Most of these six short operas were workshopped at Riverside during the summer by Tête à Tête, the London opera company. The most accomplished is Julian Grant's Anger, to a libretto by Meredith Oakes. It is a satire on opera critics, with two sad old hacks arguing over the performance of a diva singing arias to a sequence of composers' names, to the appropriate music. It may be a squib, but it is perfectly articulated and sizzles with invention.
A couple of pieces - Anna Meredith's On Such a Day and Christopher Mayo's Houses - are atmospheric rather than dramatic, and scarcely operatic in any meaningful sense. But the remaining three items fit the genre more closely.
With its Sondheim-like vocal lines and slightly more astringent accompaniment, Gary Carpenter's Nyanyushka, which sets a dark little tale by Simon Nicholson about two elderly nannies and a former infant reassembled in Soviet Russia, intrigues more than it satisfies. The three scenes of Jason Yarde's The Big But - a sharp look at celebrity culture written by Jonzi D, focusing on the discovery by two journalists of George Michael's supposed love child - would hold together better if joined up musically. Also viable is The Feathered Friend, a comedy of infidelity with a parrot acting as stool-pigeon, to a clever text by Alasdair Middleton and a pacey score by Helen Chadwick.
The evening's most consistent elements lie in the performances, with Tim Meacock's infinitely adaptable set providing a sequence of inventive backgrounds to Bill Bankes-Jones's fluent productions. There is prodigious versatility, too, from the three singers involved - Stephanie Corley, Susan Atherton and Damian Thantrey - and expert playing from the ensemble Chroma under Tim Murray's alert baton.
· At the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham (0870 607 7533), on Tuesday. Then touring.
