Venture into a space where the all-consuming desire for freedom of a woman forced into isolation turns the air sulphurous yellow with claustrophobia. Copenhagen Opera Festival is proud to present the world premiere of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, composed by the celebrated British emerging talent, Dani Howard.

Directed by the festival's own Amy Lane, this captivating modern opera is based on Charlotte Perkins Gilman's groundbreaking 1892 feminist short novel 'The Yellow Wallpaper’. 

The titular yellow wallpaper adorns the walls of the room in which a young woman undergoes an involuntary rest cure following a postpartum depression. The story of the obsession of this woman forced into isolation with the wallpaper's unattractive colour and patterns carries an urgent message about social structures discriminatory to women that is still highly relevant today.

Acclaimed mezzo-soprano Clare Presland is an alluring reference point in the role of the woman who secretly tries to write her way out of captivity. Together with a pianist, a cellist and a dancer, she redeems Dani Howard's melancholic and extremely beautiful composition with libretto written by Joseph Spence. Howard's critically acclaimed works have been compared to Ravel, among others.

'The Yellow Wallpaper' is one of four newly written operas composed by women premiering at this year's festival.