Philip Venables

A composer of ferocious dramatic instincts
— Alex Ross, The New Yorker

Tag: 2025/26 Season

2025/26 Season

  • We Are The Lucky Ones nominated for International Opera Award

    We Are The Lucky Ones nominated for International Opera Award

    We Are The Lucky Ones has been shortlisted for the International Opera Awards in the “World Premiere” category. The winners will be announced on 13th November, in a gala ceremony hosted by Greek National Opera at the Stavros Niarchos Hall.

    We Are The Lucky Ones was written in collaboration with Ted Huffman and Nina Segal for Dutch National Opera, and premiered in March 2025 in Amsterdam. The show was also co-commissioned by and featured in the Ruhrtriennale in September 2025, and will also feature at next year’s Tiroler Festspiele.

    Other nominees include friends and colleagues Jennifer Walshe and Mark O’Connell for MARS at Irish National Opera, and Rebecca Saunders and Ed Atkins for Lash — Acts of Love at Deutsche Oper Berlin.

  • Faggots and their Friends announced at the Park Avenue Armory, New York.

    Faggots and their Friends announced at the Park Avenue Armory, New York.

    The North American premiere of The Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions has been announced at the prestigious Park Avenue Armory in New York City. Ten performances of the original production with the same cast will take place between 2nd – 14th December 2025 in the historic Wade Thompson Drill Hall, and there will be an artist talk with Ted Huffman and Philip Venables on 4th December.

    Tickets and more information are available here.

  • Answer Machine Tape, 1987 announced in London and Bruges

    Answer Machine Tape, 1987 announced in London and Bruges

    Answer Machine Tape, 1987, for piano and multimedia, has two more performances announced this autumn, including the London premiere. Zubin Kanga, who commissioned the piece, will perform the work at the Concertgebouw in Bruges, Belgium, on Sunday 30th November 2025, and then the week later at Kings Place in London on 5th December 2025.

    More information about the Bruges performance is available here.

    More information about the Kings Place performance is available here.

  • We Are The Lucky Ones at Ruhrtriennale 2025

    We Are The Lucky Ones at Ruhrtriennale 2025

    The programme for the 2025 Ruhrtriennale has been announced. We Are The Lucky Ones will feature in the festival, which will be the opera’s German premiere. The production by Ted Huffman is playing there in the wonderful Jahrhunderthalle for four performances on 4th–7th September, conducted by Bassem Akiki and with many of the same cast as gave the world premiere in Amsterdam in March 2025.

    For more information and tickets, click here.

  • We Are The Lucky Ones at Tiroler Festspiele

    We Are The Lucky Ones at Tiroler Festspiele

    The 2025/26 season at the Tiroler Festspiele in Erl, Austria, has been announced. We Are The Lucky Ones will feature in the festival, which will be the opera’s Austrian premiere. The production by Ted Huffman is playing there for two performances, conducted by Bassem Akiki and with the same cast (almost) as gave the world premiere in Amsterdam in March 2025.

    For more information and tickets, click here.

  • Residency at Villa Aurora, Los Angeles

    Residency at Villa Aurora, Los Angeles

    I am delighted to have received a Stipendium from Villa Aurora in Los Angeles. I take up a residency there from October–December 2025, to work on a large new opera project. Alongside the historic Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles, Villa Aurora maintains and cultivates the landmark home of exiled German-Jewish writer Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta as a residence for an international body of artists, with both houses and residency programmes supported by the German Foreign Office and the Office for Culture and Media.