Ben Edquist

An opera by David Sawer and Rory Mullarkey, based on a novel by Roberto Bolaño. A local civil servant’s obsession with a beautiful figure skater drives him to embezzle funds to build her a secret ice rink. When an unlikely group of characters discovers them, tension mounts until a murder on the ice unravels everything. Garsington Opera‘s commission The Skating Rink, written by leading British composer David Sawer with award-winning playwright Rory Mullarkey, premiered in July 2018. Based on Chilean author Roberto Bolaño’s novel it tells the thrilling tale of jealousy, political corruption and the lengths we go to for the ones we love.

This take on the famously dark Brothers Grimm fairy tale tells of a Wicked Stepmother who murders her stepson and serves him up in a stew to his unsuspecting father. The boy’s sister buries her brother’s bones under a nearby Juniper Tree, and the child’s spirit returns as a singing bird who wreaks vengeance on the evil Stepmother before being restored to life in the bosom of his family.