DESCRIPTION:
Will Gregory's spectacular operatic balloon adventure "Piccard in Space" premiered at the Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall for the Ether Festival on Thursday 31 March & Friday 1 April, 7.30pm

A classic adventure about the brilliant physicist, Auguste Piccard. On a mission to prove Einstein's Theory of Relativity, he takes to the skies with his assistant in an airtight capsule. Travelling to a record-breaking 51,000 feet, they survive being roasted by the sun, toxic balls of mercury and crashing into the Alps. Clearly not a blackboard and chalk type of scientist, Piccard became world front-page news in 1931 and the inspiration for Hergé's cartoon character Professor Calculus in The Adventures of Tintin series.

Composer - Will Gregory
Libretto - Hattie Naylor
Video Design - Kathy Hinde
Director - Jude Kelly
Conductor - Charles Hazlewood

Performed by:
Will Gregory Moog Ensemble
Kipfer's Cosmic Choir
BBC Concert Orchestra

Leading Roles:
Andrew Shore - Auguste Piccard
Robin Tritschler - Paul Kipfer
Leigh Melrose - Einstein
Nicholas Clapton - Newton
Mary Plazas - Madame Kipfer

Commissioned by BBC Radio 3, broadcast on 13th April 2011
Video Documentation filmed and edited by Rick Holbrook