We’ve decided to write a regular blog to chart the progress of our ambitious new project. Fables – A Film Opera is a collection of four new commissions – four composers and four filmmakers working with all our performers around the country to create four short ‘Film Operas’ based on fables. The pieces are being devised by all groups and will be premiered with a live theatrical staging at Spitalfields Music on 17 December before the films tour.

Matt Peacock, CEO and Producer

6 Sept

Amazing recording sessions for the Nightingale and the Rose and The Boy Who Cried Wolf last week. Thanks to all those involved.

24 Aug

Mira Calix is the composer for The Boy Who Cried Wolf and she is working with our performers from Crisis Skylight London and NOAH Enterprise.

Mira’s Blog 14th August 2010

Yesterday I went down to the Friday workshop session with the Crisis Skylight London group at the Kobi Nazrul Community Centre. It was the first time I would hear the piece sung so of course I was looking forward to it but a little nervous.

I had a quick meeting with the Flat -E boys who will be creating the film for our fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf. We were focusing on the live element for the premiere in December. I left them with a head full of ideas and excitement. Still a lot of refining to do but the basics are in place, even if, uhm, we still have to make it work in budget! Ah well – that’s art.

It was wonderful to see the participants again. I know some of them from working on My Secret Heart, and most of the others from a Devising Day Workshop we did earlier this year. They have added small actions to the song to help them remember the lyric. It really added good humour and cheer to both the music and the rainy London evening.  As always they made me feel incredibly welcome and it gave me a lot of joy to see how much they had embraced both the music and lyrics. The Workshop Leaders are so skilled at engaging and teaching others. I have real admiration for what they do.

It was all over in a flash but attending was really inspiring. I’m still working on the rest of the piece doing some tweaks so hearing the participants bring it all to life was just what I needed to hear.

18 Aug

The artists are begining to write blogs about what they’re up to and here is the first. Emily Hall is the composer for the The Nightingale and the Rose and she is working with our performers from The Passage, Connection at St Martins and Queen Mary Hostel.

Emily’s Blog  14^th August 2010

I’ve been asked to kick off the artists’ Fables blogs. Best thing is to tell you where I’m up to with the amazing, awe-inspiring and intimidating all-at-the-same-time task of creating a 7 minute film-opera with film maker Gaelle Denis for Streetwise Opera. About ten days ago I finished the score which Streetwise singers are now learning in weekly workshops….this feels good…but there is still a long way to go before it is a film-opera…But I’ll start from the very beginning….

Gaelle and I were both drawn to the Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde for different reasons. Mine was that as the Nightingale is singing about love and sacrifice for the majority of the story, it seemed like it really is a story with loads of songs already in it.

As a composer I mainly write songs and usually with a lyricist, Toby Litt, but for this I decided to adapt words about love from existing lyrics from classical operas and songs. This wasn’t difficult as most classic operas and song cycles seem to cover different themes of love and sacrifice. For example from ‘Let Beauty Awake’ written by Robert Louis Stevenson and set by Vaughan Williams, also Radamès’s Aria from Aïda and Rusalka’s aria from Rusalka.

Some of the lyrics in the Nightingale are more recognizable than others. I purposely didn’t listen to settings done by these long-gone composers whilst I was writing, ‘cause I didn’t want to do covers, I just wanted to use the words.

Once all the songs were finished and I had recorded them roughly, I had one of those computer-not-behaving moments which actually gave me something really special. It sped up the singing so it sounded like bird-song; high and fast, but the melody was still recognizable. This gave me the idea that the bird would sing a bird-song and the performers would be translating what the Nightingale is singing about. The only other musical ingredient is the cello which links the bird songs and the singing together.

Gaelle and I are now at the point of getting our heads together and working out how our visions combine while Streetwise participants are working hard to learn the music. Iit’s a crucial and exciting time…watch this space…

18 Aug

Two of the staff from the office went along to the workshop at the Kobi Nazrul Community Centre in London last Friday. We heard everyone practising the music for the eagerly anticipated Fable The Boy who Cried Wolf and it sounded fantastic!

Mira Calix, the composer, came along too and heard her piece being sung for the very first time. Everyone agreed it was great to hear Mira explaining the ideas behind the words. She told us it was amazing to hear real voices singing her music and that it really came to life.

We really enjoyed the workshop and are looking forward to hearing the finished piece after the recording day. Carry on the good work!

