Connor Mitchell’s The Musician: A Horror Opera for Children, a dark and comic children’s opera presented by the award-winning Belfast Ensemble, will be streamed online from 12-14 March.

Following on from their critically acclaimed Abomination, the Belfast Ensemble have put together an international cast comprised of Matthew Cavan, Paul Carey Jones, Rebecca Murphy and Sarah Richmond. They will be accompanied by a socially distanced 16-piece orchestra.

The production will be filmed live for Belfast Children’s Festival at the Lyric Theatre Belfast. It retells the famous Grimm fairy tale, the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and gives the story a horror prequel. A budding musician; the pied piper is mistreated by the people around him and it poses the question that once he has the power to control Mice and Rats, will he take bloody revenge? It is a Covid-reactive production which asks children big questions about art and society. It is also the first opera staged in Northern Ireland since the pandemic began so offers a message of hope to its young audience.

 Multi award-winning opera/music-theatre composer, librettist and stage director Conor Mitchell, who is Artistic Director of the Belfast Ensemble, said: “The Musician is the only Northern Irish opera created in lockdown. It's really the company's candle in the dark for children everywhere showing that anything is possible with imagination.”

The production is aimed those aged 6+ and tickets cost £5 per device which can be accessed on demand by the QFT Player here.