Mahogany Opera Group's Various Stages Festival 2017

Mahogany Opera Group's Various Stages Festival is returning in 2017, with an all-day event at the ICA on 24 February 2017. There will be a chance to see showcases for six projects in development, and each showcase will include contextual information as well as a critical feedback session afterwards; scary but necessary for artists when developing new works. Almost as important, the festival will provide attendees and artists the chance to network as well. The resident ensemble for the works will be the Riot Ensemble.

The operas being developed which will be performed on 24 February are:

• The Finding by Lucy Bradley, Richard Melkonian and Zoë Palmer - an exploration of suffering, loss and vulnerability through female voices across generations, drawing on magical realism and incorporating a choir of mothers and babies
• In a Grove by Christopher Cerrone, Stephanie Fleischmann and Brian Mertes -an immersive opera inspired by a short story by Japanese author Ryūnosuke Akutagawa examining an incident of love torn by violence from multiple perspectives
• Mưa (Rain) by Dai Fujikura and Dam Van Huynh - a movement opera using the ancient art of Vietnamese water puppetry to explore life experience
• Palace of Junk by Metta Theatre (Oliver Brignall and Poppy Burton-Morgan) - a multimedia retelling of the tragic tale of the Collyer brothers, an infamous pair of hoarders, and an exploration into hoarding disorder
• Traffick by Nic Chalmers and Emma-Ruth Richards - a chamber opera that unravels the experience of young men and women who have been trapped by the terrifying underground world of human trafficking. Developed with the Royal Opera House
• Calamity/Billy by Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse, Gavin Bryars, Ben Johnston and Michael Ondaatje - a double portrait of two iconic wild west heroes Billy the Kid and Calamity Jane that shows a different and more intimate side to the characters