Tonight sees the World Premiere of ‘Zatopek!’ a 12-minute mini-opera on the life of Emil Zatopek by ‘one of the UK’s most acclaimed young composers’ (BBC) Emily Howard. Commissioned by PRS for Music Foundation’s New Music 20×12 it is themed beautifully for this Olympic year of 2012. Emily’s opera about Zatopek – the Czech gold medallist for the 5000m, 10000m and Marathon in the Olympics of 1952 – is sure to be extremely enlightening following the extensive research by Emily and her librettist Selma Dimitrijevic, who travelled to Prague to research their subject, as well as running 5000m ‘religiously’ whilst writing the work (BBC).

The Premier this evening takes place in Liverpool’s Epstein Theatre performed by the Liverpool Philharmonic.

Tonight’s concert is also being recorded by BBC Radio 3 and will be broadcast on Saturday the 16^th of June at 10.30 pm.