Borderline Opera

Borderline Opera is a new initiative aiming to broaden the audience of contemporary opera and music theatre and to push the artistic boundaries of these performance styles. Together with representing the umbrella concept that frames our forthcoming productions and our performance research, it will consist of a series of events to discuss, share and present our methodology of performance making and the issues that this raises.

Launched in September 2009 at London Metropolitan University, Borderline Opera is specifically interested in the issues raised by the application of devised performance models to opera and music theatre. For instance, what happens when these styles, traditionally hierarchical in their creative approach, are explored through collaborative and improvisational methods? As our original scores, texts, choreographies and staging ideas are to a great extent the products of improvisation, how should this process be specifically tailored to each discipline? In performance, we merge dancers, singers and actors, but these rarely overlap their roles. How does this process compare to the one of musical theatre? To what extent is this cross-disciplinary, in the contemporary sense?

The above questions and many more will be the topic of discussions and research projects, with the support of London Metropolitan University. These will be scheduled to accompany our forthcoming production season and inform our future stage-works. They also represent the key themes on which our new educational programme is based.