New cross-border company, Ulster Touring Opera, launches with plans for live and Virtual Reality opera

Dafydd Hall Williams in rehearsal
for Don Giovanni

Opera in Ireland is getting a boost with the announcement of the creation of Ulster Touring Opera, a company which will tour productions to the historic nine counties of Ulster, six in Northern Ireland and three in the Republic of Ireland, thus making it a cross-border company. 

The company's artistic director is Dafydd Hall Williams. As a staff director, Dafydd Hall Williams' work has popped up on these pages with a number of companies, whilst other previous roles have included maternity cover for the Artistic Administrator for English Touring Opera, and Head of Artistic Management for Welsh National Opera. More recently he was General Manager for Northern Ireland Opera and administrator of the Charles Wood Festival.

The company's first staged productions will be in 2021, but before then there is a chance to experience what they have to offer via Virtual Reality!

Working with partners Volograms (a spin-out from Trinity College Dublin) and Belfast-based Sentireal, the company's Augmented Reality Opera project, will be using new Augmented Reality technology to allow audiences to access opera in a new way via smartphone or tablet. The first project is Mozart's Don Giovanni with Ross Ramgobin in the title role and Alan Ewing as the Commendatore directed by Dafydd Hall Williams. The company will be going to record and film in one of the world’s few 3D studios to create virtual holograms (volograms).

Full details from the Ulster Touring Opera website.