Online Programme
After my Breath- a love letter to Greta Thunberg
Composed by Lisa Logan (inspired by an idea by Janette Smith). Libretto: Lisa Logan.
World Premiere, a new chamber opera
Cast and Creative team
🎶Greta Thunberg - Emily Thorner
🎶Director - Marina Caldarone
🎶Conductor - Beth Fitzpatrick
🎶Designer - Tiffany Fraser Steele
🎶Lighting Designer - Andrew May
🎶Composer/librettist - Lisa Logan
🎶DSM - Phoebe-Hannah Nicholls
Produced by Keynote Opera
Scene Summary
SCENES:
I — My First Breath
I am…becoming
Greta’s world as a baby and young girl begins in sound: her mother’s singing teaches her about breath, music, and feeling. Her mother is an internationally renowned opera singer.
Opera echoes shape her sense of life as something fragile and borrowed.
II — Friday After Friday
I am…heard
(Thunberg's first school strike, Friday 20 August, 2018. Swedish Parliament, Stockholm.)
She skips school to stand still while the planet changes. A silent protest turns one breath into many, a chorus of school children.
The land does not heal, but it responds.
III — How Dare You?
I am…immovable
(UN Climate Action Summit in New York on September 23, 2019.)
She confronts world leaders at the UN who promise hope while extracting the future. Her boldness comes from clarity: the numbers don’t lie.
Profit is counted while harvests fail and heatwaves, fire and drastic climate change await the next generation.
IV — After My Breath
I am…one of many
Her words leave her and multiply beyond her body. This is not a death aria but a living call to action. The question lingers: what will humanity do with what remains?
V- Still in The Way
I am…unbroken
Greta is arrested.
VI. This is a Movement…
Who will you be?
She persists—crossing oceans, facing arrest, returning again and again. This is not farewell but endurance, precision, and practice. She remains, the world warms, and responsibility shifts to us.
Orchestra
Flute 1: Daniel Pengelly
Flute 2: Chris Green
Oboe: Ellen Wilkinson
Clarinet: Ben Mason
Horn: Owen McClay
Percussion 1: Reuben Hesser
Percussion 2: Zack Mitchell
Theorbo: Louis Moisan
Piano/Keyboard: Kieran Crowley
Violin 1: Kristine Kwok
Violin 2: Shlomo Levy
Viola: Connor Quigley
Violoncello: Oona Lowther
Double Bass: Aaron Aguayo Juarez
Biographies (alphabetical)
Andrew May: After studying lighting design and production management Andrew began his career working for Glyndebourne. He assisted and designed over the ten years he worked there before going freelance as a lighting designer. His opera credits include; Savitri and Blond Eckbert (Guildhall School of Music and Drama); Macbeth (Opera de Dijon); Cosi Fan Tutte (Perth Opera); Semiramide (Opéra de Saint-Étienne); Orféo (L’Opéra National de Bordeaux and Théâtre de Caen); The Marriage of Figaro(Houston Grand Opera); Don Pasquale(Glyndebourne and Glyndebourne on Tour); Ullas Odyssey (North Wall Theatre Oxford and UK Tour); The Marriage of Figaro (Belgrade Theatre and UK tour); La Traviata (Soho Theatre and UK tour); The Marriage of Figaro (Glyndebourne on Tour); Yellow Sofa (The Lindbury and Glyndebourne on Tour); Of Water and Tears, Night Pieces, Yellow Sofa, Renard & Mavra, La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers and Wakening Shadows(Glyndebourne); L’heure espagnole and L’enfant et les sortilèges (Teatro dell’Opera di Roma); Cosi fan Tutti (LA Opera), Don Pasquale, Copenhagen, Brontë (Grimeborn). Theatrical credits: Curtains, ArtsEd; In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel, Charing Cross Theatre.
