Toward A Manifesto for Today’s Opera
Opera is hybrid,
agile,
collaborative,
heavy,
populist,
plural,
polyvocal,
complicated.
Opera is fundamentally interdisciplinary.
Its elementary unit is song.
It embraces all sounds of the human voice - all vocal techniques and styles.
It embraces all methods of orchestration - all instruments, electronics and amplification.
It’s sacred and profane, and we hope you bought yr ticket without knowing which one yr getting.
Opera is ancient.
& futuristic.
It has baggage.
We use and misuse that baggage when we create today’s opera.
It has an economic ecosystem – some works have been defined as opera or not-opera because of their economic situation rather than any artistic decision.
Making and singing opera is a very unUSUAL thing to do.
This should be embraced, encouraged, and unashamedly experimented upon.
We make opera that blurs the lines of designing, composing, playwriting, poetry, politics, improvisation, ritual, movement, song, speech and sound.
Opera encompasses all methods & innovations in storytelling, including those in theater, dance, poetry, performance art, protests, parades, talk shows, construction sites, office parties, escape rooms, sandboxes, subreddits, airport dog parks, and video games that are movies that are RPGs that are podcasts, etc.
We decide what opera is every time we make it.
More opera is happening out there than in here.
More opera is happening out there than we are aware of.
THIS WILL BE UPDATED AS WE HAVE MORE IDEAS.
Written by Gelsey Bell, Paul Pinto, and Dave Ruder.
We are part of a vibrant community of opera creators experimenting with and championing innovative work that celebrates the intertwining of language and music through experimentation, humor, and collaboration.
SEE WHAT WE'RE DOING NEXT.
agile,
collaborative,
heavy,
populist,
plural,
polyvocal,
complicated.
Opera is fundamentally interdisciplinary.
Its elementary unit is song.
It embraces all sounds of the human voice - all vocal techniques and styles.
It embraces all methods of orchestration - all instruments, electronics and amplification.
It’s sacred and profane, and we hope you bought yr ticket without knowing which one yr getting.
Opera is ancient.
& futuristic.
It has baggage.
We use and misuse that baggage when we create today’s opera.
It has an economic ecosystem – some works have been defined as opera or not-opera because of their economic situation rather than any artistic decision.
Making and singing opera is a very unUSUAL thing to do.
This should be embraced, encouraged, and unashamedly experimented upon.
We make opera that blurs the lines of designing, composing, playwriting, poetry, politics, improvisation, ritual, movement, song, speech and sound.
Opera encompasses all methods & innovations in storytelling, including those in theater, dance, poetry, performance art, protests, parades, talk shows, construction sites, office parties, escape rooms, sandboxes, subreddits, airport dog parks, and video games that are movies that are RPGs that are podcasts, etc.
We decide what opera is every time we make it.
More opera is happening out there than in here.
More opera is happening out there than we are aware of.
THIS WILL BE UPDATED AS WE HAVE MORE IDEAS.
Written by Gelsey Bell, Paul Pinto, and Dave Ruder.
We are part of a vibrant community of opera creators experimenting with and championing innovative work that celebrates the intertwining of language and music through experimentation, humor, and collaboration.
SEE WHAT WE'RE DOING NEXT.