I am excited to share with you that an opera that I was involved in, is now available to stream internationally online!
In 2019, I sang the role of Pandora in “The Fire of Olympus”, an opera composed by Tim Benjamin, alongside a wonderful cast of performers and creatives. The production toured across the North West of England, transforming theatres in Burnley, Huddersfield, Manchester, York, Stoke-On-Trent, and Todmorden into a bleak, totalitarian dystopia ruled by Zeus.
As part of his vision for the opera, Tim Benjamin, (The composer and director of “The Fire of Olympus”) organised for the opera to be professionally filmed in a Manchester studio. It premiered at the Leeds International Film Festival in 2019 and is now available to stream on Marquee TV. A streaming service that provides access to “the world’s best dance, opera, theatre, and music on demand.” I am so excited that this production is now available alongside performances from the Royal Opera House, Arena di Verona, Opera North, The Bolshoi, and many more.
The experience of filming the opera was great preparation for 2020. As the world adapted to the restrictions in place to save lives due to the Corona Virus, I and many performing artists had to learn how to present their skills and connect with audiences through the lens of a camera.
The opportunity of working to camera with Tim Benjamin, Adam Gill, and Tobias Marshall, helped me explore different skills such as acting and performing to camera, which is more intimate and requires your facial and physical expressions to be more emotional and minimal rather than energetic and exaggerated as would be the case for a live on-stage performance.
It could also be argued that the piece was ahead of its time, as it involved a digital chorus, which combined the voices of over 1000 volunteers from across the North. The aim was to create the effect of a large, disorderly crowd. At the time, the use of the digital chorus meant that the piece could travel easier and be presented to venues of different sizes. In 2020, the unseen chorus has become a staple in sharing large-scale music through digital media. I have no doubt that we will see more of this in the future.
All images have been reproduced with kind permission from East View Film and Radius Opera ( copyright East View Film & Radius Opera )
You can read more about the opera here:
