Re
:
Discover
The Re:Discover festival is Streetwise Opera’s flagship project in 2024. Over the next year, we will co-create a triple bill of new operas inspired by the music of composers of African and Caribbean heritage.
The project will explore, and reintroduce Streetwise Opera participants to, a range of composers including Ignatius Sancho, George Bridgetower, Joseph Bologne (Chevalier de Saint-Georges), Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds and Shirley Thompson. Re:Discover will draw inspiration from, and respond to, the music of these composers.
A librettist and three composers have been commissioned to co-create new stories and music, alongside Streetwise Opera performers, culminating in three new short operas. A director in each region will work with a group of individuals who have experienced homelessness, to bring these pieces to life and to work with the performers to stage them.
The operas, which will be approximately 12 – 15 minutes in length, will be created in each of the three cities in which Streetwise Opera works: London, Nottingham and Manchester. We will present each piece as part of a festival, directed by soprano Abigail Kelly, in the summer of 2024.
Soprano Abigail Kelly joins Re:Discover as Festival Director and will lead on co-creating an artistic programme that celebrates the work of classical and folk composers of African and Caribbean heritage.
Writer and actor Paterson Joseph is the Librettist for Re:Discover and will work across all three cities to co-create three individual, but connected, stories with Streetwise Opera participants.
We have commissioned composers Pete Letanka in London, Lavender Rodriguez in Manchester and David Austin Grey in Nottingham to work alongside Streetwise Opera participants and clients at frontline homelessness services to create the music for three short operas.
More artists, and dates for events, will be announced soon.
