Miss Havisham’s Fire

The Opera Studio’s tribute continues with an opera based on Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, subtitled “Being an investigation into the unusual and violent death of Aurelia Havisham on the 17 of April in the year 1860.”

Miss Havisham lives for 50 years in the seclusion of her home, dying when her wedding gown, which she has never removed since she was jilted by her fiancé, catches fire. Past and present merge in a series of flashbacks that reveal the dark relationships Miss Havisham had with her adopted daughter Estella, and the orphan Pip.