Read Rule Britannia's Libretto

This contemporary opera is about the personal quest for greatness as well as the poetic beauty of falling from grace. For me RULE BRITANNIA is summed up in the musical movement titles which are borrowed from three consecutive lines from the second book of John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost 1667, 1674 Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, And Fate, Fixed Fate, Free Will, Foreknowledge Absolute, And Found No End, In Wandering Maze Lost.

This opera might even humbly be seen as a contemporary interpretation of this great literary work. Albeit much much shorter and without the abundant classical illusions but Carl Ayling's libretto for RULE BRITANNIA does periodically borrow from current and historical text. As in the movement Free Will combines numerous quotes by Sir Winston Churchill, Will incorporates classic lines from the British punk band Sex Pistols and freely interprets them, and Of Providence has the line "The cut worm forgives the plough" by William Blake.

Performance excerpt #3