Beth Fitzpatrick: Described as 'a talent to look out for,' Beth Fitzpatrick is completing a Masters in Orchestral Conducting at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. The Female and Non-Binary Conductor Trainee at Opera North (2025/26), she made her London debut with Ensemble Orquesta's Don Giovanni (2025), earning a Fringe Theatre Award nomination. An Oxford Music graduate, her credits include The Mikado, Le nozze di Figaro, and symphonic world premieres.
Emily Thorner: Emily, a coloratura nicknamed the "Ultrasoprano" is known for her unparalleled four-octave vocal range and her versatile ability across opera, musical theatre and pop. A passionate advocate for climate action, she was a soloist at the CC Forum during COP28 and co-wrote "Prayer for Peace," released on Spotify. Most recently, she was the leading featured soloist in a 72-show world tour starring in the music of Hans Zimmer, Ennio Morricone, and Lord of the Rings across five countries, reaching audiences of up to 10,000 at Genève Arena. She will return to do a second world tour as a soloist late 2026/early 2027 and has previously sung in The World of Hans Zimmer as well. She has been a soloist with Asko|Schönberg at Muziekgebouw, performed new music written for her at Aldeburgh Festival, performed "Frage" by Wolfgang Rihm with over 22 F6 and higher in the USA premiere, the first soprano in 20 years chosen for the modern classical music programme at Britten Pears Arts, a winner of the NYIOPS Opera Anon. She is soon to be a featured singer with Tŷ Cerdd in Wales. In addition to her modern classical and opera background she enjoys singing music theatre and pop and has been a TEDx speaker.
Lisa Logan: Lisa was a choral scholar at Caius College, Cambridge. This was followed by a Master's in Composition from King's College, London, and began composing in her 40s following an earlier career in opera and theatre as a director. Her operas include A Silver Spoon (Beaumaris Festival, 2022), Brontë (Grimeborn, 2023, OFFIE-nominated, Arts Council England DYCP supported), After My Breath, and Touch (to premiere in 2027). She is currently developing her fifth opera with an Arts Council R&D grant. Drawn to biographical subjects, strong female characters and themes of justice, she draws on her skills in music and theatre as well as knowledge gained from her parallel career as a media lawyer. She is on the ENO Insights Council and the boards of Tara Theatre and Keynote Music. She assisted Iain Bell in rehearsals for Medusa at La Monnaie. She has also written song cycles, chamber music, choral works and larger orchestral works.
Marina Caldarone: Marina has been a theatre director since 1984, including Associate Director at Theatr Clwyd and Artistic Director at Queens Theatre Hornchurch, and a radio drama producer since 2000, including regularly directing The Archers. She co-wrote the set text ACTIONS: The Actors' Thesaurus and is an acting coach across all media. An advocate for the transformative powers of live performance, she recently co-created the MX musical theatre exams with Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
Tiffany Fraser Steele: Tiffany is a costume and performance designer based in Suffolk and London. A 2023 Linbury Prize recipient, she holds an MA in Costume for Performance from LCF, UAL. Her work draws on two decades of senior fashion editorial and art direction in London and New York. Recent credits include Queen of Spades (Garsington Opera, 2025) and the V&A's Taylor Swift Song Book Trail (2024), both with designer Tom Piper.
Thanks to: Sally Burgess, Iain Bell, Stuart Murphy, Janette Smith, Chisenhale Dance Space, John Logan, Anna Gregg, National Opera Studio, Michael Csanyi Wills, LSO, George Watson, Erika Gundesen, Leyla Nazli and everyone at Grimeborn, George at PR Squared, Will, Alexia, Eleanor and the Eden 2.0 team and of course thanks to Greta Thunberg.
🎶 This is an original operatic work inspired by the public life and speeches of Greta Thunberg. It is not authorised, endorsed by, or affiliated with Greta Thunberg or the Greta Thunberg Foundation. A percentage of box office proceeds will be donated to a charity of Greta Thunberg's choice or the Greta Thunberg Foundation. This production follows Green Book sustainable practices and will use recycled materials.