HEAVEN BURNS
Scotland, 1662. Runaway housewife Isobel works for a charismatic witchpricker, John Dixon. She worships him, but when he’s accused of falsifying his identity, will she accept that he’s not the man he claims to be?
Part queer love story, part exploration of the terrible things that have sometimes been considered right, Heaven Burns grew out of a lifelong fascination with Scotland’s witch panics and
the fear and hardship that underpinned them.
JEN MCGREGOR librettist
Jen McGregoris an award-winning writer, dramaturg, and director. Credits include Who Pays the Piper (Play, Pie & Pint), The Premorial (Birds of Paradise/Perth Theatre), Ghost Stories (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Divergent Sounds (City of London Sinfonia/Southbank Centre) and Matchmaker Theatre Productions’ The Real William Shakespeare… as told by Christopher Marlowe (EdFringe, touring).
Jen’s work explores themes of self-invention, death fear/death drive, and finding your place in a world in which you don’t easily fit.
SARAH ANN MARZE composer
CN LESTER Christian
CN Lester is a multi-genre musician, author of the critically-acclaimed Trans Like Me, and founder and artistic director of arts event Transpose at Barbican. CN is both a classical singer, improviser/deviser, and composer, and alternative piano-based singer-songwriter. Performance engagements include work with BBC Radio 3 & 4, Snape Maltings/Britten Pears Arts, Royal Opera House family Sundays, Spitalfields Music, Grimeborn Opera, Kings Head Theatre, and extensive work with Tête à Tête festival. Composition commissions include National Youth Choir, Fourth Choir, CRIPtic Arts, and Britten Pears Arts. They hold an interdisciplinary performance/research PhD on composer Barbara Strozzi; research and teaching interest include performance and composition, gender and music, and the history of gender and sexuality. They work internationally as a trans/queer/feminist educator, writer, speaker, and activist. Words and music on Newsnight, ITV, The Guardian, SBS, Sydney Opera House, Southbank Centre, Royal Exchange, The Arts Club, and arts and book festivals/radio/print worldwide. They made their fiction debut with the 2023 collection Furies, alongside Margaret Atwood, Ali Smith, and Emma Donoghue. CN is currently preparing the 2025 premiere of their Strozzi opera The Unknown Goddess, and working on their next album, non-fiction and fiction books, and forthcoming academic publications.
JOANNA HARRIES Isobel
Praised for her “stylish” singing (Opera Magazine) and the “emotional force” (The Times) of her performances, mezzo-soprano Joanna Harries recently finished as a young artist at the National Opera Studio, London.
Last season she made her debut with Opera Rara and the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Queen Elizabeth Hall, with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican as mezzo soloist for Paul Rissmann’s Through the Looking Glass, and with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall as mezzo soloist for Mozart’s Requiem.
Opera roles in 2023/24 included Medoro Orlando with the Liberata Collective at Buxton International Festival, Prince/Stepmother Cinderella Opera North Little Listeners, Lucinda La forza dell’amor paterno The Barber Opera, Contessa Ceprano Rigoletto Opera Holland Park, Deborah Robinson Crusoe West Green House Opera and Tweedle-Dee Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland IF Opera.
A keen recitalist, Joanna is a City Music Foundation artist and a previous Britten Pears Young Artist and Handel House Talent artist. Recent performances include Scandinavian song at the Elgar Concert Hall, Birmingham, English song at Snape Maltings, a lunchtime recital at the Royal Opera House, and Russian song at Pushkin House.
Her discography includes recordings with Opera Rara (Finnocchini, La Princesse de Trébizonde) and the London Symphony Orchestra (mezzo soloist, Wonderland). Her debut song album Letters from Scandinavia with pianist Sholto Kynoch is released in 2025.
She is co-founder with Jess Dandy of SongPath, bringing together music, nature and mental health for Oxford International Song Festival, Leeds Lieder, Ulverston International Music Festival and Beverley Early Music Festival and mental health organisations across the UK.
BELINDA JONES piano
Described by the Times as “outstanding” Belinda Jones is a pianist based in London. She has performed at some of the world’s most prestigious venues including the Wigmore Hall, the Moscow Festival, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, St John’s Smiths Square and Southbank Centre and has worked and performed with artists including Marin Alsop, Alfred Brendel, Jarvis Cocker, Guy Johnston, BBC Concert Orchestra and the Riot Ensemble. Past Competition successes include the 2011 Megan Foster prize at the Maggie Teyte competition, prizes at the Porto International Piano, Lies Askonas, Major Van der Pump and RCM Schumann competitions and alongside these she is both a Samling and Making Music Recommended Artist. She works regularly as a pianist for Southbank Centre and Streetwise Opera, and has appeared on Radio 3’s In Tune and Record Review as well as Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. She is currently a member of teaching and piano staff at the Royal College of Music, Junior Trinity and South Hampstead High School.
rough for opera 