FEDORA

Education Prize 2020
Shortlist

1607

12 / 13

OPERA PRIMA –OPERA AL RAVAL

Spain
Gran Teatre del Liceu

Opera al Raval  Visual cc Paola de Grenet

Presentation

The Gran Teatre del Liceu has initiated a series of processes and productions with comunities, OPERA PRIMA, and the first project will take place in the Barcelona Raval neighborhood with a newly created opera.

The spoken languages are among others Bengali, Filipino, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. Raval is the neighborhood that has more associations by citizens in the world, making possible a real dialogue of the local individual and collectives and their involvement through the process. El Raval is a neighborhood marked by stigma. Continuously "used" by the media highlighting negative aspects associated with multiculturalism and not so much positive ones.

Through our project Opera Prima - Opera al Raval, inhabitants of the Raval neighborhood will have the possibility to participate in three areas of the creation of an opera: content, artistic interpretation and the construction of technical elements."

The community artistic process, accompanied by artists and professionals of the sector, it proposes the possibility of participating to the neighbors of the Raval in three areas of the process of creation of an opera: the content, the artistic interpretation and the construction of technical elements:

o Musical and dramaturgical writing.

o Musical, choral, theater and dance performance.

o Construction of technical elements / stage according to professions around opera

Accompanied by professional artists, followed by a team specialized in opera and community creation, generating non-formal training spaces to build a knowledge base of shared art and links. 

There will be professionals in the four professional roles - composition, dramaturgy, musical direction and stage direction - who will be willing to contaminate their work from what the neighborhood EXPRESSES. The text and music of this opera

proposal must be developed from listening to what they are the neighbors want to explain. This is why it is about being professionals with experiences with other community projects or with a special sensitivity, eager to share and understand that in this experience, we do not seek the individual protagonist but a collective experience.

MUSIC: Arnau Tordera
LIBRETO: Victoria Szpunberg
MUSIC DIRECTION: Alfons Reverté
STAGE DIRECTION: Ricard Soler

During meetings with neighbors of the neighborhood will be held to inspire the text of the opera, on a theme previously defined by the artistic team in coordination with the Liceu.

The participants / artistic interpreters of the project will be selected (the Raval has 2 professional music schools, 2 non-professional music schools and approximately 10 amateur choirs).

The opera will be delivered in November 2020 (music and text)

From then on, the collaboration on technical aspects will be activated with artisans from the neighborhood, Liceu professionals and external professionals.

PHASES OF THE PROJECT

PHASE 1 PRE-PRODUCTION PHASE

PHASE 2. COMMUNITY AND ARTISTIC PHASE

PHASE 3. COMMUNITY ARTISTIC STAGE

PHASE 4. SET UP OF THE OPERA

PHASE 5. REHEARSALS AND PERFORMANCES

The main goals are:

  • To reach people who for different reasons have barriers to access the Theatre
  • Approach Opera to a diverse population: esteem, sensitivity, knowledge.
  • Open the doors of the theater to a population that does not feel the European cultural tradition of opera as its own right.
  • Create synergies and community experiences between cultural institutions, companies dedicated to labour insertion, neighborhood associations, migrant groups, etc.
  • Promote cultural diversity and social cohesion as well as the recognition of identities and multiple voices.
  • Attract new audiences and stimulate their participation.
  • Generate cultural exchange and personalized training towards a direct intervention in the heritage content of opera, promoting cultural diversity and social cohesion, with the recognition of multiple identities and expressed transformed into a participatory representation of the opera.
  • Community dialogue.
  • To reduce the effects of inequality, also in the culture sector.
  • To promote training opportunities, job creation for people at risk of exclusion, co-design and cultural co-creation, and work to include diverse profiles and skills throughout the creation.
  • To empower people and communities to become creators in their own right, to tell the stories that reflect their lives and resonate with their neighbors, to express their version of European values, to become active citizens, with agency and a meaningful right to be heard in the national cultural conversation.     

Artistic Team

Victoria Szpunberg

Victoria Szpunberg

Librettist

Arnau Tordera

Arnau Tordera

Composer

Alfons Reverté

Alfons Reverté

Conductor

Ricard Soler

Ricard Soler

Stage Director

Partners

Vicomtech

Spain

Hand_with_heart_-_white

Support sustainable innovation in opera and dance

Outdated browser

For a better experience,
keep your browser up to date.

Learn more