Luke Bedford is a young composer acclaimed with several successes. But his opera Seven Angels proved less than auspicious at its premiere by the Opera Group and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

John Fulljames’ direction moves his seven-strong cast inventively around a set dominated by piles of books.

If there are stretches of tedium, such as the lengthy, dubiously satirical conference scene where world bigwigs gorge themselves while discussing world hunger, almost like the Mad Hatter’s Tea-party, this is the fault of the libretto, with all its anxious pretensions.

Glyn Maxwell’s text (subtitles would have helped, though so much of it is manneredly repetitious) is overladen with baggage from so many sources, Friends of the Earth meeting Milton’s Paradise Lost among them. Everything protests too much, clouding the undoubtedly worthy message.

Conducted by Nicholas Collon, the music was brilliantly delivered both by singers and orchestral ensemble, the many spectacular moments in the score, whether from instruments or from coloratura soprano Rhona McKail (a fallen angel doubling as the waitress) and the other singers, coming over with immense effect.

But what a score this is, often with a defined language of its own, but also a tribute to Bedford’s acute aural memory, with many references to past composers.

I’m sure I heard angels such as Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Bernstein sending their blessings.

Verdict: * * *