Opera Creation Journey #1

 

Ali

 

Ali is a new opera project based on the real story of Ali Abdi Omar, a 17-year-old Somalian boy born in Qoryoley. In 2016, Ali fled his village to escape from Al-Shabaab, and, like so many others, ended up in the grip of human traffickers, in a journey that led to the heart of Europe. This opera proposes a journey to the audience, through the epic Ali’s two-year adventure.

 

Creative team:

Ricard Soler Mallol – stage director & dramaturge

Grey Filastine – electronic music composer, percussionist, and multimedia artist

Camille Louis – philosopher and dramaturg

Ali Abdi Omar

 

 

Queering Opera

 

Queering Opera is a joyous project aiming to depict queer (LGBTQ+) experiences through opera, and to do so queerly. Its source material is real-life stories, collected ethnographically; the compositional, staging and design processes are multistylistic, conceived to challenge traditional models of expression and spectatorship. Diversity and representation are ensured through a rich network of collaborations, with a particular focus on ungendering voice and on the possibilities offered by trans voices.

 

Creative team:

Jorge Balça – theatre & opera director / academic

Alannah Marie Halay – composer / academic

Rachel Hann – designer / academic

 

 

 

the state of her

 

the state of her is an opera that examines the agency of women in the 21st century, by amalgamating the real stories of many women to tell the fictional story of one. Set in a nightclub, and entwining opera with EDM and pop music, we meet a woman who is a flawed, fully fleshed-out human being - the kind you might expect to find in a Channel 4 mini-series. We follow her on a journey, mapped out in a digital landscape, which makes us question our perception of consent, prejudice, and reality.

 

Creative team:

Sinéad O'Kelly – singer and lead creator

Franciska Ery – director and creator

Caitlin Smith – composer

 

 

Opera for the DEAF (Fish dance when they are not sleeping)

 

Created and addressed to both, Deaf and hearing people, this new piece looks and sounds very different from any other opera piece made exclusively by and for the hearing people. Taking place in the dream-like underwater world with the main characters being unreal incredible fish and space travellers from the future – it creates space for the exchange of communication, ways of perception and mutual influence of the two different cultures.

 

Creative team:

Jerzy Bielski – composer, music theatre maker

Tatiana Rosa – live electronics player, audio & video programmer, musician

Sandra Abouav

Thomas Brand

 

 

The Golden Stool

 

Creative team:

Gorges Ocloo – theatre maker, musician & performer

 

 

The girl without hands

 

The intention of this project is to make a music-theatre version of the fairytale ‘The girl without hands’ with children who are often excluded from cultural activities. These children have many points of view, many truths and we want to show these views through this story. Not only the content of the narration will be made together with them but also the singing, the music, the costumes, and the setting.

We chose this ancient fairy tale due to the deep archetypical layers in the characters and the processes they go through. What we hope to reflect with this piece is the complexity of our society in which vulnerable children must grow up.

 

Creative team:

Tom Dupont – freelance theatre director and filmmaker

Kapinga Gysel – singer and artistic director Mais Quelle Chanson

 

 

Link in my bio

 

Link in my bio centres an ethnically and socially diverse group of young people and what happens when their South London bus is hijacked by the supporters of an Alt-Right personality after he has been attacked by an unknown assailant/s.  An interactive, choose-your-own-adventure opera experimenting with the musical genres of grime, drill and drum ‘n’ bass, the piece explores what it is to be a young person impacted by the continued global growth of neo-fascism and social media’s role in the widespread justification of racism and xenophobia.

 

Creative team:

Jennifer Farmer – librettist, dramatist and dramaturg

Seta White – director and theatre-maker

Charlotte Marlow – composer

Dirty Freud – composer

Kane Husbands – movement director