Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival 2020

Festival Events

20

September

The Minutes of the Hildegard von Bingen Society...

Throughout the Festival, Online. This piece transplants, re-roots, and propagates a queer, feminist gardening society founded by 12th century mystic and musician Hidegard von Bingen.

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23

September

Beethoven Was A Lesbian

18:00-19:00, Interactive Broadcast. An homage to Pauline Oliveros in extravagant temporal drag. Through playful dialogue and promiscuous citation, it seduces the tropes of classical music in order to dominate them.

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23

September

Buddha and the Monkey King

19:30-20:30, Interactive Broadcast. A new opera adapted from ‘Journey to the West’ by Wu Cheng'en, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.

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24

September

Bubbles the Zebrafish & The No. 8 Bus

18:00-19:00, Interactive Broadcast. Bubbles the Zebrafish & the No. 8 Bus is an opera for children, exploring the effects and solutions to plastic in the Pacific Ocean.

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24

September

Bread and Circuses

20:00-21:00, Interactive Broadcast. A family epic in the world of professional wrestling, telling the stories that have shaped the political culture which enabled the Trump presidency.

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25

September

The Paradis Files

19:00-20:00, Interactive Broadcast. The tale of a blind composer and pianist - behind her success is the story of a woman who was used as a source of ‘inspiration’ and had to grapple with a daily life of endless medical treatments.

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30

October

Elena

19:00 - 20:00, Interactive Broadcast. Three minds, three women, three generations with a common past that persists in the form of transgenerational trauma.

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29

October

Earth Makes No Sound

Online as part of Cubitt Sessions Digital Stage for 2020. Filament Theatre’s collaborative choral work inspired by the elements and climate change.

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29

October

Crewdson & Cevanne

Online as part of Cubitt Sessions Digital Stage for 2020. A collaboration between an award-winning composer, an electronic instrument-builder, and first soloist of the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

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29

October

Chris Stout

Online as part of Cubitt Sessions Digital Stage for 2020. Chris Stout and Catriona McKay fuse the traditions of their native Shetland and Dundee with contemporary music in a special version for Cubitt Sessions.

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29

October

Ayanna Witter-Johnson

Online as part of Cubitt Sessions Digital Stage for 2020. Classical music & R&B fusion. A performance dedicated to Jamaican Independence, mixing original songs and classics from the great Jamaican songbook.

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26

July

The Other Side of the Sea & beyond

19:30-20:10, Live Performance. A programme of operatic excerpts performed solo by soprano Héloïse Werner

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29

July

OMTF – Resilience and Reinvention

14:00-17:00, Interactive Broadcast. The Opera and Music Theatre Forum chairs panel discussions looking at how companies adapt to changing times.

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08

September

The Bridge Between Breaths

18:00-19:00, Interactive Broadcast. An artist shares the stage with singers and instrumentalists, responding to sound with brushstrokes on canvas. Deaf and hearing audiences meet in the space between breaths.

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08

September

RAIN – “Sarah”

SOLD OUT. 19:30-20:10, Live Performance. The love affair between a sinister novelist and a married woman, flourishing in the turbulent times of the London Blitz, ends suddenly, igniting his love and jealousy.

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09

September

Tiresias 2.0

19:00-19:30, Live Performance. The Tiresias 2.0 Programme carries a corrupted and evolving cultural code of the final generation of humans with nothing but a plant pot for company.

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10

September

Folk Tales

SOLD OUT. 19:00-19:35, Live Performance. Folk Tales will magic you away to world where symbols have as much power as actions, and a word can change your fate.

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10

September

RAIN – “Sarah”

20:00-21:00, Interactive Broadcast. The love affair between a sinister novelist and a married woman, flourishing in the turbulent times of the London Blitz, ends suddenly, igniting his love and jealousy.

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11

September

Tiresias 2.0

18:00-19:00, Interactive Broadcast. The Tiresias 2.0 Programme carries a corrupted and evolving cultural code of the final generation of humans with nothing but a plant pot for company.

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11

September

Song of Isis, Goddess of Love

20:15-21:15, Interactive Broadcast. Isis, the Ancient Egyptian goddess, searches for her murdered husband, expressing the sorrow of all women whose loved ones have disappeared.

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12

September

Folk Tales

17:00-18:00, Interactive Broadcast. Folk Tales will magic you away to world where symbols have as much power as actions, and a word can change your fate.

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12

September

Paradise Lost

18:00-19:00, Live Performance. Milton’s Paradise Lost seen through the eyes of Lucifer — a one-man opera performed by countertenor Lawrence Zazzo

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12

September

The Manna Threshold

19:15-20:15, Interactive Broadcast. In 2270, two beings in different stages of immortality negotiate their respective conditions.

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12

September

The Crocodile of Old Kang Pow – ACT I

SOLD OUT. 20:15-20:55, Live Performance. The Marquis De Sade has lost his libido and must find it or lose his head. His quest takes him to a mythical world to petition its Crocodile God of fertility.

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14

September

The Agency

18:00-19:00, Interactive Broadcast. An urgent new eco-noir opera; two female detectives - one in the American Civil War, one today working for for the Pinkerton Detective Agency start to question the role it plays in their worlds

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14

September

BIRD

19:00-19:40, Live Performance. The life and death of BIRD. Human flesh is transmuted into the form of a bird as vocalisations and birdsong are electronically transformed.

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14

September

A&E

19:45-20:55, Interactive Broadcast. A compact opera about love in modern times. Conceptual, intense, fun… a minimalistic x-ray of our emotional patterns nowadays.

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14

September

A Time of Empty Tales

SOLD OUT. 21:00-21:40, Live Performance. The Lost One is trapped a decrepit basement with the sinister Friend who begins to steer her into the chaos of addiction and religious fundamentalism.

