Unusual New Opera (Turkish Delight) Comes To London

Unusual new popular opera to arrive in London

After a year's tough collaboration, Giles Howe and Katy Lipson are putting the finishing touches on the premiere of their first major production, "Turkish Delight".

Both ironic and sincere, it is a highly amusing and deeply tragic work. An exciting and unusual piece of theatre, it crosses the boundaries between musicals and the opera; amputating the fluff and happy endings, substituting them with heightened reality and twisted archetypes of 'goodie' and 'baddie'.

Sung-through (in English) with a small cast of fresh, enthusiastic talent, it is unafraid to challenge both the singers and the audience. It tells a very intimate story of four people, and how an ill-fated affair has a dramatic and lasting effect that nobody could have foreseen. Updating the coloratura's repertoire with a plethora of new ideas, the style of music in the show is eclectic and uses both classical and modern singing techniques.

Starring Jane Garratt, Jess Negus, Christine Edwards, Aleksander Albreht, and Gareth Bretherton, the workshop will premiere on Tuesday April 18th 2006. It is being staged in St Mary's Church on Eversholt Street - a lofty and majestic space with astounding acoustics, just a stone's throw away from London's West End.

Giles and Katy are delighted to have found such skilled and charismatic performers to create the lead roles in the show, and are keen to afford them the opportunity to showcase their talent in such an exciting project. This is the second show that Giles has written but his first to be staged, both he and Katy are more than excited at making their London debut as writers of musical theatre.

The show will run for six performances and ends on Saturday 22nd April. After this run, work will continue on improving the show, and translating it with the intention of taking it overseas. It is hoped to eventually be filmed as a TV opera.