Part oratorio, part rave: Conor Mitchell's MASS headlines Belfast's Outburst Queer Art Festival and involves the Ulster Orchestra, four soloists and six queer film makers

Image from MASS by Madonna Adib.

The Northern Irish composer and theatre maker Conor Mitchell popped up on this blog earlier this year when his piece, The Musician: A Horror Opera for Children was presented at the Belfast Children's Festival by the Belfast Ensemble, of which Mitchell is artistic director. The Musician was a terrific piece, which I caught on-line [see my article], now Mitchell is returning to the stage collaboration with the Ulster Orchestra.

Conor Mitchell's MASS is being presented at the 15th Outburst Queer Art Festival on 17 and 18 November 2021 at the Telegraph Building, Belfast. This is the second time that Mitchell's work has headlined the festival, in 2019 his work, Abomination: DUP Opera was performed at Outburst. The new work, MASS is described at part oratorio and part rave, the audience will be able to walk around the space and view the 64 musicians of the Ulster Orchestra, along with four soloists soprano Giselle Allen, mezzo Sarah Richmond, baritone Christopher Cull and tenor John Porter, conducted by Conor Mitchell.

Six films by queer international filmmakers - Madonna Adib (Syria), Paulo Mendel & Vi Grunvald (Brazil), Mariah Garnett (USA), Simone Harris (Jamaica), Mohammad Shawky Hassan (Egypt), Debalina Majumder (India) - will be projected in cinematic scale onto the walls of the building.

Full details from the Outburst website.