Past Work
The Complete Freedom of Truth
Izazov!
is a project working with young people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Italy and the UK supporting them to make documentary films around subjects that matter to them. Izazov! was part of the global AHRC project Changing the Story led by Leeds University.
Silent City
Was a community opera which we co-produced as part of Italy’s City of Culture 2019 in Matera, Italy. An extraordinary process, with music nurtured from the community by Nigel Osborne, libretto by Ubah Cristina Ali Farah and directed by James Bonas. The brilliant orchestra was Senza Spine from Bologna. More details on this blog page. Sadly, there is no film footage of the final performance but here are some photographs (Robert Golden) of the performance.
Get close to Opera
Opera Circus were one of the 5 partners invited to take part in an Erasmus + (KA2) research project called Get Close to Opera. The project lasted two years, finishing in September 2019 and was impressively well managed and led by Matera Hub. GCTO was awarded the title of Erasmus + Best Practice Project with a score of 98% out of 100%.
Opera Circus worked with Foteini Galanopoulou European Project Manager and Access Advisor. With Foteini’s experience and support we produced the attached manual, An Inclusive Workshop Process.
Voices of Culture
In 2018 we were one of 35 organisations taking part in a conversation about Social Inclusion. This was held in Brussels and produced an interesting report; it was a great deal of work, unpaid in our case, and much discussion around what some of use felt inclusion entailed. Worth doing but there wasn’t enough time with so many voices to produce work of real value and to discuss the subject in real depth.
Music and Conversation
It was during our time in the Island of Portland providing music for a gig called Let Music Unite and support when such was useful and needed, that the Bibby Stockholm barge docked not far from Portland while the men on board waited for their asylum claims to be assessed. In an effort to make their waiting time less distressing, we joined with Leigh and his team at the Dry Dock Pub to provide music workshops, music and conversation in a very warm, welcoming – albeit sometimes a bit cramped with everyone who joined in – but endlessly kind, caring, and safe space for the men on the barge to join in and feel less isolated.
TCFT and Bridport
Music Mind and Body
The Naciketa Project
The Naciketa Project is a long-term process to include music, health and wellbeing practices and involving multiple partners in the UK and India, currently being piloted in a number of different areas. Further information and updates in early 2022. Naciketa is a chamber opera written by Nigel Osborne, composer, with libretto Ariel Dorfman, playwright and poet.
The Covid Pandemic postponed Naciketa three times during 2020 and 2021 and the originally planned full production of the opera will no longer take place. We will work towards a complete staged version in the future with UK and European partners.
The Stumbling Stones
A work in progress exploration of a journey of a family to discover its past. The Merseyside based writer Julia Nelki wrote the book Villa Russo as an act of witness and of bringing together the history and threads of her family. Through doing so, she discovered characters and tales that she could never have imagined, and this production takes Julia’s voice and brings it to life on stage.
