Communities across Lewisham will come together to co-create and perform their own site-specific opera as part of the 2022 Borough of Culture celebrations.
The project is an exciting new initiative designed by dynamic ACE-funded arts charity Music and Theatre forAll (MTFA).
The innovative songwriter and jazz musician Gwyneth Herbert will be the composer for the project and lead a team of professional creatives who will work with the community to compose the music and script, design sets, perform, manage and advertise every element of the opera production.
MTFA founder and internationally acclaimed director Thomas Guthrie comments: “We are thrilled to launch our Urban Operas in Lewisham to coincide with the 2022 year of culture. The project is designed to give vulnerable communities a voice, develop skills and reduce isolation, and build a spectacular show that the entire community can be proud of. Following the inaugural performance in Lewisham, in which we are thrilled to be working with composer-singer-extraordinaire Gwyneth Herbert, we will take Urban Operas to communities around the country.”
Organisations taking part include Lewisham Education Arts Network, Lewisham Music Hub, Trinity Laban, Rose Bruford College, Phoenix and Lewisham Homes, and Youth First. All partner organisations have written letters of support expressing excitement and eagerness to be involved, and partner surveys have indicated that 100% of partners expect the project to be “beneficial to Lewisham” and “have a positive impact on mental and physical wellbeing”
The project builds on the legacy of more than three decades of work that the Royal Opera House invested in devising community operas in their Write an Opera programme, which was the basis for their Thurrock Production Park launch, directed by Thomas Guthrie in 2010, and noted as “one of the ROH’s grandest achievements”.
Following the inaugural performance in Lewisham, MTFA will take Urban Operas to communities around the country. In addition to composer Gwyneth Herbert, the creative team also includes Thomas Guthrie as director, acclaimed Lewisham-based designers Ruth Paton and Rhys Jarman; TV movement director and choreographer Sarah Dowling, and Lewisham’s own singing animateur Clare Caddick.
For more information about the project, please visit Urban Operas – MTFA.
