BBC Concert Orchestra to perform UK Premiere of David Buckley’s contemporary reimagining of the Oracle at Delphi at Queen Elizabeth Hall on 3 October 2026
On Saturday 3 October 2026 at 7.30pm, the BBC Concert Orchestra will give the UK premiere of Emmy-nominated British-American composer David Buckley’s chamber opera Oracle at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Scored for orchestra and three soloists, with a libretto by Stephen Plaice, Oracle is a darkly comic and contemporary reimagining of the ancient Oracle at Delphi. The forty-minute opera follows a 21st-century tech entrepreneur who attempts to recreate the Delphic Oracle in Northern California and turn prophecy into a lucrative online business.
When Colton, the head of a global technology corporation, auditions two candidates for the role of Pythia — the priestess who speaks on behalf of the Greek god Apollo — his commercial ambitions begin to collide with forces far beyond the predictive power of Artificial Intelligence. As one candidate appears to possess a genuine gift of prophecy, Apollo is awakened from his two-thousand-year rest, and the boundaries between technology, prophecy and divine knowledge begin to collapse.
The semi-staged performance will be conducted by Jérôme Kuhn, Associate Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, and directed by Daisy Evans. The cast features Daniel Norman as Colton; Claire Booth as Alyssa, a candidate for the Pythia of New Delphi; and Clare Presland as Phoebe, another candidate whose apparent gift ultimately becomes the vehicle for the manifestation of Apollo.
The performance will be introduced by David Buckley himself and will be accompanied by mythologically inspired curtain-raisers by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Dobrinka Tabakova.
Oracle was recorded by the BBC Concert Orchestra in 2025 and received its stage premiere in Fribourg, Switzerland, in June of that year.
Composer David Buckley said: ‘When Stephen first described the idea of resurrecting the Delphic Oracle in Northern California, I was immediately drawn to the collision between the ancient world of ritual and prophecy and the modern world of technology and prediction. Opera was a new form for me, but the underlying dramatic principle was very familiar: the music has to serve the story. It’s wonderful to be bringing Oracle to London with Jérôme Kuhn, Daisy Evans and the BBC Concert Orchestra.’