Edinburgh Fringe 2026

8 Ways to Break a Glass (with an American Opera Singer)

Steph DePrez

Genre: Cabaret, Comedy, Opera and Operatic Theatre

Venue: Laughing Horse @ Dragonfly

Festival: Edinburgh Fringe

Low Down

Review

There’s an effusive welcome from the flamboyantly dressed Stephanie DePrez who, as you might expect from one of the leading lights in the Berlin opera scene, has a voice “that hits the back of the hall”.  And some.  She could be heard at the end of the street, never mind inside the tightly packed Laughing Horse Dragonfly venue on West Port.

We’re all here to find out the (apparently) many and varied ways there are to break a glass, including using just your voice.  Well, OK, a properly opera trained soprano voice, working in perfect pitch with that of the glass, usually belting it out at over 100 decibels (think aircraft passing overhead for a comparator) for at least 5 seconds.  And our Steph was prepared to give it a crack, glass in hand, right there in front of us.  But ‘Elf and Safety precluded such live shenanigans, more’s the pity.

So, we just had to use our collective imaginations to visualise the many and varied ways that glass can be shattered, described here in an hour of witty, uplifting storytelling and stand-up comedy mixed with sublime operatic arias from this charismatic and engaging polymath.  For that’s what DePrez is, a polymath; opera singer par excellence; stand up comedian with impeccable comic timing; writer specialising in B2B content (as well as great stand up routines); teacher; actor; heavy metal singer (yep, you read that correctly) – her talents are seemingly endless.

But opera and stand-up in the same show?  What gives?  Well, the common perception of opera is that it’s for “those and such as those”, the elite, the establishment, the DJ and ballgown set.  It’s an image that visionaries like DePrez are working hard to recast, with initiatives and incentives aimed at broadening opera’s demographic, making the genre more accessible, more relatable.  And, judging by the throng squeezed into every nook and cranny of the Dragonfly’s “Other Room”, DePrez is succeeding, with a diaspora of accents ranging from the broad acres (Yorkshire) to upstate New York and back to, well, the more prosaic tones of Falkirk patois via Amsterdam keen to learn more about this unique art form.

The show’s format is simple – describe a method of breaking glass, build a few amusing stories drawn from DePrez’s varied experiences of the opera and working world and link the punchline to a well known (or less well known) aria, where DePrez provides a simultaneous vernacularised, witty translation of the lyrics which, as most opera buffs know, are often banal and very, very repetitive.  Which is why some operas end up lasting for days, even though the plots are pretty much the same across the genre.

This simple format makes for a great show.  DePrez is a superb raconteur, powering out the stories with cut glass clarity at a pace that barely give the audience time to laugh before the next punchline assails the ears.  But it’s her singing that most of us are here for, with good reason.  You can hear why DePrez is such a sought after performer; the clarity; the perfect pitch; the superb vocal control and dexterity; the power; the rich tonality of her voice.  Simply superb doesn’t convey the half of it.  Each time she sang, the room was awash with sound.  We had arias from Bizet’s Carmen, Puccini’s La Boheme (a great opera to start with for any of you opera “virgins” reading this), a bit of Wagner but it was Tosca’s Vissi-d’arte (which needed no translating) that really hit the spot, both musically and emotionally.

But what was that throwaway line earlier about her being the lead singer in a heavy metal band?  Back to the polymath again – DePrez can seemingly turn her hand to almost anything – which is why her final “aria” was an original piece from her band “Avistortion”.  Different?  Unique I’d say, given that she mixed ballad singing technique with that required to deliver an operatic chorus, all to the heavy metal beat of guitar, bass and percussion.

You’re not going to find another hour like this anywhere on the Fringe.  So, to bang the drum DePrez was beating as we filed out of the room, LIVE entertainment is where it’s at, it’s what we do best as humans.  Turn off your phone feeds and go and listen to this wonder of storytelling and music LIVE.  There’s nothing like it.  Seek it out.

Published August 10, 2026 by Tim Wilcock