Brighton school to host new opera by Stephen Fry

A Brighton school is to host a new opera by Stephen Fry based on a short story by the novelist EM Forster.

The Life to Come is being staged by Surrey Opera at Roedean School just a month after its world premiere.

The score is by Louis Mander with a libretto by Fry who described the story as “one of EM Forster’s most beguiling and brilliant short stories”.

Fry said: “It speaks of colonialism, sexuality, love and religion in unique ways.”

And Mander found himself “fired up with passionate musical ideas, arching melodies, rich harmonies and orchestral colours, which arose from the highly exotic and erotic subject matter”.

Surrey Opera is staging a matinee and evening performance on Sunday 29 October with a professional orchestra and principals, directed and conducted by Jonathan Butcher.

The story itself went unpublished until after the death of EM Forster, who was best known for his novels A Room with a View, A Passage to India and Howards End.

For ticket, call the Surrey Opera box office on 020 8657 7909 or click here.