For two performances only, Graeae Theatre Company’s new opera The Paradis Files graces the stage of the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in the second stop on its UK tour.

This sparkling new work, conceived and composed by Selina Mills, Nicola Werenowska and Errollyn Wallen, shines a light on the previously shadowed history of eighteenth-century composer Maria Theresia von Paradis, a contemporary of Salieri and Mozart who was known as ‘the Blind Enchantress’.

The libretto focuses predominantly on the fraught relationship between Theresia von Paradis (Bethan Langford) and her mother, the Baroness (Maureen Braithwaite), whose fears and frustrations around raising a disabled daughter in a punishingly ableist and patriarchal society come across as heartless cruelty.

Graeae Theatre Company is renowned for championing the best in Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent talent on the UK and international stages, and the cast and creative team assembled for this production certainly support that reputation.

Bethan Langford is a particularly powerful presence onstage. Her throaty refrain of ‘oh the pain’ sends a thrill of goosebumps across the auditorium, and her pain is well-matched against the agonising guilt portrayed by Maureen Braithwaite.

Jenny Sealey’s direction is almost balletic, with the onstage performance interpreters blending gracefully with the singers. Having been advised in the content warnings that this production would contain graphic depictions of eighteenth-century ‘cures’ for blindness, we expected the scenes depicting medical intervention to be more gruesome. But Sealey does well not to present the struggles of von Paradis too sadistically, rather presenting a measured and dignified biography of this accomplished woman, who was so much more than her disability.

Wallen’s score is spiky and taught, performed by a small band of five musicians. The libretto is somewhat wanting in poetry, mostly taken up by short, sharp dialogic recitative. But there is an affectionate humour and warmth to the piece, brought mainly through Ella Taylor’s performance as Gerda the maid and helpmate to Theresia.

Certain flourishes in Bernadette Roberts’ design, such as the illuminated keyboard of Theresia’s piano, are breath-taking. Ben Glover’s video design lends a marvellous depth to the illustrated captions that supplement the performance in a much more effective way than the typical acidic orange on a black screen of standard captioned performances.

More productions need to follow the example of Graeae in creating performances that tell powerful stories beautifully, leaving nobody out. As an able-bodied audience member, I personally lost nothing in being introduced to the performers, set and story at the outset of the performance. In fact, it even enhanced the experience of the piece.

The Paradis Files is a fascinating missing puzzle piece of feminist history – sparky, heartfelt, and certainly not like any opera you are likely to see again soon.

*** Three stars

Reviewed by: Livvy Perrett

The Paradis Files tours for the next four weeks, with further information here.