Rosalind

Creative Team

Composer — Peter Hugh White

Peter Hugh White was a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral and read music at New College, Oxford where he was a choral scholar. He studied composition with Alan Ridout and James Wood. Alongside his work as Director of Music at a large independent school, he has been busy as a conductor and composer throughout his life.

In 1980 he co-founded the Ryedale Festival in North Yorkshire which is now one of the largest and most successful Festivals in the UK. His choral Music has been performed extensively in the UK and abroad and has been recorded by the choirs of Christ Church and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, the choir of St Thomas on the Bourne and The Trinity Boys' Choir for whom he was commissioned to write an opera based on the novel Moonfleet. In 2017 his work, The Elements for violin and piano was recorded by Sophie Langdon and Nicholas Walker. His oratorio Shall Life Inherit was premiered in Guildford Cathedral and his large-scale choral work Te Deum (commissioned by the Chichester Singers) was performed in Chichester Cathedral. In 2024 there were premieres of his new children's opera Hamelin and his Bass Trombone Concerto (written for James Buckle, principal bass trombone of the Philharmonia Orchestra.)

His love of opera started at Oxford where he was a member of The University Opera Club. In 1981 he spent a summer singing in the chorus of the Pesaro Opera House in Italy and in the 1990s he became conductor of Guildford Opera. From this he launched his own opera company Loseley Opera which gave a platform for many young singers including baritone Roderick Williams.

Librettist — Clare Heath

Clare Heath is a retired GP who worked in London including a time at the King's College Health Centre looking after students and staff. She studied medicine at Cambridge University and King's College Hospital, London. Her specialty was student health and she had special interests in medical ethics and terminal care. Clare offers a personal perspective to the project through her grandfather, Sir Lawrence Bragg, who led the Cavendish Laboratory during the opera's events. His foreword to Watson's ‘The Double Helix' enabled its publication, giving Clare a direct connection to the story's historical and scientific context and enhancing the authenticity of her contribution.

• Musical Director — Mark Austin
• Director — James Hurley
• Designer — Ceci Calf
• Lighting Designer — Ben Pickersgill
• Production Manager — Rachael Duthie