Grimeborn experience

Exactly ten years ago I visited Battersea Arts Centre to see eight short operas performed by Tête à Tête.

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Justin Brierley

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Exactly ten years ago I visited Battersea Arts Centre to see eight short operas performed by Tête à Tête. It was a memorable evening, and showed what a good idea it is to encourage young composers to write quarter-hour-long pieces, instead of making a whole evening of their first attempt at opera. Inevitably, of course, there is a workshop aspect to these occasions, and anyone who feels understandably suspicious of workshops is likely to give them a wide berth — and thereby to miss a good deal of hit-and-miss pleasure. There is also, and increasingly since New Labour has tightened its tyrannical, repressive, soulless and mindless grip on the nation’s cultural life, a sense of boxes to be ticked, if these events are to receive any kind of public support or funding.