Meet our Reimagining the Classics composers
We are incredibly excited about our Reimagining the Classics project, which takes two iconic operas, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, and reframes their narratives through a modern perspective. Streetwise performers have been working alongside six amazing composers to create original music that is inspired by these two operas. We are partnering with Opera North and English Touring Opera to bring these pieces to life in London, Manchester, and Nottingham in Spring 2026.
These six composers are immensely talented and have composed an abundance of wonderful pieces throughout their careers. We are very lucky to have them work together with the Streetwise performers to create these unique works of music and help inspire them to express themselves through opera.
Francesca Le Lohé
About the work: “I’m working with the Streetwise Opera London performer group to create the climatic ending of their 15 minute performance reimagining Pagliacci. Eagerly watched by the townsfolk, the clown performers and the secret lover Silvio are unable to contain their emotions any longer and publicly declare their desires. A tumult of disagreement ensues, leading to the characters turning on their audience and asking them, what would you do in my place? After a volley of contradicting suggestions and no clear answers, the only option is to turn to our real life audience for guidance.”
About the composer: Francesca is a composer and community musician active in Japan and the UK. She creates ambitious, collaborative projects across disciplines and cultures, including On an Endless Road (2023–24), Who is Molly Leigh? (2025), and THE鍵KEY (Keizo Saji Prize, 2019). Her work has featured at Tête à Tête, Sonorities, and Tama festivals, performed by ensembles such as Southbank Sinfonia and Red Note. She is a 2015 Daiwa Scholar, LSO Soundhub Associate and Project Manager at CoMA.
Ellen Sargen
“It has been thrilling to work with Streetwise Manchester, who are extremely invested in the dramatic and musical portrayal of these characters, and the paths that lay ahead for them. The group have had so many ideas and have thought about the material so sensitively – my head has reeling constantly from discussions we have had and the poetic ways this has been expressed in the room. It has been an absolute joy working with these fantastic performers!”
About the work: “The piece is the final song in Streetwise Manchester’s retelling of the marriage of Figaro. At this point the relationships of Figaro and Susanna, the Count and Countess, and Marcellina and Figaro are on a cliff edge as each couple grapples with whether they can overcome their challenges.
This final piece follows these relationships while asking ‘what is love’ to create a manifesto for love in modern day. While exploring how each of these couples might overcome their challenges, performers in Streetwise Manchester did exciting work refining the personalities of each character at the cliff edges in the story. Using these characteristics to define the musical expression of each character, they asked how this might affect the shape of melodic lines, the interaction between different parts, the harmonic colours at different points in the character’s timelines, and so on. They played with the musical material for a tenacious, spirited, and joyful Susannah against a stubborn and unsure Figaro. Or an uncomfortable Count against a determined Countess!
The group did lots of work through improvisation to shape these decisions, before examining what love might look like for each of these characters in the future. I can’t wait to see their interpretation in the final performance – will each couple sign up to the manifesto for love that together we have created for them!”
About the composer: Ellen is a composer and flautist. She specialises in co-creating new music with professional and leisure-time musicians and young people. Her projects span electronic and instrumental music, improvisation, cross-cultural collaboration, and music for new technologies. Holding a PhD in collaborative composition from the Royal Northern College of Music, she is Composition & Creativity Coordinator for Music in the Round, developing the WeCompose project. 2025 projects include Weaving Stories, Commemorating D-Day, PLAY: Music for Videogame Controllers, and a new commission for Rarescale.
Electra Perivolaris
“It has been absolutely thrilling to work at The Connection at St Martins, developing a new micro-opera as part of Streetwise Opera’s Reimagining the Classics. Taking the character of Nedda from the opera of Pagliacci, I have delivered co-creative sessions with people at The Connection and together we have composed and devised a new dramatic aria for Nedda, treating this character with empathy and allowing her to tell her own story in her own words. We can’t wait to hear it come to life within Streetwise’s performances next Spring!”
About the work: “I have been co-creating a song with people facing homelessness in a frontline setting called The Connection at St Martins in central London. The song we have created is centred around the character of Nedda from the opera of Pagliacci. Responding to the creative brief given to us by the weekly group of Streetwise performers, our new song is called Pull the Mask Down (Nedda’s Song) and it reflects the complex emotions of Nedda as she questions herself and tries to imagine her future. It provides a pivotal moment in Streetwise’s newly imagined response to Pagliacci, providing a freeze frame into Nedda’s deepest thoughts and feelings, and treating this character with empathy rather than judgement. The song reflects our capacity to make mistakes, but also to be forgiven and move forward in our lives.”
