States of Innocence is an opera after Paradise Lost by composer Ed Hughes and theatre maker and writer Peter Cant. It premiered at the Brighton Festival on Sunday 19 May 2024 in the Corn Exchange, Brighton Dome, in concert performances starring celebrated opera bass soloist Sir John Tomlinson, and a cast of acclaimed singers.

The epic poem Paradise Lost was completed in 1667 by John Milton (1608-1674).

Paradise Lost recounts, in vivid detail, the mythical story of the Fall, in 12 books. The poem explains fallen Angel Satan's motivation to revenge himself on God, by tempting the first humans Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge, and, in so doing, acquire forbidden knowledge about themselves and the world. As a result, Adam and Eve are required to leave Eden, and become mortal.

In States of Innocence we encounter poet and republican John Milton as a character on stage, dreaming of Angels and the Tree of Knowledge; and, now blind, and living in fear of reprisals from the restored Stuart monarchy, dictating his poem to a chorus of Readers. His Wife and Assistant (based on historical characters who served as Milton's amanuenses) engage with and contribute to the story. Wife becomes Eve, Assistant becomes Satan, and as the domestic scenario takes a dream-like turn we enter the Garden, and the events of the Fall are enacted.

Original projection designs by video artist Ian Winters were specially commissioned for the first performances. Stage direction of this concert performance was by Tim Hopkins.

For States of Innocence, librettist Peter Cant drew on Milton's poem, and The Woman’s Bible (1895) by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, which challenged the orthodoxy that woman should be subservient to man. Stanton's words add a critical dimension and a further character in our opera, Eve's Image, who interrogates the poem's assumptions, and gives agency to Eve, and insight into her decisions and motivations.