In November 2025, Shadwell Opera and Opera North joined forces to present the world première staging of Isabella Gellis’ folk opera, The Devil’s Den at the Howard Assembly Room, Leeds. Finnegan Downie Dear conducted Jack Furness’s production; a star- studded cast (including RPS winner Lotte Betts-Dean, Jennifer France and Ossian Huskinson) were joined by members of Sheffield City Morris, whose dancing is interwoven into the fabric of the piece itself. The Morris also led workshops for the audience as part of a day celebrating the British folk identity in collaboration with artist Ben Edge, whose painting of the same name was a key inspiration for the composer.

The project marked a remarkable series of firsts - Isabella’s critically lauded debut opera, Shadwell’s first full-length commission, the first opera written for Morris dancing side. It also saw the beginning of a new partnership model, with Shadwell Opera acting as an incubator for the most exciting young composing talent in UK before then partnering with a major UK companies to present it to audiences in new and unusual ways. Capacity audiences laughed, cried and sang in this celebration of Britishness and all its wonderful eccentricities.

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Creative Team

Jack Furness

DIrector

Finnegan Downie Dear

Conductor

Rachel WIse

Associate Director / Movement Director

Emma Laistner

Morris Movement Director

"Gellis’s music is at one comical and thoughtful with licks of brilliance. Her orchestra takes on its own characters, fabulously directed by Finnegan Downie Dear... this decision to platform the work of Shadwell Opera by Opera North is one I seriously admire. I hope its new venture to suppose bold new operatic voices sees future support and success."

Hattie Butterworth, Opera Now

"...the rewardingly agile, transparent quality of Gellis’s music for the 15-strong instrumental ensemble, who play, hum, whistle and warble, conducted by Finnegan Downie Dear. It’s often witty, especially when unseen characters “talk” via solo instruments that rumble, tootle or squeak like Charley Says. The cast is first rate. Lotte Betts-Dean is the ambiguous devil, who squeals and beatboxes in an attempt to communicate, with Nicholas Morris similarly vivid as her sinister rabbit sidekick and Ossian Huskinson in booming voice as the druid. Jennifer France is luxury casting as the child, hitting even the highest notes diamond bright... it would be a shame if this eccentric opera didn’t get to crop up on any other morris dancers’ patch."

Erica Jeal, The Guardian