The Opera Group is developing a new opera exploring dementia. Working in partnership with Professor Simon Lovestone's team at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, The Opera Group will use the medium of opera and poetry to describe the experiences of the patient, the carer and the research scientist.

Artistic Director John Fulljames says "Opera seems to be the ideal art-form in which to explore a retreat into an inner world in which the patient's ability to communicate with the world diminishes. One of the aims of the project is to find ways of communicating the experience of being touched by the condition - either as patient, carer, clinician or scientist - with a view to increasing public understanding."

Composer Elena Langer and writer Glyn Maxwell have written a short opera. Featuring four characters - a patient, his wife, his carer and the carer's daughter - the piece documents and reflects on the patient's loss of perception and language and the way this impacts on the other characters. They are now doing more research on the perspective of the scientist and the research participant.

Tour schedule

20 and 21 May: Brighton Festival
23 May: Oxford Playhouse
25 and 26 May: Northern Stage, Newcastle
28 and 29 May: Watford Palace Theatre
13 July: Cardiff - being performed as part of a conference on ageing and dementia hosted by Glamorgan University and Gwalia in the Bute Theatre at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
16 July: Cheltenham Festivals
20 and 21 July, 28 and 20 July: Linbury Studio Theatre at the Royal Opera House, London

Please check with venues for times and prices.

Find out more.