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15

September

The Crocodile of Old Kang Pow – ACT I

18:00-19:00, Interactive Broadcast. The Marquis De Sade has lost his libido and must find it or lose his head. His quest takes him to a mythical world to petition its Crocodile God of fertility.

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15

September

Timeless Figure

SOLD OUT. 19:00-19:40, Live Performance. Timeless Figure is about Time. See J.B.Joyce, making clocks in Shropshire in 1680, transported into the world of trains, telegraph and ever-faster movement.

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15

September

Paradise Lost

19:45-21:00, Interactive Broadcast. Milton’s Paradise Lost seen through the eyes of Lucifer — a one-man opera performed by countertenor Lawrence Zazzo

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15

September

We Sing/I Sang

21:00-21:45, Live Performance. A collective consciousness starts to schism and crack. An improvised opera and ritual drawing on the audience's experiences and stories.

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16

September

A Time of Empty Tales

18:00-19:00, Interactive Broadcast. The Lost One is trapped a decrepit basement with the sinister Friend who begins to steer her into the chaos of addiction and religious fundamentalism.

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16

September

Minutes to Midnight: A Nuclear Opera

19:00-19:40, Live Performance. Deep in the bowels of a bunker in North Dakota, 20-some-year-olds Lieutenants Martinez and Walker have one job: follow protocol. A new president is about to be elected.

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16

September

Last Party on Earth

SOLD OUT. 21:00-21:30, Live Performance. Evoking the niceties of early opera, this musical comedy looks at the end of human life on Earth.

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16

September

BIRD

20:00-21:00, Interactive Broadcast. The life and death of BIRD. Human flesh is transmuted into the form of a bird as vocalisations and birdsong are electronically transformed.

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17

September

Timeless Figure

18:00-19:00, Interactive Broadcast. Timeless Figure is about Time. See J.B.Joyce, making clocks in Shropshire in 1680, transported into the world of trains, telegraph and ever-faster movement.

More Info

17

September

The Trilobite, Or The Fall Of Mr Williams

19:00-19:30, Live Performance. A journey to Exmoor. A love triangle. A near-death experience. A lecture in geology. An opera. All played out in mid-air.

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17

September

We Sing/I Sang

19:40-20:40, Interactive Broadcast. A collective consciousness starts to schism and crack. An improvised opera and ritual drawing on the audience's experiences and stories.

More Info

17

September

The Hive (Covid Cut)

21:00-21:50, Live Performance. Violent real life crimes and magical realism mix, with forensic doctors and fairytale victims to explore our interest in female serial killers.

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18

September

Minutes To Midnight: A Nuclear Opera

18:00-19:00, Interactive Broadcast. Deep in the bowels of a bunker in North Dakota, 20-some-year-olds Lieutenants Martinez and Walker have one job: follow protocol. A new president is about to be elected.

More Info

18

September

Her War

19:00-19:30, Live Performance. A ground-breaking physical theatre opera exploring the female experience of PTSD for those returning from active service after WWI.

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18

September

Last Party On Earth

19:40-20:40, Interactive Broadcast. Evoking the niceties of early opera, this musical comedy looks at the end of human life on Earth.

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18

September

Persephone’s Dream

20:45-21:15, Live Performance. A digital/live hybrid opera that tells a story of withdrawal from the world. Unpicking the rites of hibernation and exploring whether, in our waking sleep, we can still yearn, struggle, resist - be human.

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19

September

The Trilobite, Or The Fall Of Mr Williams

18:00-19:00, Interactive Broadcast. A journey to Exmoor. A love triangle. A near-death experience. A lecture in geology. An opera. All played out in mid-air.

More Info

19

September

Buddha and the Monkey King

19:00-19:30, Live Performance. A new opera adapted from ‘Journey to the West’ by Wu Cheng'en, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.

More Info

19

September

The Hive (Covid Cut)

19:45-20:45, Interactive Broadcast. Violent real life crimes and magical realism mix, with forensic doctors and fairytale victims to explore our interest in female serial killers.

More Info

20

September

Bubbles the Zebrafish & The No. 8 Bus

13:30-14:15, Live Performance. Bubbles the Zebrafish & the No. 8 Bus is an opera for children, exploring the effects and solutions to plastic in the Pacific Ocean.

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20

September

Bread and Circuses

20:00-20:45, Live Performance. A family epic in the world of professional wrestling, telling the personal stories that have shaped the political culture which enabled the Trump presidency.

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22

September

Her War

18:00-19:00, Interactive Broadcast. A ground-breaking physical theatre opera exploring the female experience of PTSD for those returning from active service after WWI.

More Info

22

September

Persephone’s Dream

21:00-22:00, Interactive Broadcast. A digital/live hybrid opera that tells a story of withdrawal from the world. Unpicking the rites of hibernation and exploring whether, in our waking sleep, we can still yearn, struggle, resist - be human.

More Info

The Minutes of the Hildegard von Bingen Society for Gardening Companions

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Beethoven Was A Lesbian

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Elena

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The Bridge Between Breaths

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RAIN – “Sarah”

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Tiresias 2.0

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Folk Tales

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Song of Isis, Goddess of Love

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Paradise Lost

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The Manna Threshold

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The Crocodile of Old Kang Pow – ACT I

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The Agency

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BIRD

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A&E

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A Time of Empty Tales

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Timeless Figure

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We Sing/I Sang

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Minutes to Midnight: A Nuclear Opera

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Last Party on Earth

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The Trilobite, Or The Fall Of Mr Williams

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We Sing/I Sang

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The Hive (Covid Cut)

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Her War

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Persephone’s Dream

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Buddha and the Monkey King

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Bubbles the Zebrafish & The No. 8 Bus

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Bread and Circuses

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