Guildhall Opera department presents a feast of five contrasting short operatic works: three new chamber operas and two early pieces from the Baroque era.

First broadcast online by Guildhall in condensed virtual form during the 2020 lockdown, three new works receive their fully staged, orchestral premiere The Apothecary; I’m Cleaning, I’m Cleaning and Eintänzer. These imaginative chamber operas – taking audiences from 18th-century Paris to 1980s Soviet Russia via a Weimar-era nightclub – are written by composers and librettists on Guildhall School’s innovative MA in Opera Making & Writing programme, delivered in association with the Royal Opera House.

This swift-moving quintuple bill also offers the chance to enjoy two rarely performed, short 17th-century works by two of the greatest Baroque composers. Charpentier’s cantata Orphée descendant aux enfers for three male voices is presented alongside the first staged performance of Judicium Salomonis – a secular oratorio by Carissimi, who is believed to have taught Charpentier.