British Youth Opera | August 2024 at the Brunel Museum

Creative Team

Director: Talia Stern

Musical Director: Thomas Payne

Set/ Costume Designer: Hazel McIntosh

Lighting Designer: Craig West

Assistant director: Stanley Lawson

Photography by Ali Wright

★★★★ THE GUARDIAN

“Director Talia Stern transforms an idealised tale of sexual violence in Rome into a shatteringly visceral, thoroughly contemporary show”

“With its poetic take on sexual violence, Britten’s 1946 chamber opera can be accused of idealising the unacceptable. That’s certainly not the case with Talia Stern’s masterful punch-in-the-gut production for British Youth Opera.”

★★★★ THE STAGE

“Better portrayed here than on larger stages”

OPERA MAGAZINE

“It's not only the singers who are getting their moment in the sun— the director, Talia Stern, whose foremost achievement was to deflect attention from Ronald Duncan's derided libretto by bringing dramatic engagement to the fore and coaxing a tissue of subtext from every singer.”