Vocalypse Productions Presents:

Opera From Scratch

August 20th through 26th, 2012
Dalhousie University Music School, Halifax, NS

Please forward this press release to interested parties!

Opera From Scratch is a one week long summer workshop from August that will help composers and singers develop short operas for solo voice and piano. Five composers will be paired with five singers as of April 15th, 2012. Each composer will be expected to complete a new ten minute composition six weeks prior to the August workshop, and each singer will be required to learn it before attending. Composers will be asked to base their mini-opera on a well known Nova Scotian figure.

During Opera from Scratch, the five mini-operas will be intensively work shopped in consultation with senior composer James Rolfe and singing teacher Lucy Hayes Davis in private daily sessions. A resident pianist will be available for private rehearsals, and master classes will be given by a dramaturge, a theatre director, and a specialist in new music singing. Composers and singers will be expected to attend each others’ lessons in order to gain insight into their respective creative processes, and all master classes will be available to all participants.

The opening event of Opera from Scratch will be lecture on the history and themes of opera by well known CBC radio host and music educator Adrian Hoffman, and the week will culminate in a free gala public performance of the five newly created works.

Opera from Scratch will emphasize an organic/collaborative process wherein composers and singers are exposed to each others’ working methods. All will benefit from a better understanding of the depth of thought, creativity, and effort, by both composers and singers that goes into the development of even a short ten minute work.

For more information and applications go to: www.vocalypse.ca

Opera From Scratch is generously sponsored by:
The Nova Scotia Department of Communties, Culture, and Heritage
Cultural Activities Program