Music – Francesca Amewudah-Rivers
Text – Connor Allen

This digital opera short by Connor Allen and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers escorts us through the emotional spectrum of grief, from the shock of initial impact to eventual acceptance. By harmoniously blending music, spoken word, sung text, movement, and film into a cohesive narrative arc, GRIEF ventures beyond traditional opera boundaries. It prompts us to consider grief as a multifaceted entity, like a book on a shelf that reveals different insights upon each visit.

This project emerges from the unique collaboration between writer/performer Connor Allen and composer, musician and actor Francesca Amewudah-Rivers. Their joint venture transcends individual contributions, crafting an experience that is profoundly more impactful than its constituent parts. Uniting two artists, previously unacquainted with opera, and foregrounding music with the integration of operatic vocals, GRIEF delivers a compelling and deeply personal exploration. It directly engages with Music Theatre Wales’s foundational questions: What is opera? Who is making it? And crucially, who is it for?

Music Composed and Produced by
Francesca Amewudah-Rivers

Text Written and Performed by
Connor Allen

Directed by
Connor Allen and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers

Performers

• Baritone – Byron Jackson
• Dancer and Choreographer – Arnold Matsena
• Additional Vocals – Francesca Amewudah-Rivers

Musicians from Sinfonia Cymru:

• Violins – Daniel Jung, Simmy Singh
• Cello – Garwyn Linnell

Filmed by REDBRCK at Firebug Studios
Music recorded at Tŷ Cerdd Studio

Connor Allen is a distinguished artist, known for his tenure as the Children’s Laureate of Wales and his role as an associate artist at The Riverfront in Newport. A versatile, multidisciplinary talent, Connor graduated from Trinity Saint David as an actor in 2013 and has since collaborated with prestigious companies like Taking Flight Theatre, Sherman Theatre, Manchester Royal Exchange, and National Theatre Wales, to name a few. His notable work includes writing and performing in the acclaimed show The Making of a Monster at the Wales Millennium Centre in 2022, with the play text later published by Aurora Metro Books. A former member of the BBC Wales Welsh Voices and Welsh Royal Court writing groups, Connor’s creations are deeply influenced by personal themes – grief, love, masculinity, identity, and ethnicity. His accomplishments include receiving the Jerwood Live Work Fund, the Rising Star Wales Award 2021, and the Imison Award in 2023 for his Radio 4 audio drama The Making Of A Monster. Connor’s debut poetry collections, Dominoes for general audiences and Miracles for children, were published by Lucent Dreaming in 2023, further showcasing his diverse literary talents.

Francesca Amewudah-Rivers is a celebrated British Ghanaian-Nigerian composer, actor, and musician. Her illustrious career began after graduating from Oxford University with a BA in Music, followed by training with the National Youth Theatre REP Company. Francesca’s compositions have graced film festivals worldwide, including BFI Flare, Outfest LA, and the London Short Film Festival, earning her a nomination for Best Score at the British Short Film Awards (2022). Her vocal composition Alive, commissioned by The King’s Singers, debuted at Wigmore Hall and was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. Francesca’s theatrical engagements span across prominent venues such as Brixton House, Liverpool Everyman, Belgrade Coventry, the Young Vic, and the Actors Touring Company. Her acting prowess is highlighted in roles in Macbeth at Shakespeare’s Globe, School Girls Or The African Mean Girls Play at the Lyric Hammersmith, The Kola Nut Does Not Speak English at The Bush Theatre, and Bad Education on the BBC. Her achievements include receiving the Evening Standard Future Theatre Award for Audio Design in 2021, marking her a formidable force in contemporary theatre and music.

Music – Simmy Singh
Libretto and Visuals – ASHA

Music by Simmy Singh and libretto and visuals by ASHA form the backbone of this digital opera short, which leverages the emotional power of storytelling through music and image – opera – to explore the symbiotic relationship between us and the planet we share. It emerges as a compelling cry for action, stirring a deep-seated response and sense of responsibility for the environmental crisis we have precipitated. The narrative prompts a critical reflection: if we continue on a path of destruction of our planet, we risk our future and dreams. This piece asks whether we should wait passively for such an outcome or actively seek change, underlining the importance of understanding our human bodies in relation to the Earth.

As opera, interbeing is a powerful blend of poetry, music, image and sung text. The emotional charge works on an almost instinctive level, just as our relationship to the planet should, and touches our inner being, our empathy. When we break the necessary inter-connectedness between ourselves and the earth we live on, we are also denying our true selves. This work, part of MTW’s New Directions series, represents a dynamic collaboration between two artists known for their contemporary storytelling across music, performance, and imagery, delivering a powerful and shared message.

Composition, Strings, Vocals and Piano
Simmy Singh

Libretto and Visuals
ASHA

Soprano
Anna Dennis

Cast in Order of Appearance
Sia Gbamoi
Adrian Gardner
Adiam Yemane

Drums ‐ Simon Roth
Cello ‐ Rachel Shakespeare
Double Bass ‐ Alice Phelps
Mixing ‐ Sebastian Gainsborough

Film Editor ‐ Marnie Hollande

Simmy Singh is an Earth Activist violinist and composer from Wales, dedicated to blending music and nature to foster connections among people, communities, and the environment. As a co-founder of the Manchester Collective, she has played with notable orchestras like the Manchester Camerata and London Contemporary Orchestra, and led collectives such as the Kaleidoscope Orchestra, Untold Orchestra, and Ignition Orchestra. A seasoned session musician, her work spans recordings for major films and albums at Abbey Road Studio and her sounds are influenced by jazz, folk, and electronic music. As Sinfonia Cymru’s Creative Associate, Simmy curates projects to inspire creativity in young musicians and is directing a rework of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Her involvement in the ‘Call of The Wild course and receipt of the Future Wales Fellowship highlight her commitment to environmental advocacy through art.

ASHA is an award-winning multi-disciplinary artist whose work spans theatre, photography, and film. Under this pseudonym, she makes work that lends itself to a sense of abstraction through experimentation with form, monotone, texture, and structure, further enriching the project’s exploration of our current existential and environmental dilemmas.

Librettist & Visual Director – Rachael Young
Composer & Music Producer – Renell Shaw
Animation – Kyle Alonzo Legall, Higher Graphics
Vocalist – Gweneth Ann Rand (solo)
Vocalists – Chantelle Nandi / Renell Shaw
Sound Mastering Engineer – Michael Antoniou
Visual Director – Rachael Young

Creative Team