Joe Cutler Chamber Opera

Joe Cutler: Sonata for Broken Fingers

In the last days of Stalin’s reign, a mysterious phone call from the Kremlin launches a desperate and seemingly hopeless search for a missing pianist…

Joe Cutler and Max Hoehn’s new opera explores the meaning of music in a terrifying world. Inspired by the remarkable life of Maria Yudina, the virtuoso pianist and survivor of Stalin’s purges, this dark absurdist thriller is brought to life by BCMG and a fine cast of soloists. Conceived as an intimate sound experience, the piece is influenced by the radio operas of the past and the recent flourishing of audio drama during the pandemic.

Hear the world premiere performance at the CBSO Centre this summer and stay tuned for a future album release by Birmingham Record Company.

Composer Joe Cutler 
Libretto Max Hoehn
Conductor Sian Edwards
Cast Claire Booth, James Cleverton, Stephen Richardson, Lucy Schaufer and Christopher Lemmings
Pre-Recorded Piano Xenia Pestova Bennett
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

Commissioned by Opera21 and co-produced in partnership with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Birmingham Record Company.

Supported by the Radcliffe Trust, Vaughan Williams Foundation, Swiss Cultural Fund, Hinrichsen Foundation, The Marchus Trust, The Golsoncott Foundation, Maria Bjornson Fund, Oleg Prokofiev Trust and Francis Routh Trust.