Sands of Time (opera)

Sands of Time is an opera created by Welsh composer Peter Reynolds and librettist Simon Rees. It is credited by Guinness World Records as the shortest opera on Earth at 3 minutes and 34 seconds. Reynolds said the piece was intended to "match the boiling of an egg" and "to create a piece which bore the same relationship to opera as a miniature does to a full-length portrait...It included all the component parts of an opera - overture, introductory chorus, arias and recitative - though in highly condensed form". The opera debuted on March 27, 1993 in Cardiff city centre.