Rosalind

Synopsis

Rosalind is a new chamber opera dramatising the life and legacy of Rosalind Franklin, the brilliant X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to deciphering the structure of DNA. Framed by the eve of the 1962 Nobel Prize ceremony—an event from which Franklin was absent, having died four years earlier—the opera unfolds as memory, reckoning, and revelation.

As Sir Lawrence Bragg and Lady Bragg reflect on the events that began in 1951, the ghostly figure of Rosalind appears, guiding the audience back to the pivotal years in the laboratories of King's College London and the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. There, Francis Crick and James Watson pursue the structure of DNA with restless energy, overseen by Max Perutz, while at King's, Rosalind and her PhD student Raymond Gosling work with disciplined precision in stark isolation from their colleagues, including the conflicted Maurice Wilkins.

The opera juxtaposes Cambridge's chaotic model-building with Franklin's meticulous experimental work as tensions rise, alliances strain, and scientific ambitions clash. Moments of reflection reveal Franklin's loneliness as a woman in 1950s science, and the contrasting freedom she once felt in Paris.

The narrative accelerates as Watson glimpses Photo 51, realising instantly its significance. Armed with Rosalind's unpublished data, Watson and Crick assemble the double helix model—punctuated by uneasy admissions about the ethics of their breakthrough. Their triumph is publicly celebrated even as Rosalind's contribution remains unacknowledged, partly because of her untimely death.

In the final act, the full company joins in a lyrical reflection inspired by Shakespeare's Cymbeline. Rosalind returns in spectral form, contemplating her role in the discovery and the legacy she was never allowed to see fulfilled.