About the composer: Electra is a composer and pianist described by BBC Radio 3 as “one of a new generation of female trailblazers.” Her music has been commissioned by the London Sinfonietta, BBC Singers, BBC Concert Orchestra, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. A Young Classical Artists Trust 2024–25 Composer Fellow and Royal Philharmonic Society Composer, her work has premiered at Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall. Currently completing a PhD in Composition at the University of Oxford, she is dedicated to community music projects.
Nicolas Lewis
“Working with Streetwise Opera on this project has been a creative journey which has opened up new methods of co-composing and collaborating for me. The participants were creatively giving, full of ideas and really up for singing. Running these sessions has shown me afresh the profound connecting power of storytelling through song and movement. And of course, how fun the process is.”
About the work: “Love is the Strangest Thing is a micro-opera that I co-composed with the participants of the Manchester drop in session which explores the suddenly developing relationship between Figaro and Marcellina through a modern lens. There are some hints of classical era music harmonies, Spanish and flamenco tonalities which reflect the interests and responses of the group, and a short impressionistic section with chords constructed directly by group members. The piece develops through a range of changing emotions while keeping moments of comedic lightness. Much of the lyrical material was written collaboratively in the sessions. At its heart, the piece is an exploration of changing love. “
About the composer: Nicolas is a UK-based composer working across theatre, live performance, and installations. His emotionally resonant scores blend acoustic instruments, voice, and electronics to support storytelling. Recent commissions include UNSPUN (Bradford 2025), The Coppergate Woman (York Theatre Royal), and The Spirit of Manchester (Streetwise Opera). His music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 6 and performed at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Southbank Centre, and The Bridgewater Hall, enriching narrative, ensemble, and sense of place.
Alex Ho
“I have adored working with Nottingham’s Streetwise participants. Their energy, enthusiasm and joy is a timely reminder of how important the arts are to our shared daily lives. I am so grateful for their warm welcome – especially having only recently moved to Nottingham – and creativity in our sessions. We have had huge fun finding a response to The Marriage of Figaro.”
About the work: “The piece I am composing uses the ideas we have developed during our sessions to reimagine Mozart’s characters in a contemporary setting featuring disgruntled workers, an exploitative count, and a protest march.”
About the composer: Winner of the UK Critics’ Circle Young Artist Award 2021 for his “compelling and individual” works, Alex is a British-Chinese composer whose music and stage works have been described as “insidiously bold” (Opera Magazine) and “menacing and poetic” (The Guardian). Resident composer at Glyndebourne Opera (2023–26), his music theatre piece Untold premiered at Concertgebouw Brugge and O. Festival Rotterdam in 2023, winning the FEDORA Opera Prize for a “bold and moving creation.”
Tim Lole
“Working for Streetwise has afforded me opportunities to work with so many wonderfully creative performers from very different backgrounds, as well as in environments that are new and challenging and has enabled me to broaden my outlook as a musician.”
About the work: “I have been working with a group from the Friary in Nottingham on creating the first of three new short acts of our re-imagined Figaro. We were given a brief by the Playhouse grip that the piece should be set in the modern day and take place in a warehouse. With the Friary group, we explored the ideas around power and abuse of power and came up with ideas of how the main characters would fit into the new scenario. Their suggestion was that the Count should be the warehouse manager who was abusing his power to force the workers to work extra shifts without paying and block overtime and promotion opportunities. Susanna and Figaro would be co-workers, who wanted to save up to get married but were constantly having their dreams blocked by the County’s actions. The group helped to come up with text and music for a workers’ chorus and we developed a scenario where Susanna and Figaro approached the Count for overtime and potential promotion. At the same time, the workers claim they are owed overtime payments. All claims are unfairly turned down flat, thus setting up the drama for the next act.”
About the composer: Tim is a Nottingham-based composer, arranger, and singing teacher. A versatile musician, he has worked as conductor, accompanist, repetiteur, organist, and workshop leader with many UK opera companies. Specialising in vocal music, he writes works for young and emerging singers, often setting classic texts such as Shakespeare and GCSE or A Level poetry. His compositions are graded by vocal difficulty and tailored for teenage voices. Tim also performs as one half of the touring musical duo, the Opera Dudes.
