Bell was born in London. His first opera, ''
A Harlot's Progress'', to a
libretto by
Peter Ackroyd, premiered on 13 October 2013 at the in Vienna, conducted by
Mikko Franck and directed by
Jens-Daniel Herzog. The cast included
Marie McLaughlin as Mother Needham and
Nathan Gunn as James Dalton. The lead role of Moll Hackabout was created by German coloratura soprano
Diana Damrau for whom the composer has written a great deal of music. Bell's second opera is an adaptation of
Charles Dickens's own one-man version of his novella
A Christmas Carol commissioned by
Houston Grand Opera where it received its world premiere in December 2014, directed by the British actor, director and writer
Simon Callow, sung by the American tenor
Jay Hunter Morris. It had its UK premiere at
Welsh National Opera in a new production by Polly Graham in December 2015. Bell's third opera is an adaptation of the 1937 First World War epic poem
In Parenthesis by
David Jones. It was commissioned by Welsh National Opera and received its world premiere in May 2016 at the
Wales Millennium Centre with further performances at the
Royal Opera House in a production by
David Pountney conducted by
Carlo Rizzi. Bell's chamber music has been performed internationally at venues including
Carnegie Hall, the
Alte Oper Frankfurt and
Wigmore Hall London, the last having commissioned a song cycle from him premiered in June 2014, setting extracts of Shakespeare's fools, entitled
These Motley Fools. It was premiered by the American
countertenor Lawrence Zazzo. The
Munich Opera Festival commissioned Bell's
A Litany in Time of Plague for chamber orchestra and the
mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught, with whom Bell worked in his first opera ''A Harlot's Progress''.
New York City Opera commissioned Bell in 2018 to write the opera
Stonewall to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the
Stonewall riots in 1969, to be premiered on June 19, 2019, and directed by
Leonard Foglia. == Works (selection) ==