'We've got to open minds': meet the composers reshaping opera

What is a good subject for opera? These three women are creating vibrant and passionate works that flow from their own experiences and contemporary concerns - and prove that the genre need not be suffocated by its own historyWe’re crammed in along one wall of a rehearsal studio in Hackney, east London – hoodies and coffee cups, bare walls and strip lighting – as two singers work on a short scene. From a piano jammed between members of the creative team, a repetiteur sketches ne