#OperaHarmony: creating micro-operitas on-line in response to the crisis

Opera director Ella Marchment has come up with an intriguing response to the shuttering of opera companies and the close confines required by the current crisis, #OperaHarmony. Micro-operas presented on-line, pairing composer and librettist, and teaming them with director and performers who all record their contributions to create a mini-opera which is shared on line.

Marchment has evidently got a strong response, and #OperaHarmony already has its first composer/librettist pairing, composer Heathcliff Blair and librettist/director John Ramster are planning a work on the Spanish flu epidemic.

As well as working as a director and teacher at venues such as Guildhall School of Music and Drama, The Julliard School, Dutch National Opera, Wexford Festival Opera and The Royal College of Music, Ella is one of the founders of SWAP'ra [see my article], and Ella has herself been responsible for the development of a significant body of new opera with her ensemble the Helios Collective, and the company premiered my opera The Genesis of Frankenstein at the CLF Art Café in 2015 [available on Vimeo].

More about #OperaHarmony on its Facebook page.