The Gardeners at the Garden Museum

The Gardeners - a new chamber opera by Robert Hugill and Joanna Wyld
'A beautiful piece, beautifully performed' - Seen and Heard International

After its triumphant premiere at Conway Hall in June 2019, Robert Hugill and Joanna Wyld's chamber opera The Gardeners returns for a further performance at the Garden Museum, the UK's only museum celebrating British gardens and gardening.

'Quite a feat! ... It lingers in the memory' - Classical Source

Inspired by a newspaper article, The Gardeners is set in a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in a war-torn country amongst the family of gardeners who look after the cemetery, The Gardeners treats the themes of tolerance, remembrance and brotherhood using the garden as a metaphor for the possibility of growth and renewal.

'Hugill's music has a moving serenity and stillness' - Opera Today

The graves belong to the Dead, who once invaded the land in which they lie. Tensions rise between three generations of the same family who look after war graves in a politically divided region.

'A composer of discernment, imagination and drive' Tempo Magazine on Robert Hugill's When a Man Knows

The Old Gardener - Peter Brathwaite (baritone)
The Gardener - Julian Debreuil (bass-baritone)
The Angry Young Man - Magid El Bushra (counter-tenor)
The Mother - Georgia Mae Bishop (mezzo-soprano)
The Grandmother - Flora McIntosh (mezzo-soprano)
Oliver Wass (harp), Charlotte Amherst (violin), Joanna Patrick (viola), Sophie Haynes (cello), Max Welford (clarinet)
William Vann (conductor)