My Life as an Opera started out as a writing competition.  Thirty writers from all over the UK and the USA sent in their true-life stories.  Our resident composer, David Haines, selected five - not on literary merit, but on how well he thought they'd adapt to becoming short pieces of music theatre.

David spent the autumn and winter of 2006 composing the five mini-operas and micro-musicals in a wide variety of musical and theatrical styles.

"I used the stories as starting points then went off at wild tangents" says David.  For example, the story of Gilbert the tortoise who wouldn't hibernate when he was supposed to turned into a dramatic tussle of will between tortoise and owner.  The tortoise pleads for respect and reveals a deep wisdom inherited from his ancestors.  The music is highly lyrical and passionate - not at all the jokey treatment you might have expected."
 
"I was as surprised as anybody by what I came out with", says David, "but that's part of the fun of writing these 10-minute music-dramas - I can experiment and 'go with the flow' without worrying about audiences needing to follow some long and complicated narrative."