In 2008 Counterparts Music Theatre Arts was planning the creation and production of a new opera with music composed by Helen Porter, based on the novella ‘The Aspern Papers’ by Henry James. This novella is a psycho-thriller, relating the efforts of an American editor to get his hands on letters written by a Victorian poet, the late Jeffery Aspern. The editor suspects that a former mistress of Aspern, the now almost 100 years old Juliana, a recluse in a crumbling Venetian palace, still has love letters which the great poet once addressed to her. The editor is prepared to go any length to get these letters in his possession.

Alongside this opera project, Counterparts MTA was keen to work in schools and create opportunities for children to meet the composer, musicians and theatre makers, and experience first hand the exciting process of creating new music theatre work. This schools programme was given the title ‘Love Letters, or How far will you go to get what you want?’, a title that relates to the central theme of the Henry James novella.