Darrell Fancourt performed in opera productions at the Academy, creating the role of Tackleton, the toy merchant, in Alexander Mackenzie's opera "The Cricket on the Hearth", and playing Colas in Mozart's "Bastien und Bastienne", and Benoit in "La bohème". "The Times" thought him "amusing but not noticeably musical" in the last. Even before completing his studies, Fancourt was building a concert career in London, the British provinces and the European continent. "The Times" said of an Aeolian Hall recital in 1912, "Mr. Fancourt has some noble notes in his voice, except when he forces it occasionally ... Schubert's "Tod und das Mädchen"
The Giant (opera) music he devised for this was transcribed. The plot was elaborated from the children's games he played with his friends Egorka and Stenya, whose names are preserved in those of the characters. In the following year, the first act of the opera was given a premiere by the family at the estate of one of Prokofiev's uncles near Kaluga, with his aunt Tatiyana taking the title part, and the composer and his cousins taking the other leading roles. There is no record of further performances. The opera is apparently nearly entirely lost, although Nestyev quotes some musical extracts. A terrible