Glyndebourne, Sussex
Teenage climate activist Lola struggles with school and family, while damaged nature is given its own voice

Jonathan Dove’s Uprising is a new youth and community opera, premiered at Glyndebourne, though later this month there are performances, with different orchestral and choral forces, at Saffron Hall (whose trust co-commissioned it with Glyndebourne), and also in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

It’s an opera of distinct halves. We begin with a didactic parable, reminiscent of Brecht and Weill, introducing us to Lola Green (Ffion Edwards), whose activism leads to bullying at school and undermines relationships with her sister Zoe (Natasha Agarwal), father Clive (Ross Ramgobin), and mother Angela (Madeleine Shaw), a ghastly woman who views her daughter’s idealism as indicative of mental health issues.