FEDORA - HERE AND THERE

FEDORA

Opera Prize 2022
Nominee

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Jury
Nominee

HERE AND THERE - UNTOLD

Platform member

Netherlands
O. Festival for Opera.Music.Theatre

Crowdfunding Results

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O. 2022_O. Lab - Alex Ho (c) Rosa Quist © Rosa Quist i

HERE AND THERE - UNTOLD brings together an opera, vocal projects and communities that deal with diaspora. Untold stories of people that are trying to find connection; a search of how to connect to their homeland and who they are in the country where they live. But also, how does the diaspora influences the art they create.

The multi-disciplined opera UNTOLD by the British-Chinese composer Alex Ho is part of the HERE AND THERE project of O. Festival for Opera. Music. Theatre. and the creative director Rajiv Bhagwanbali.

About the Project

UNTOLD is an opera by Alex Ho exploring British-Chinese identity through music and movement, directed by Julia Cheng and performed by Keith Pun and Tangram. Long before Cinderella, considered to have been first transcribed in the 17th century by Italian writer Giambattista Basile, this tale is in truth one version of the much older story of Ye Xian from the Tang Dynasty from the early 9th century. UNTOLD retells this story by integrating contemporary classical music, movement, and Chinese and western instruments into an immersive experience that blends genres, art-forms and cultures. UNTOLD is a response to the rising racism East Asian communities face.

As part of his opera, Alex Ho presents OUR CHINATOWNS, OUR COMMUNITIES, OUR STORIES within the HERE AND THERE framework. In response to the rise in racism against Chinese communities, the project is re-engaging cities in their Chinatowns by hosting an event involving the public in Chinese cuisine and in projects where Chinese artists and community members create new artworks.

For HERE & THERE Alex Ho and creative director Rajiv Bhagwanbali will also connect two different artists from two different cities. Their encounters will result in a small music theatre production about shared roots versus different perspectives, how culture and environment affect each other, and how the past and future of Europe is shaped by migration.

Why should you support us?

"HERE AND THERE is an exciting project which unites different communities. In a positive way we look at the diaspora of people all over Europe. The opera Untold by Alex Ho deals with the story of Cinderella, which Europeans think it s their story but it existed already in the 8th century in China and came to us through the silk road. Alex Ho shows that we are more similar in our mutual feelings by telling the same stories. Funding this project will help reaching out to more communities in Europe by sharing our big stories that unite us."

- Guy Coolen, artistic director O. Festival for Opera. Music. Theatre.

Who are we?

Alex Ho is a British-Chinese composer based in London. Winner of the UK Critics' Circle Young Talent Award for his "compelling and individual" compositions, he has had pieces performed/commissioned for the London Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Radio 3, Royal Opera House a.o. Ho won the Arthur Bliss Prize 2017, the George Butterworth Award 2020, and was shortlisted for a Scottish New Music Award 2021. He is Artist-in-Residence at Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier and Associate Composer at Oxford Lieder Festival. He studied at Oxford and Cambridge universities and is currently completing a doctorate at the Royal College of Music with a full AHRC scholarship (LAHP studentship supported by RCM).

Rajiv Bhagwhanbali has been working for over 15 years in the arts field. First as a dancer, performer and organizer, later as an artistic director and connector. With a passion for street culture and coming from a hyper diverse city (Rotterdam) Bhagwhanbali is always looking for connection between different art fields and cultures. The way Bhagwhanbali works is through an honest curiosity in the other and creating ownership for all involved parties of the project. For O. he directed various projects such as the community-video-opera Home Sweet Home (2020) and ICONS (2021). He won the Doro Siepelprijs in 2022, a prize for a Rotterdam cultural organization or person that makes an effort to attract a new audience.

O. Festival for Opera. Music. Theatre. in Rotterdam is for visitors driven by curiosity. O. champions opera and opens up the genre. O. focuses on adventure, talented makers, and crosslinks between genres ranging from performance to electropop and from tearjerkers to street culture. O. thinks outside the box. O. is open-minded. O. evokes emotions, innovates, and connects. O. is a festival as diverse as Rotterdam itself. In 2023 O. will take place in late May around the Whitsun weekend (a public holiday in the Netherlands).

Tangram is a London-based artist collective growing transnational community by creatively celebrating Chinese cultures. They are newly appointed Associate Artists at LSO St Luke's 2022-25 and Associate Ensemble at SOAS University of London. Made up of researchers, composers and performers of Chinese and western instruments, the group launched in 2019 as recipients of the Chinese Arts Now Artist Development Bursary and winners of Nonclassical's Battle of the Bands.

Julia Cheng is a creative director, choreographer and dance artist whose work has been presented internationally. Her critically acclaimed choreography on Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club was the winner of 2022 Stage Debut Awards, and was also nominated for the 2022 Olivier Award (Best Theatre Choreography). She is also founder of the creative collective House of Absolute. An advocate of cross-disciplinary collaborations, Julia has worked with, among others, poet Lavinia Greenlaw, musicians Shingai and Floacist, composers Simon McCorry and Alex Ho, artist/sculptor Laila Muraywid, curator Kerry-Campbell and theatre director/activist Daniel York-Loh.

Julia Cheng

Artistic Director

Partners

Muziektheater Transparant

Belgium

OPERA BALLET VLAANDEREN

Belgium

Komische Oper Berlin

Germany

DE SINGEL ANTWERP

Belgium

Royal opera house Covent Garden London

United Kingdom

MUSIKTHEATERTAGE WIEN

Austria

BRITTEN PEARS ARTS

United Kingdom

O. Festival for Opera.Music.Theatre

Netherlands

Supporters

MANGOPAY CM donated 1 year ago

Tsz Kin Pun donated 1 year ago

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Zhe Zhang donated 1 year ago

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Fannie Luk donated 1 year ago

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Tsz Kin Pun donated 1 year ago

Ka Shing Tse donated 1 year ago

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Mark Tousey donated 1 year ago

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