Grimeborn: tiny budgets, crazy settings and singers nearly in your lap - 15 years of Dalston’s opera festival

In 2015, director Julia Burbach had the challenge of staging Madama Butterfly, one of the best-loved operas of all time, on a budget of “something like” £500. It was to play as part of Grimeborn, an edgy opera festival that has become an annual fixture in east London.

Rather than prove limiting, the chance to play Grimeborn opened the opera up for her. She created a world inspired by Japanese folkloric ghost stories, with a design in paper and chalk and a few props rented from the National Theatre. “It was a success and it went from there. I knew the festival had a really good standing, and it was growing.”