First chamber opera by Luke Bedford

Birmingham

Seven angels have fallen through space and time for so long, they have forgotten why. Coming to rest on a desert landscape, they imagine the creation of a legendary garden that once flourished there and its destruction from greed and neglect.

Inspired by Paradise Lost, Seven Angels interprets the themes of John Milton’s masterpiece for a modern audience facing up to the urgent challenges of a changing climate and ever-depleting resources.

This is the long-awaited first opera from Luke Bedford, one of the UK’s leading young composers. Featuring seven singers and a live chamber orchestra, Bedford’s music is dark but seductive, tense but lyrical and integrates both solo voices and choral textures. The opera’s post-apocalyptic landscape is realised by Japanese artist Tadasu Takamine. Nicholas Collon conducts the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG).

World première 17 June 2011 at the CBSO Centre Birmingham.