17 Aug

Orlando’s score just arrived in my inbox! It’s such a great piece of work – funny, thought-provoking – perfect. Loads of solo opportunities for Streetwise performers alongside 4 main solo characters. Feel very privileged to be working with such great composers and seeing this work unfold into what will be an amazing final piece come December!

9 Aug

Here is some footage from The Boy Who Cried Wolf Devising Day. Performers from NOAH Luton and Crisis Skylight London were devising some stories based on the famous fable with director Emma Bernard, composer Mira Calix and filmmakers Flat-e. So many brilliant ideas and great acting skills.

9 Aug

We’ve just recieved some photos of the recording day in the North East! The day went really well and Andy and Paul were really impressed and very happy with the results! Looks like everyone was having fun! The recording is now being edited in a studio and everyone in the office can’t wait to hear the results. Thanks to The Sage Gateshead for the use of their amazing recording facilities.

Here are some photos of the day

5 Aug

The music is all coming together fabulously – just heard rough cuts of the Monkey recording in the North East. Fantastic! Heard all of Emily’s songs – gorgeous! And we’ve got Mira’s score. Stunning!

29 July

The recording of the North East groups went brilliantly yesterday and it sounded like we were well looked after by The Sage Gateshead. Sorry I couldn’t be there. I was just at the Connections workshop in London where some of Emily Hall’s music was being rehearsed. It’s gorgeous!

27 July

It’s all happening here… Wonderful music from Emily for the ‘Nightingale and the Rose’ coming through the airwaves and we’ve got through the script for ‘Hey Come on Out’. The music for ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’ is on its way and we’re recording all the North East groups singing the score of ‘Hartlepool Monkey’ tomorrow. Good luck guys!

15 July

Looks like the Nightingale and the Rose fable will be given a more modern setting! Getting some serious interest from cinemas and festivals to screen the pieces on tour…

12 July

We’ve just had a brilliant meeting with Mira Calix and the Flat-e boys to come up with a synopsis for the Boy who Cried Wolf following the devising day with our Crisis Skylight London and Luton NOAH groups. We’re dying to tell you lots about the piece but don’t want to ruin the surprise for audiences. Suffice it to say the piece will based on vocal and visual consequences!

Last week Orlando Gough and Iain Finlay were workshopping with our Notts and Manchester groups again – we didn’t get clearance to use our Rabbit Fable sadly but we have found another which is really exciting: Shinichi Hoshi’s estate have given us permission to adapt Hey Come on Out, a fantastic Japanese fable. Our performers have been practising singing into a hole in the ground…

Paul Sartin and Emma Bernard visited the North East to sing through some of the Hartlepool Monkey score that Paul and Andy Mellon have written following the devising day in the North East. The piece is a cracker – part folk, part sea shanty and the group love it and sing it beautifully!

1 July

Devising days have now taken place for all the groups. The days went really well and all the artists are very inspired by the creative response to the fables from all our performers.  A huge amount of material came out of the devising days and the composers are now busily creating the music and lyrics and the film-makers are deciding where to shoot the films. Below is some material from our final devising day where three of our London groups worked with Gaelle Dennis and Emily Hall on The Nightingale and The Rose by Oscar Wilde together with director Emma Bernard.

Click here to listen to the whole group singing a new song  ‘I have hung ropes..’

Click here to listen to some poems that have been adapted  and stylised. Here is Andy reading his  group’s poem and another group reading their  poem

The photos below show the group devising scenes that might appear in the final film or on stage at the premiere. We created ’still’ pictures of scenes from the story and worked with the camera to see the difference between acting techniques used for the stage and film.

Creating still pictures from The Nightingale and The Rose

'The man cries; the Nightingale listens'

'The thorn pierces the Nightingale’s heart

Gaelle workshops how emotions appear on the big screen with Ken

David acting on camera

David retelling part of the story

28th June

A great few weeks on Fables! The final devising day was really great and the Connections/Passage and QMH groups did some amazing work on the Nightingale and the Rose with Gaelle Denis, Emily Hall and singer Mara Carlyle. All the stories have now been picked! Very exciting new direction for the Notts/Manch Fable (watch this space) and one of the musical scores has just been completed! Andy Mellon and Paul Sartin have finished their score for the Hartlepool Monkey Fable for the North East groups! It’s just BRILLIANT and we can’t wait for everyone to share it. Lots of info going to all centres soon and thanks for all your fab comments and feedback. Please keep them coming.

