The Birmingham Contemporary Music Group to stage opera by Gerald Barry

The Birmingham Contemporary Music Group will perform The Importance of Being Earnest, an opera in three acts with both music and libretto by Irish composer Gerald Barry, based on Oscar Wilde's text. Barry is famed worldwide for his operatic works, and has had his past work The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit performed by BCMG and conducted by Thomas Adès in Birmingham, London and New York.

The Importance of Being Earnest will also be conducted by Thomas Adès, and will see two performances, in London's Barbican Centre on Thursday, 26 April 2012 and Birmingham's Symphony Hall on Saturday, 28 April 2012. The opera was commisioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association Music Director Gustavo Dudamel and the Barbican Centre in 2011. It is a characteristic brew of wit and invention to match Wilde's own, and has been described by the Los Angeles Times as being “highly sophisticated and indescribably zany.”

An introduction to the opera by Gerald Barry is available in our Features section.

The Importance of Being Earnest 

Further information

• www.bcmg.org.uk
• Video of a discussion with Gerald Barry, Stephen Fry, Fiona Shaw, and Thomas Adès about the opera
• Interview with Gerald Barry about the opera on musicalcriticism.com