The Winter's Tale (opera) The Winter's Tale (opera) The Winter's Tale is an opera in three acts by Ryan Wigglesworth. The libretto is by the composer, based on the play of the same name by William Shakespeare. The opera, in a production directed by Rory Kinnear, and conducted by the composer, was premiered at the English National Opera on 27 February 2017. The opera follows the main story of the play, reduced to three acts, and dropping the character Autolycus, and some other well-known features of the play such as Antigonus's stage direction "Exit, pursued by a bear". Act I is set in Sicily.
Practice direction Practice direction In English law, a practice direction is a supplemental protocol to rules of civil and criminal procedure in the courts – "a device to regulate minor procedural matters". The Civil Procedure Rules 1998 contains a large number of practice directions which give practical advice on how to interpret the rules themselves. Also, individual courts and judges may make their own practice directions, especially in specialist types of proceedings such as in the patent court. A famous example of a Practice Statement occurred in 1966 when the House of Lords declared itself able to depart from its own precedent