Laurent Petitgirard is known mainly as a composer of orchestral works, including concertos, symphonic poems and film scores, and as a conductor. Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, his first opera, depicts the tragic story of Joseph Merrick, who was born with horrifying deformities and exploited both as a freak show exhibit and as a medical curiosity. Petitgirard’s compelling and moving score – the composer’s melodic gift is very much his own – shows us Merrick at different stages of his tragic life until his death aged 27 in 1890. ‘The composer conducts a gripping performance of this fine opera’ (Sunday Telegraph).