8th June

We’re all set for the final Devising Day next week. Very exciting group of artists joining our performers from Passage, Connection at St Martins and Quenn Mary Hostel – BAFTA-award winning filmmaker Gaelle Denis, composer Emily Hall and singer Mara Carlyle. They are interested in presenting the group with Oscar Wilde’s beautiful fable, the Nightingale and the Rose.

3rd June

Here is a wonderful poem sent in by Dawn Parrott from Notts, inspired by the Devising Day at Opera North where we worked on the Poisonous Rabbit.

I want to be free
somewhere, some place, that
I only know in my dreams.

Run around, run away from this
town
to be
in a land of green,
In a land of green.

Where I am never captured
only seen,

Seen  through wild eyes
that only live to be free,
they only wait for the dawn
to rise, and the starts to crowd
their sky.

You don’t know how to set me
free, because a fair life, is
something you have never
lived to see.

You have never been
in a land of green
In a land of green.

Rejection,
no one’s seeing
no one’s listening,
Are these the feelings of
a human being?

Here I am.
In a cage with rage,
in a cage with rage.

I want to be set free.
Overwhelmed with the possibility
after what they did to me.

Used me, with no voice, to defend,
to say I’m against their experiment,
conditioned me this way.

I’m in need of what I can find,
In a land of green,
in a land of green.

All they see is what they
want to take away from me.

They only want to fill me, to
satisfy their own hunger and needs.

When you opened your arms,
I thought you were showing
how you cared.

Why did you not take me where
I belong, where you long to be,
to a land of green.

2 June

I promise we’ll get some audio and visuals uploaded soon! This week we’ve officially taken on Ashtar Alkhirsan our Line Producer for the project and Margaret Levin who will be working on Marketing. We’ve also had a great meeting with our friends from Spitalfields Music who are just about to launch their Summer festival next week. Check it out here. We’re organising hotels for the premiere in December and rehearsal times – looks like all our performers will arrive on 16th Dec for some mini rehearsals in the afternoon and then more rehearsing in the venue on 17th. We’re then planning three performances in the evening (the show should only be an hour so hopefully that won’t be too tiring!) Then there will be another night in a hotel and everyone will leave on 18th.

This week we’re also very excited that our last show has been shortlisted for a National Lottery Award. Please vote for us to reach the televised final here.

25 May 2010

The Devising Day in Newcastle (at Hoult’s Yard) was truly inspiring. Thanks to everyone involved – highlights of the day included some rousing folk and shanty singing led by Andy Mellon; great individual and group performances of local folk songs by everyone (including Malcolm on the Northumbrian Pipes!); scenes based on the story of the Hartlepool Monkey created by the group led by director Emma Bernard; filming techniques led by Tom Marshall (exploring close-ups and the subtlety of film acting compared with stage acting). And all in the blistering heat. Phew!

20 May 2010

Great meeting with composer Emily Hall, filmmaker Gaelle Denis and the singer Mara Carlyle who will be working on the London (QMH, Passage and Connection) Fable Film Opera. It looks like they are interested in an Oscar Wilde fable, the Nightingale and the Rose. Very exciting. Really looking forward to working with the North East groups tomorrow with Andy Mellon and Tom Marshall.

16 May 2010

Just had a brilliant meeting with our North East team (composers Andy Mellon and Paul Sartin and filmmaker Tom Marshall). Their Devising Day is next week at Hoult’s Yard in Newcastle where they are likely to be working on a fable which is a North East legend of the Hartlepool monkey!

12 May 2010

Welcome to Gaelle Denis who is our final filmmaker for the project. Gaelle, who is a BAFTA winner will be working with composer Emily Hall with our performers from Connection at St Martins, Passage and Queen Mary Hostel.

5 May 2010

Just had our London Devising Day with Mira Calix and Flat-e and our Crisis Skylight and NOAH Luton groups. Lots of new participants and a really buzzy session – we’re probably going to be working on the very famous fable the Boy Who Cried Wolf with this group.

30 April 2010

We’ve got our funding! Thank you to Arts Council England, Streetsmart, PRS Foundation, Northern Film and Media, RVW Trust, Macquarie Group Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation and our performers at the Carmen fundraiser!

