First performed in 1975 by the Trinity Boys Choir, to which it was dedicated, Bang! is a youth opera that combines extreme musical vitality with the smell of gunpowder! 
 

John Rutter is a leading choral conductor at Cambridge and a composer of sacred music (including a Gloria, a Magnificat, a Requiem and a Mass for children). He continues the excellence of the British choral tradition, legendary for its boys' choirs. Based on a libretto compiled by David Grant, Bang! focuses on a famous episode in English history: the "Gunpowder Plot" of 1605, a failed attempt on the life of King James I and the British Parliament, in a context of religious persecution of Catholics. Alternating spoken (in French) and sung (in English) parts, this production directed by Amélie Parias restores all the drama, from the origins of the plot to the trial of the culprits, of this picturesque episode of a history that has become, for the most part, a legend. Moving, romantic, suspenseful and instructive: an opera to be enjoyed by the whole family!