Since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first conquered the world’s highest peak 70 years ago, there has been no shortage of mountaineers, amateur and professional, eager to take on the challenge. Many have been successful, but every year too the list of those who have lost their lives on Mount Everest grows longer – 17 have been reported as dead or missing this year alone. But the worst single tragedy occurred in May 1996, when three separate groups were trapped by an unexpected blizzard while they were descending, and eight climbers were killed in a single day.
The events of that day, the fateful coincidences and the mistakes made, have been explored in numerous books, which provided the background to Joby Talbot’s one-act opera. Everest was premiered in Dallas in 2015, and has received further performances across the US, but the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s concert staging, conducted by Nicole Paiement and directed originally by Leonard Foglia, was the first in Britain.
