Today we spent an amazing day at the rehearsal rooms of English Touring Theatre trying out some of the music with the singers. It was especially thrilling for me as I hadn’t heard any of the music until that point - and it’s absolutely stunning. Thankfully the singers also love it, which makes a real difference, and they’re raring to go away and learn it all for January. Of course Jon has to sit down and write it all first! But two of the twelve movements are done and they’re both stunning. We spent the morning working through the pieces purely musically and then in the afternoon began to explore some simple staging ideas and particularly how the character of Iris will be portrayed on stage as she’s played both by an actress and a singer simultaneously. Some good discoveries were made which will stand us in good stead for January and someone from the Wellcome Trust came to observe in the afternoon when we performed a work-in-progress showing of both movements. A nail-biting moment for myself and Jon but she loved it so that’s all good. Now I can’t wait to get started properly on it all in January.