 Twice Through the Heart was first performed on 13 June 1997 at the Snape Maltings Concert Hall during the 50th Aldeburgh Festival . Sally Burgess was accompanied by the ENO Contemporary Opera Studio conducted by Nicholas Kok . The companion piece was the chamber opera The Country of the Blind which Turnage had composed relatively quickly in order to make up a full programme after Twice had turned out much shorter than originally intended . To Turnage 's surprise , ENO decided to follow up the original four performances , split between Snape Maltings and the Queen Elizabeth Hall , with a staging at its main home in the London Coliseum . This production was premiered on 20 October 1997 with Susan Bickley as the soloist and with Kok again conducting . In this context it was a companion piece for From the House of the Dead , an opera set in a Siberian prison camp . 
