence Wright.) Then, at 8pm, Richard lambert conducts 'The Yellow Dress', his one-act opera (libretto: Hilary Spiers) that uses multimedia to take an uncompromising look at our treatment of older people, particularly those whose mental fragility makes them both vulnerable and burdensome. With Janna Sutherland (daughter), Rosalind Stern (mother) and Alexia Mankovskaya (lady). Directed by Jose Gandia; choreography by Nadine Doran Holder. At, 8.05pm, Ensemble BPM presents 'Anaïs Nin', featuring music and film by Louis Andriessen, setting a libretto from Anaïs Nin's journals. In the sixties, the American diary author acquired notoriety for her sexually frank depictions of encounters with her lovers. With on-screen encounters with her former lovers (sung by Han Buhrs), the short piece explores the tangled sexual liasons of a woman who entitled her own memoirs 'Incest'. Then, at 9pm, Tête à Tête presents 'Amerika', Samuel Bordoli's whimsical adaptation of Kafka's novel, which follows naïve young German Karl Rossman, exiled to New York after he accidentally impregnated a servant. Thrown from one crazy situation to another he chases the American Dream in a strange country where loyalty and justice are never quite what they seem. Starring Rupert Charlesworth; the conductor is Tony Castro; directed by Bill Bankes-Jones. Meanwhile, at 6.30pm, 'Twitching' (free foyer event) gives an opportunity to enter the unusual world of composer Catherine Kontz. Her short 'opera happening'
examines the loss of privacy in our society. Singer Ellan Parry plays a wandering ornithologist who will do her best to draw you into the wondrous world of binoculars and birdsong.