Second Movement is an opera company which supports new opera and people making opera for the first time. A current focus of its work is to support disabled opera makers through Rough for Opera, its long running platform for new opera and work in progress.
Since 2011 Rough for Opera has platformed new work by more than 50 composers and new music ensembles including Bastard Assignments, Alex Ho and Julia Cheng, Alex Mills, Hermes Experiment, Kate Whitley, Michael Betteridge, Leo Geyer and Benjamin Tassie. Rough for Opera #18 – Relaxed (2023) featured three new works from Annie Lee, Calla Esperanza and Hannah Calascione, and Ella Jarman-Pinto and Jennifer Farmer. Rough for Opera #19 – TEXT (2024) presented new work from librettists Simone Ibbett-Brown, Jen McGregor with composer Sarah Ann Marze and Chris Harris with composer Sarah Lianne Lewis. Rough for Opera #20 – ADAPTATION developed 3 new operas commissioned by Second Movement and adapted from Edvard Munch’s poem The Scream with composers Zhenyan Li, Vinicius Motta and Elif Karlidag and librettists Sarah Forbes, Nicola Warner and Romanne Walker. http://www.roughforopera.com
The first Rough for Opera was in 2011 and the series has featured more than 50 composers and new music ensembles including Bastard Assignments, Alex Ho, Julia Cheng, Sarah Lianne-Lewis, Alex Mills, Hermes Experiment, Kate Whitley, Michael Betteridge, Alex Paxton, Aaron Holloway-Nahum, Ella Jarman-Pinto, Benjamin Tassie, Simone Ibbett-Brown, Calla Esperanza, Elif Karlidag, Zhenyan Li, Vinicius Motta, Sarah Marze . Each Rough for Opera is programmed from an open call and every piece is performed for the first time. It is a supportive environment for composers and collaborators to try new ideas, stretch their practice and take creative risks. Composers are encouraged to stage their work and have an opportunity to discuss their performance with the audience. Recent editions have concentrated on specific aspects of opera making: edition #18 – RELAXED explored relaxed and accessible stagings, #19 – TEXT libretto development and #20 – ADAPTATION use of source material from other art forms. #20 is the first in the series with all work presented commissioned directly by Second Movement. From 2022 Rough for Opera has focused on supporting disabled composers and librettists. Second Movement uses an inclusive definition of disability based on the social model.
Second Movement is a finalist in the Equal Opportunities category of the 2026 International Opera Awards for Rough for Opera.
Your Story, Your Voice, Your Stage is Second Movement’s programme to deliver opera and music making projects in the community, in collaboration with partners from the health sector. In 2023 and 2024 Second Movement was in partnership with Oedipa and in collaboration with the UCL Communications Clinic for the Aphasia New Music Group, an ongoing co-creative music making project with adults with aphasia and their loved ones. Music created through the project was performed in June 2023 and in April 2024. Your Story, Your Voice, Your Stage was launched at Rough for Opera #17 in 2019 which featured scenes from Oedipa’s Speak Red, an opera co-created by adults with aphasia. 2021 saw the online premiere of Opera-tic, an opera on film co-created by a group of adults with Tourette Syndrome, composer Michael Betteridge and filmmaker Alisdair Kitchen and produced in partnership with Tourettes Action.
Opera-tic was shortlisted for the 2023 Royal Philharmonic Society Impact Award, supported by OUP Music in its centenary year.
In 2020 Second Movement collaborated with the National Opera Studio on 12:42, a documentary film exploring creative processes, isolation and digital connections. Featured composers included Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Emma-Ruth Richards and Gavin Higgins. In 2018 it was co-producer for 12:40 – Twelve Arias for Twelve Young Artists for the National Opera Studio’s 40th birthday,with arias by Philip Venables, Hannah Kendall, Samantha Fernando and Na’ama Zisser. Performances of the arias took place at Hoxton Hall in June 2018.
Previous production highlights include the UK premiere of Martinů’s The Knife’s Tears (2007, revived 2010 Brno and Prague,) “stunning” The Independent on Sunday, the first UK staged production of Shostakovich’s Rothschild’s Violin by Fleischmann, completed by Shostakovich, Fade by young US composer Stefan Weisman (2008, Second Movement commission) and The Medium by Menotti (2006, revived Northern Ireland 2011) “excellent” The Spectator. In 2012 Second Movement commissioned and produced Zátopek! by Emily Howard (music) and Selma Dimitrijevic (libretto) as part of the PRS for Music Foundation’s New Music 20×12 for the Cultural Olympiad, with support from Jerwood Charitable Foundation. Performed in Liverpool and London’s Southbank in partnership with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Zátopek! was broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Hear and Now and is available on NMC Recordings. “a tremendous opera” The Review Show, BBC2, 4* The Guardian.
Second Movement was founded in 2004 by director Oliver Mears, conductor Nicholas Chalmers and producer Abigail Toland.
