Opera weekender at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Opera Passion, Power and Politics installation
baroque theatre for Handel's Rinaldo (c) Victoria & Albert Museum, London

The Victoria and Albert Museum has surrounded its Opera: Passion, Power and Politics exhibition (see my review) with a huge variety of live events showcasing opera in its wide variety of forms. This weekend, 10-12 November 2017, there is the Opera weekender with a weekend of free performances, pop-up events, talks and workshops. 

The weekend launches with the opera Before sleep at the end of love, a contemporary tragedy, written in our era of broken encounters induced by social media and dating apps, constructed around the writing of Donald W Winnicott, Roland Barthes and Friedrich Nietzsche, composed by Jack Sheen and Sarah Hardie. Orlando Gough's Hospital Passion Play combines live performance with filmed inserts from stroke rehabilitation wards, a collaboration between artists, medical professionals, vocal groups and patients.

Other performers include TETRA Early music quartet, and pop-up performances from the Royal College of Music International Opera School. There will be screenings of Garsington Opera's 2017 production of Handel's Semele and an animation of Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen. The team behind Grange Park Opera will talk about the building of the new opera house and Streetwise Opera is offering a singing and acting workshop, no experience needed.

Full information from the Victoria and Albert Museum website.