Devising Days have started – to create a concept for the film operas. First up was Leeds in late April (with our artistic partner Opera North) involving composer Orlando Gough and filmmaker Iain Finlay with our Manchester and Notts groups. Brilliant session – only problem is that the fable we want to use is in copyright! Watch this space…

See the article on the Metro website here

The Minister watched a scene our performers were improvising based on  Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and then spent time talking to performers.Before he left he invited the group to perform at the DCMS which we agreed to on the spot!

Streetwise Choir at their new home with (centre) Penny Wilkinson from Northern Rock Foundation and Katherine Zeserson from The Sage Gateshead

Streetwise Opera announced a new artistic partnership with The Sage Gateshead today at a press launch featuring a performance given by the Streetwise Choir. The partnership will involve The Sage Gateshead becoming the new home for Streetwise Choir which was set up in 2006 and the two organisations working together to give more opportunities for Choir members through a variety of initiatives.

The partnership also marks the start of a new three-year grant from Northern Rock Foundation who is helping to support Streetwise Opera’s work in the North East.

This is the second artistic partnership Streetwise Opera has forged -in 2009 Streetwise Opera began working with Opera North and the Booth Centre in Manchester.

Streetwise Choir sessions will move from Crisis Skylight on a Friday to TSG on a Tuesday (2-4pm) from 7 September. We are sorry to be leaving Skylight who were the original home of the Choir. When Choir sessions begin in Sept at The Sage Gateshead, Streetwise Opera is organising a bus to pick up members from all over Newcastle, Gateshead and the surrounding area. A timetable will be published soon.

William was always a total gentleman – giving up his seat for other people in rehearsals and his cheerfulness and kindness will live long in the memory.

Around 12 visiting artists will join Streetwise’s National Training Day in March, hosted by ENO in London. This is one of 2 National Training Days that Streetwise delivers each year to help train our pool of 40 workshop leaders.

Streetwise has trained artists from other organisations in places as diverse as Aldeburgh Music, Boston and Japan. If successful, Streetwise hopes to run more training for external artists in the future.

The following week, Streetwise Opera and the famous choir of homeless people, The Choir of Hope and Inspiration will be working together all week at Federation Square. We will then be part of the Sing-Posium run by CHI Choir director Jonathan Welch.

For more details on My Secret Heart and a full tour list see our microsite www.mysecretheart.co.uk

Matt Peacock spoke about the work of Streetwise Opera in a series on Radio 3 called Passion for Opera on 1st June. We will upload this 15-min programme soon.

BBC Breakfast broadcast a feature on Streetwise in a series about how entertainers prepare for Christmas. The piece features preparations leading up to the performance at The Passage’s Night Under the Stars at the Royal Festival Hall. Click on the screen below to see the feature.

BBC Radio 3 ‘Sunday Morning’ programme broadcast an excerpt of My Secret Heart. Mira Calix’s work was one of Joanna Macgregor’s Highlights of 2009 in a programme hosted by Iain Burnside. Joanna Macgregor said, ‘Streetwise Opera is a fantastic organisation which puts on stunning and ambitious projects. My Secret Heart was fabulously nuanced – it doesn’t work if it ticks boxes, you have to do it with utter authenticity, passion and commitment. This is why Streetwise Opera is so good – they don’t just do a project and use people – they follow up with people. Streetwise is doing something very powerful and new.’

BBC 1 Streetwise was also featured live on BBC 1 as part of the Lord Mayor’s Show on 14th November. Streetwise performer Bryan was interviewed as our Italian garden float went past – on it and walking to the side were a chorus of 30 Streetwise performers and workshop leaders singing Marriage of Figaro dressed in 18th century costume. It was an amazing event to be involved in with a combined live and TV audience of 2.5 million. Congratulations to everyone involved.

Photo copyright Chris Wiles Photography

The Times and Gramophone shortlisted 5 charities working in the field of Music in the Community and the public voted for which of the charities should pick up the award.

Speaking at the award ceremony at the Dorchester Hotel in London, Editor of Gramophone, James Inverne said of Streetwise Opera: ‘What started as an idea has become a beacon of how music can add to our quality of life and has captured the imagination of readers of The Times.’

In the past 12 months Streetwise Opera has won two other awards of national importance – the Andy Ludlow Homelessness Award 2008 and a Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award 2008.

Read the news story on the Classic FM website here.