TD Moyo's new opera on Black British identity and state violence, made from her own play Caspers, opened the Barbican's classical season this September.
Our Eyes Looking for God, TD Moyo’s opera on Black British identity, opened the 2026/27 classical season at the Barbican Centre from Wednesday 9 to Sunday 13 September 2026.
Moyo is a director, writer, teacher and activist, and the artistic director of Mwarsha Featre. Her earlier work includes Karmen for Opera Holland Park, Mami Wata for the Royal Opera House and Tribe at the Young Vic.
She wrote the opera in 2020, after the killing of George Floyd, adapting it from her own play Caspers. To be Black, she has said, is to need space, to shout, to raise a voice, to sing.
The piece runs a ghost story and a love story together. It tells a national story of state violence through joy, love, laughter and pain.
The centre co-produced the staging with Northern Opera Group, a Leeds company. It played in The Pit, the studio theatre, where three performers shared the role of Caspers across the run.
Renell Shaw, an Ivor Novello-winning composer, wrote the score. April Koyejo-Audiger, a British-Nigerian soprano and operamaker, wrote the libretto. Mateus Daniel created the movement, Luke Bacchus was music director and Amanda Mascarenhas designed the set and costumes.