The Breaking Point: worlds connected by questions of pressure, identity & the forces that shape human behaviour. Contemporary opera from Royal Academy of Music composers at Tête à Tête

Four worlds connected by questions of pressure, identity and the forces that shape human behaviour: The Breaking Point brings together four distinct works in a single evening of contemporary music theatre. Created by Royal Academy of Music composers working with emerging librettists, the four operas are being presented as two double bills at The Cockpit Theatre on 19 September 2026 as part of Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival 2026.

The cycle grew out of a shared sense among the artists that many of the pressures shaping contemporary life — ecological anxiety, cultural erasure, media saturation, ambition and isolation — are often discussed in political or intellectual terms, but less often experienced directly through performance. The Breaking Point asks what happens when these forces cease to be distant ideas and enter personal relationships, private spaces and individual lives. Drawing on international perspectives and distinct musical languages, the four works bring contrasting operatic styles and different theatrical approaches together under a shared theme.

• Broken Ivy: music by Florence Lloyd, libretto by Viv Bayliss. Florence Lloyd is a British composer whose work centres on vocal writing, electronics and cross-disciplinary performance, drawing on their interests in theatre, dance, poetry and fashion. Recent commissions include works for CHROMA Ensemble, ADW Trio and Leeds Song.
• Fence Off! music by Ruben Doda, libretto by Rebekah Ann King. Ruben Doda is an Italian composer and multi-instrumentalist based in London. His music has been performed internationally, including Antigone by PHACE Ensemble at the Vienna Contemporary Composers Festival and The Forge, inspired by Goya’s painting, at The Frick Collection, New York, in 2026.
• Sing4 Nok6, and Other Broken Things: music by Kwun Ho (Jerry Fryderyk) Ng, libretto by Courtney Cousins. Kwun Ho (Jerry Fryderyk) Ng is a Hong Kong composer and new-music conductor whose work explores cultural and cross-cultural identity through contemporary approaches to Classical traditions. His particular interest in Cantonese vocal music culminates in the chamber opera SING4 NOK6, and Other Broken Things, which interweaves Cantonese and English within a spatial musical setting.
• Meet the Philips:  music by Alessandro MacKinnon-Botti, libretto by Wilkie Robson.  Alessandro MacKinnon-Botti is a British composer, conductor and keyboard player whose work spans concert music, opera and theatre. In 2024, he won the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra Composers’ Competition, leading to the premiere of Voice-leading for solo beatboxer and orchestra. The orchestra subsequently commissioned King of Kings, a companion piece to Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon, in 2025.

Further information from the Tête à Tête
 website.