About Shadwell

Shadwell Opera is one of the UK's leading opera voices, performing in venues expected and unexpected since 2009. 

Recent projects have included fully-staged productions of Peter Maxwell Davies The Lighthouse, Schoenberg Erwartung, Mark-Anthony Turnage Twice Through the Heart, George Benjamin Into the Little Hill, Peter Maxwell Davies Eight Songs for a Mad King, and Janacek Diary of One Who Disappeared. 

Shadwell Opera is led by Artistic Director Jack Furness and Musical Director Finnegan Downie Dear. Their collaboration and creative vision is at the heart of what Shadwell Opera does. We perform in and around London, and are committed to bringing contemporary music theatre to new audiences.

We have three main goals when we make shows:

Showcasing Young Talent

We work with the country's best young singers and instrumentalists, showcasing the quality achievable by the rising generation.

Promoting British Opera

We live in a goldern age of British opera - our programmes celebrate this, often contrasting these works with European masterpieces of the 20th century.

Stories for everyone

We perform stories for everyone, everywhere: in warehouses, theatres, churches, and museums, thrilling people with spectacles that go beyond what people thought they knew about opera.

Jack Furness

Artistic Director

Herald Angel Award winner Jack Furness studied music at Cambridge University, where he received a double first-class honours degree. Jack founded Shadwell in his second year at Cambridge, as has work as Artistic Director since its inception. 

Finnegan Downie Dear

Musical Director

Finn is a young conductor and pianist with a growing international career alongside his role at Shadwell. He is an ardent proponent of music of the 20th and 21st centuries, with a particular interest in working with singers in opera and in recital. 

Become a friend of Shadwell.