In July 2003, after the first-ever season of Genesis-commissioned operas, John Studzinski, Chairman of the Genesis Opera Project, announced the outcome of the first Genesis Opera Project. The panel decided to apportion a £20,000 prize across the three creative teams in recognition of the different but very real achievements of their strong, diverse talents and approaches.

Liebeslied/My Suicides is the product of an unusual collaboration between an artist, a writer, and a composer to create a different kind of opera. In 1999 the acclaimed artist Rut Blees Luxemburg created a photographic series that represents a celebration of the lovepoem/lovesong in the modern city.

Liebeslied/My Suicides is the product of an unusual collaboration between an artist, a writer, and a composer to create a different kind of opera. In 1999 the acclaimed artist Rut Blees Luxemburg created a photographic series that represents a celebration of the lovepoem/lovesong in the modern city.

Non Guardate al Domani is an opera based on fact. It tells the tale of the abduction of Aldo Moro, President of Italy's Democrazia Cristiana (Christian Democrat) party in 1978, his 55 days of captivity, and his subsequent execution. The opera is divided into four segments.

Non Guardate al Domani is an opera based on fact. It tells the tale of the abduction of Aldo Moro, President of Italy's Democrazia Cristiana (Christian Democrat) party in 1978, his 55 days of captivity, and his subsequent execution. The opera is divided into four segments.

Sirius on Earth is a madcap comic opera set in an occidental metropolis, not so far into the future. Its inhabitants love, talk, and scheme against a backdrop of an oppressive and manic dictatorship; this is a world where singing the wrong song at the wrong time can deliver you to the Penultimate Punishment.

Sirius on Earth is a madcap comic opera set in an occidental metropolis, not so far into the future. Its inhabitants love, talk, and scheme against a backdrop of an oppressive and manic dictatorship; this is a world where singing the wrong song at the wrong time can deliver you to the Penultimate Punishment.

The setting is the highways of the Arizona and Southern Utah desert. We observe several characters and their interaction with this starkly beautiful environment through their automobiles, their knees, a Greyhound bus, their sheep, an Amtrak, the Circle K. The travellers' lives intersect but never quite connect. They pass over the land but never really touch it, and the opera continues through a series of near interactions until the characters finally realize that they need to connect to the land and to a community in order to truly find home.

The setting is the highways of the Arizona and Southern Utah desert. We observe several characters and their interaction with this starkly beautiful environment through their automobiles, their knees, a Greyhound bus, their sheep, an Amtrak, the Circle K. The travellers' lives intersect but never quite connect. They pass over the land but never really touch it, and the opera continues through a series of near interactions until the characters finally realize that they need to connect to the land and to a community in order to truly find home.

Jonathan Mills is a composer and pianist who lives in Melbourne. He studied composition at the University of Sydney with Peter Sculthorpe, and piano and composition in Italy with Lydia Arcuri - Baldecchi.

Is opera a dead form? Is it a museum genre to be enjoyed only in glamorous old buildings with red plush auditoria and mainly by the privileged and the rich? Or does it have a future as a vibrant theatrical form that can address and satisfy contemporary audiences, deal with contemporary issues? Jonathan Reekie, Chief Executive of Aldeburgh Productions and Vice Chairman of the new Genesis Prizes for Opera in the Almeida Opera Festival shares some of his thoughts on the subject with us.