The first opera commissioned by the group, Brian Easdale's "The Sleeping Children", was premièred in 1951. It gave the North American première of Britten's The Turn of the Screw at Canada's Stratford Festival in 1957. Aside from other new works by Britten, the group commissioned and produced eleven other new operas by British composers. It also gave the British première of Francis Poulenc's opera "Les mamelles de Tirésias" in 1958. The group also performed older operas, such as "Acis and Galatea", "The Beggar's Opera", "Idomeneo", "Iolanta", "La rondine" and "Trial by Jury", and works by Henry Purcell and Gustav Holst.