The River Thames becomes a stage for 1513: A Ship’s Opera

The River Thames was transformed into a stage at the weekend for a specially-composed opera - with an armada of historic vessels as the cast.

The day-long performance on Saturday commenced at the mouth of the Thames Estuary with one lone blast from a steam tug and then travelled 40 miles upstream to Tower Bridge where the bells, foghorns, sirens, whistles and flares of a dozen ships rang out.

The fleet was also joined by HMS Belfast which fired its cannons for the performance and moved its guns for the first times since 1971.

Entitled 1513: A Ship’s Opera, the piece was created as part of the Mayor’s Thames Festival by twice Turner Prize-nominated artist Richard Wilson to celebrate the capital’s maritime history.

Mr Wilson said: “These are not meaningless sounds out of place, these are exactly the sounds you should hear on water –  meaningful sounds that were designed to call out, to warn and to save lives.”