“Vividly realised…the music’s eerie metallic edge as transfixing as the moral ambiguities of the 18th-century story.”  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The Guardian

‘Giant’, a new opera from Air-Edel’s visionary composer Sarah Angliss, poet Ross Sutherland and director Sarah Fahie, opens at the Linbury Theatre from the 8th-15th March.

Giant tells the taut tale of surgeon John Hunter and his obsession with Charles Byrne – a man he would ultimately betray in one of the most disturbing acts in the era of the grave robbers. Originally commissioned in 2018 by Britten Pears Arts, the critically acclaimed production received its premiere at the 2023 Aldeburgh Festival.

Written for five voices, Giant uses 18th-century instruments, live electronics and bespoke music machines as it vividly recalls the events surrounding Byrne’s death: an extraordinary story that resonates through the ages.

“An utterly compelling sound world from Sarah Angliss’s first opera…  miraculous” ★ ★ ★ ★ Opera Now

“A look at Angliss’s spare music score, with its tinkling percussion, ethereal string chords and distant pre-recoded sounds, might suggest that it could never fit a story of such dark realism. Instead, the two complement each other. The otherworldly music adds an extra layer, questioning, uneasy, timeless, that elevates the issues involved to a higher level.”  ★ ★ ★ ★ Financial Times