'Silver Birch' is in the SWAP'ra Gala!
I've done an interview for SWAP'ra , the new charity which aims to change the opera world to make it more user-friendly, all round, for women and parents. Support for Women And Parents in Opera will be holding an inaugural gala concert at Opera Holland Park on 31 July consisting of extracts from operas famous and less so, in which all the performers and directors are female (though some of the composers, like Mozart and Strauss, were blokes...). Much to our delight, they're also including a scene from Roxanna Panufnik's and my Silver Birch - Anna's aria, in which she tells her son Jack that she will never let him risk his life. Helen Sherman plays our heroine and our original director, Karen Gillingham, will stage it. To my intense frustration, I won't be there. I have no objection to visiting Australia this summer, but I'm sorry to miss Silver Birch 's first extract to be performed in London. The full gala line-up is here. Do go along - there's tr...