One Day, Two Dawns was a new full-length community opera created with nearly 250 people in Cornwall in 2008/2009. Six months of creative workshops led to two performances at Hall for Cornwall in May 2009. The opera was a major collaboration between English Touring Opera and Hall for Cornwall, and includes partnerships with The Works, Cumpas, Duchy Opera, New Cornwall Opera, Dalla, Imerys Male Voice Choir, Cornwall Youth Dance Company, Access Theatre, Falmouth University, as well as Poltair, Whitemoor and Curnow Schools.

 

The story was inspired by the coincidence between the sinking of Lyonesse into the sea in 1099, and the full solar eclipse visible in Cornwall in 1999. Trevelyan was the sole survivor of the cataclysm 900 years ago: he returns to take part in some contemporary Cornish battles. Participants were part of an exciting creative process leading to two final performances. Almost all the music and words were created by participants working with a professional team. The nine participating groups were be involved in a series of creative workshops prior to May 2009. About 90 workshops in all were being delivered by ETO/HfC. The professional creative team of composers, directors, writers, designers, players, and singers came from both Cornwall and across the UK.

 

Composers           Rachel Leach

Co-composers      Hilary Coleman, Neil Davey (Dalla)

Writer/Director      Tim Yealland

Poet                       Elaine Ruth White

Designer               Alan and Jude Munden

 

One Day, Two Dawns won the 2010 RPS Music Awards Winner in the Education category,