glass human


three threads
three tongues
three rooms
three bodies curled in the dark
listening to a hole in the world...




A chamber opera created by Samantha Fernando and Melanie Wilson for Glyndebourne, exploring the experience of loneliness.

Three isolated voices find their way towards each other, charting a journey from emotional and social fragmentation to connection and meaning. Rooted in three contemporary experiences of loneliness – a young woman finding her identity, a refugee searching for stability and an older man living with grief and cognitive decline – the work explores the forces that separate us from each other and the threads we follow to join back together again.


Music
Samantha Fernando

Libretto 
Melanie Wilson

Sound score 
Melanie Wilson & Samantha Fernando


Creative team:

Conductor
Ashley Beauchamp

Director
Lucy Bailey

Designer
Joanna Parker

Lighting Designer
Charlotte Burton

Lead Engagement Artist
Freya Wynn-Jones

Glyndebourne Tour Orchestra players
Daisy Spiers Viola
Rosie Banks-Francis Cello
Sue Blair Harp
Cameron Sinclair Percussion
Iñigo Mikeleiz Accordion

Music Preparation
Ben-San Lau

Cast:

Grace
Anna Cavaliero

Oma
Camille Maalawy

Edward
Denver Martin Smith



“Librettist Melanie Wilson has woven a sinuous narrative in which three isolated individuals search for connections and are made whole in the process.”
The Observer

“A musical pointer towards an external symbol of loneliness, a slowly developing sinkhole, its overwhelming electronic roars, creaks and groans draw the characters out of the building, where in finding one another they find themselves.”
The Observer



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