RELEASE DATE: 25 September 2026
MP3: £7.99 | FLAC: £8.99 | CD: £12.99
BUY HERE
The Flowering Desert is an immersive cosmic opera for domes, released to mark the 10 year anniversary of the discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system, 2025-2026. The opera follows the thoughts of an astrophysicist who explores the border between fact and imagination, and what it means to search the stars. With a tailor-made music of the spheres, the listener goes inside the mind of a scientist to become part of the TRAPPIST-1 system.
Infinite Opera have created this binaural recording of their fully live opera, first created and performed in Birmingham’s ThinkTank Planetarium in May 2022. It was inspired by the experience of Prof. Amaury Triaud, an astrophysicist at the University of Birmingham who was part of the discovery team of the TRAPPPIST-1 in 2015/16. Seeing planets in the goldilocks zone of a red dwarf star was a paradigm shifting event for the wider astrophysics community, presenting greater possibilities for life in the universe than had previously been explored. Since then, even more potentially habitable worlds have been discovered around red dwarfs, including K2-18b which has recently been observed to have markers of life in its atmosphere. Now, with the launch of the James Webb telescope, TRAPPIST-1 has again begun a site of research, in particular the planet TRAPPIST-1e, which also has the starring role of Pantele in The Flowering Desert.
The creation of this opera and recording has been supported by Vaughan Williams Foundation, Midlands4Cities, BEAST, BCU, Royal Astronomical Society, University of Birmingham’s Astrophysics Department and Birmingham ThinkTank Museum. The recording was created at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s Bradshaw Hall and Recording Studios. The immersive ambisonics mix used to make this binaural recording was created at BEAST Studios in University of Birmingham.
This work is also available as a feature film for domes (with an interval), a live performance with film, and as a shorter family friendly version (28 minutes with narration). For further information on the film and live work visit: https://infiniteopera.com/the-flowering-desert-fulldome/.
Infinite Opera is an innovative small-size experimental opera creation company based in Birmingham. We understand the concept ‘opera’ as an evolving and relevant artform. The term ‘infinite’ reflects our approach to performance making, evoking a constant re-engagement with our changing realities, and placing the audience as an active participant in an empathetic presentation of different aspects of our world. To do so we work in both a site and subject specific framing, focusing the creative process through in-depth explorations of topics via multiple viewpoints. Our practice is by nature interdisciplinary and collaborative, working closely with businesses, institutions and professionals from different practices. Infinite Opera is codirected by the librettist Roxanne Korda and the composer Daniel Blanco Albert.
Creative credits
An original idea by Infinite Opera
Music by Daniel Blanco Albert
Libretto by Roxanne Korda
Surround sound mix by Milad Mardakheh
Music edition by Daniel Blanco Albert
Cover artwork by Henry Korda
Booklet artwork: stills from The Flowering Desert fulldome film created by visual artist Leon Trimble and Infinite Opera, including publicly available footage from ESO and associated collaborators.
