Live Performance
21:00-21:45, Tuesday 15th September 2020
The Cockpit
Music & Words: Improvised by the company
Concept & Structure: Leo Doulton
“We sing an old song,
Our memories united
Of our world that die-
I-
I-.”
The Mind journeys across the stars, a harmonious collective consciousness of peoples from a now-lost world. It sings to itself, far more than any individual could be – but, while reflecting on the past, its individual fragments emerge and try to remember what they once were. Drawn into memories of the crisis, the Mind begins to schism and crack.
An improvised opera and ritual, drawing on the audience’s experiences and stories to create a new collective Mind each night. Its world will be built and lost over the course of the evening.
The company previously performed The Perfect Opera at Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival in 2019.
The initial broadcast included the company talking about how they’ve brought together tools from tabletop roleplaying games, sci-fi, Noh theatre and opera to create a show and (pandemic permitting) make a little show live onscreen based on the audience’s suggestions.
All ages
Produced by Virtually Opera
Venue: The Cockpit, Gateforth Street, London NW8 8EH.
www.facebook.com/VirtuallyOpera/
If you would like to help Tête à Tête and the artists creating this show, take a look at this.
Concept & Structure: Leo Doulton
Music Director: Erika Gundesen
Voice: CN Lester
Viola: Hannah Gardiner
On the same day:
- The Crocodile of Old Kang Pow (Interactive Broadcast), 18:00-19:00
- Timeless Figure (Live Performance), 19:00-19:40
- Paradise Lost (Interactive Broadcast), 19:45-21:00
Concept & Structure: Leo Doulton
Music Director: Erika Gundesen
Voice: CN Lester
Viola: Hannah Gardiner
Director and writer Leo Doulton studied History at University College London and Opera Making at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He has worked in the U.K., Germany, Canada, and the USA. His work has won the Sound and Music Francis Chagrin Award, and been nominated for the Offie Award for Best Opera, and the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award.
He has recently directed productions of works by Mozart, Shakespeare, and Kurt Weill, in addition to several world premieres, presenting work at the Bloomsbury Theatre, the Arcola Theatre, the Omnibus Theatre, Camden People’s Theatre, and the Grimeborn, Edinburgh Fringe, and Tête à Tête Opera festivals. He is the Artistic Director of Virtually Opera.
His plays and libretti have been performed at the Royal Opera House, the Wigmore Hall, the Bloomsbury Theatre, the London Transport Museum, and the Omnibus Theatre. His translations include Don Giovanni.
Erika Gundesen is a distinguished graduate of the University of British Columbia in Canada as well as the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, where she was awarded a Masters in Piano Performance as well as an Artist Diploma as a répétiteur. She has also been an assistant conductor at the Guildhall School, a National Opera Studio Young Artist, a Britten Pears Young Artist, and a Scottish Opera Emerging Artist. Erika has worked as a freelance pianist, coach and conductor in Canada and the UK, including recitals, opera, cabaret and theatre productions. She is the music director for Virtually Opera. Recent credits include: La Belle Hélène (New Sussex Opera), Queen of the Mist (Pint of Wine Theatre), The Perfect Opera (Virtually Opera), Magic Flute, Káťa Kabanová, Anthropocene, Rigoletto (Scottish Opera), Sweeney Todd, My Fair Lady, A Chorus Line (Geoids Musical Theatre), Whistle Down the Wind, Parade, Oliver!, West Side Story, Sweeney Todd (Vivo d’Arte), Così fan tutte (Opera Loki), Pirates of Penzance (St. Monica’s Players), The Tale of Januarie, Ariane, The Rape of Lucretia, Side by Side by Sondheim (Guildhall School), Parade (London Theatre Workshop).