Two striking chamber operas premiere in a double bill that brings us face-to-face with the climate crisis.
In their new chamber opera Eden 2.0, librettist Alexia Peniguel and composer William Gardner take the Garden of Eden as their starting point and ask: what if creation could be rebooted, but this time the tree of knowledge was sanctioned and freely accessible?
Three people from very different eras – a philosopher from the pre-Christian Mediterranean basin, an industrialist from the nineteenth century, and a politician from a post-climate-change future – are plucked from their lives by a pair of bickering gods with dubious intent. Deposited in a vast encyclopaedic garden and granted access to all human knowledge, they are tasked with an extraordinary challenge: to design a world that can endure.
But as their grand experiment unfolds, they begin to discover that knowledge alone may not be enough.
After My Breath, a love letter to Greta Thunberg, is a bold new chamber opera for solo soprano, drawn from moments in the life of climate activist Greta Thunberg.
Across six searing scenes, from a childhood filled with the glorious music of her opera singer mother, to global stages and determined acts of public protest, the opera traces one voice finding its power. Weaving together Thunberg’s story with echoes of Mozart, Puccini and Bizet, it asks what it truly means to speak when the world refuses to listen.
Written and composed by Lisa Logan, the melodic score builds from an intimate whisper to impassioned declaration. At its heart, a refrain: “I am one voice. I was never meant to be the only one.” Urgent, poetic, and deeply human.
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Running time
1 hour 35 minutes (including interval) -
Age guidance
11+ -
Content warnings
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Discounts
Concessions Available
The Company: Eden 2.0
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Eleanor Burke
Director
Eleanor Burke
Director
Eleanor Burke is an award-winning English-Irish opera director and founder of Green Opera. The youngest director accepted onto the Royal Opera House’s Jette Parker Young Artists Programme, she recently made her house debut there with Larmes de couteau. A recipient of the Robert Carsen Young Artist Prize and two Off West End Awards, she directs internationally for companies including English Touring Opera, Opera Holland Park, Aldeburgh Festival and La Monnaie.
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William Gardner
Composer / Producer
William Gardner
Composer / Producer
William Gardner is a London-based composer whose work centres on opera, storytelling, and emotionally direct music. His three operas have been staged at venues including the Britten Theatre, Milton Court Studio Theatre, and the Cockpit Theatre. His second opera, The Prisoner, won the 2023 Stephen Oliver Award. William studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music before completing the Opera Makers MA at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
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Alexia Peniguel
Librettist / Co-producer
Alexia Peniguel
Librettist / Co-producer
Alexia Peniguel is an Australian librettist and songwriter based between London and Berlin. She is a graduate and former Junior Fellow of GSMD, where she completed an MA in Opera Making and Writing. Her collaborations include album writing with an avant-jazz orchestra, a radio opera about siblings trapped in a storage unit, and a chamber opera about grief, puberty, and bears. As a writer, she focuses on original stories.
The Company: After My Breath
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Emily Thorner
Greta
Emily Thorner
Greta
Emily Thorner, a coloratura nicknamed the “Ultrasoprano,” is known for her unparalleled four-octave vocal range, described as “one of the highest voices in the world,” and her versatile ability to switch between opera, musical theater, and pop. She is an advocate for ending climate change. She was a soloist at the CC Forum during COP28 and co-wrote “Prayer for Peace,” released on Spotify.
Most recently, she completed a 72-show world tour, starring in The Music of Hans Zimmer and Lord of the Rings, across five countries, reaching audiences as large as 10,000 at Genève Arena. In contemporary music and opera, she has been a leading soloist with Asko|Schönberg at Muziekgebouw, Tête à Tête Opera, and a soloist at numerous festivals including Gaudeamus Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, and The Night With, and she is an alumna of Britten Pears Arts.
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Marina Caldarone
Director
Marina Caldarone
Director
Marina has been a theatre director since 1984, including Associate Director, Theatr Clwyd and Artistic Director, Queens Theatre Hornchurch, and a radio drama producer since 2000, including regularly directing The Archers.
She co-wrote the set text ‘ACTIONS, The Actors Thesaurus’ and is an acting coach across all media.
As an advocate for the transformative powers of live performance, she is proud to have recently co-created the MX musical theatre exams with Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
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Stephan Smoktunowicz
Conductor
Stephan Smoktunowicz
Conductor
Stephan was born in Nottingham and studied conducting in Italy with Ennio Nicotra. He has performed with orchestras and ensembles in the UK, Europe, Russia and the USA. Prior to conducting, Stephan enjoyed a successful career as a French horn player. Having retired from playing due to focal dystonia, he is passionate about helping musicians to remain injury free and regularly writes on performance related topics.
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Lisa Logan
Composer / Librettist
Lisa Logan
Composer / Librettist
Lisa Logan, composer, started as a choral scholar at Caius College, Cambridge, followed by a Master’s in Composition from King’s College, London and began composing in her 40s following an earlier career in opera and theatre as a director. Her operas include A Silver Spoon, the story of Diana and Dodi (Beaumaris Festival, 2022), Brontë (Grimeborn, 2023, OFFIE-nominated, Arts Council England DYCP supported), After My Breath, Touch (to premiere in 2027). She is currently workshopping a new opera (in development with an Arts Council R&D grant). Drawn to biographical subjects and themes of justice, her work gives voice to those who challenge power and demand change, fusing music and theatre with her parallel career as a media lawyer. Her legal-themed song cycles include Where I Belong and Let Justice Walk. She is on the ENO Insights Council, the board of Tara Theatre as well as Keynote Music. She will assist Iain Bell on Medusa at La Monnaie in 2026.
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Tiffany Fraser Steele
Designer
Tiffany Fraser Steele
Designer
Tiffany Fraser Steele is a costume and performance designer based in Suffolk and London. A 2023 Linbury Prize recipient, she holds an MA in Costume for Performance from LCF, UAL. Her work draws on two decades of senior fashion editorial and art direction in London and New York. Recent credits include Queen of Spades (Garsington Opera, 2025) and the V&A’s Taylor Swift Song Book Trail (2024), both with designer Tom Piper.
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After My Breath is an original operatic work inspired by the public life and speeches of Greta Thunberg. It is not authorised, endorsed by, or affiliated with Greta Thunberg or the Greta Thunberg Foundation. A percentage of the proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to a charity of Greta Thunberg’s choice or the Greta Thunberg Foundation. This production follows Green Book sustainable rules and will use recycled materials.