Its world premiere, at an outdoor shopping centre in Cardiff on 27 March 1993, was accompanied by a nine-piece band conducted by Carlo Rizzi, director of Welsh National Opera.
[1] The performance, sung by soprano Rhian Owen and baritone Dominic Burns, was timed at 4 minutes 9 seconds,[2] and was certified by adjudicators from the Guinness Book of Records as the world's shortest opera, beating the previous record held by Darius Milhaud's Deliverance of Theseus (1928), which lasts just over 7 minutes.
[2] In 2019, Sands of Time was performed in a triple bill (with Samuel Barber's A Hand of Bridge and Jacques Offenbach's Le 66) at the Grimeborn Festival, Dalston, London.
[4] Despite its brevity the work, which consists of eight identifiable numbers, contains in condensed form the traditional elements of classical opera: an overture, opening chorus, arias, recitative and a finale.
[4] There is a notable influence of 19th century Italian opera in Stan's aria "Down with a splash of cologne", which references the heroic tenor style of Verdi's Il trovatore.