Alya Al-Sultani invites you to an open session exploring Two Sisters, a full-length opera in one act, with Arabic and English libretto and an ensemble of three sopranos, turntables, early music recorders, double bass, electronics, piano and trumpet.

"I cannot live in this grey cloud for one second longer, Maisa. Here I am neither rain nor shine. Here I am neither living nor dead. Here I am nothing to nobody. Here I have no past and not future. I need to live beyond this moment I am in, beyond this one single breath.”

The opera is set on the border between two countries, a no-man’s land in the Middle East, and tells the story of two sisters and their mother. It is not a “refugee story” but a vehicle through which to explore the human experience of choosing to stay in relative safety or to take a risk towards our own happiness, a theme that has infused all of our lives during a pandemic that has many of us thinking radically about our lives and choices.