Stephen Fry workshops new opera at Royal College of Music

2 July 2013, 16:50 | Updated: 2 July 2013, 16:59

The opera-loving actor and media personality spent the afternoon with RCM students to direct a new work based on The Life to Come by E. M. Forster.

He's known for his love of Wagner and has translated the libretto for Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Mozart's The Magic Flute, but Stephen Fry is currently undertaking another ambitious musical project. He spent the afternoon at the Royal College of music working with students in a brand new opera, composed by RCM alumnus Louis Mander.

Despite a hectic rehearsal schedule, he took to Twitter to praise the talented young musicians: "Having fun workshopping my operatic version of Forster’s “The Life to Come” @RCMLatest - the students are stupendous."

Stephen finished writing the libretto in May 2012, describing the project as 'invigorating', and quite unlike anything he'd ever done before. The hard work paid off this afternoon, in a one-off performance of three short scenes from the RCM Opera Orchestra and the RCM International Opera School, conducted by Mander himself.