Balls: Marin Alsop Conducts Laura Karpman
Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall, SE1 8XX , [Venue Details]Conductor Marin Alsop and the Philharmonia Orchestra team up for Laura Karpman’s opera Balls, telling the story of the ‘Battle of the Sexes’ tennis match of 1973.
The 1973 match was a decisive victory for Billie Jean King and a turning point in the struggle for women’s rights.
Karpman, composer of many acclaimed film and game soundtracks including for American Fiction, The Marvels and Kung Fu Panda 2, is a fierce advocate for equality in the film industry.
Marin Alsop has blazed a trail for women conductors, through a performing career studded with ‘firsts’ and as a mentor and educator.
National treasure Sandi Toksvig joins the party to perform Façade, a setting of Edith Sitwell’s poems by her protege William Walton.
Some listeners at the 1923 premiere were shocked by this meeting of nonsense and nostalgia, modernism and music hall, with its poems transformed by Walton’s music into satirical hornpipes, polkas and foxtrots. But Sitwell herself declared it ‘a work for the most part of gaiety … the audience is meant to laugh.’
More Information
Admission
Min: £9.50
Max: £72.00
Performer name: Philharmonia Orchestra, Marin Alsop - conductor
Other key names: Nikola Printz, Nicky Spence, Sandi Toksvig
Age restriction: For ages 7+
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Balls: Marin Alsop Conducts Laura Karpman
Thursday, 20 Nov 2025 @7.30pm
Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall, SE1 8XXMore Information
Conductor Marin Alsop and the Philharmonia Orchestra team up for Laura Karpman’s opera Balls, telling the story of the ‘Battle of the Sexes’ tennis match of 1973.
The 1973 match was a decisive victory for Billie Jean King and a turning point in the struggle for women’s rights.
Karpman, composer of many acclaimed film and game soundtracks including for American Fiction, The Marvels and Kung Fu Panda 2, is a fierce advocate for equality in the film industry.
Marin Alsop has blazed a trail for women conductors, through a performing career studded with ‘firsts’ and as a mentor and educator.
National treasure Sandi Toksvig joins the party to perform Façade, a setting of Edith Sitwell’s poems by her protege William Walton.
Some listeners at the 1923 premiere were shocked by this meeting of nonsense and nostalgia, modernism and music hall, with its poems transformed by Walton’s music into satirical hornpipes, polkas and foxtrots. But Sitwell herself declared it ‘a work for the most part of gaiety … the audience is meant to laugh.’
Admission
Min: £9.50
Max: £72.00
Performer name: Philharmonia Orchestra, Marin Alsop - conductor
Other key names: Nikola Printz, Nicky Spence, Sandi Toksvig
Age restriction: For ages 7+
Halibuts is the only place to find ALL London's live music.
Free for all to use, we track ~1,000 London venues and list every type of live music.
Click here to start using Halibuts.
Or download the Halibuts APP:
IOS
ANDROID