INside Opera

INside Opera closely parallels Tapestry new work development. We believe that opera communicates raw emotion and we are committed to creating opportunities for students to collaborate with opera professionals. INside Opera allows participants to tell their own stories using the highly evocative language of opera. Working with a creative team (a writer and a composer) INside Opera students translate their own ideas into text and music. An animateur guides them through the evolution from story to stage.

In July-August 2009, with support from the Telus Toronto Community Board, Tapestry engaged filmmaker Juan Baquero to document the creative process with INside Opera participants from City Hope in St. Jamestown.

Here an excerpt from the documentary on Tapestry’s INside Opera Real Time Project.

Background

This effective arts education programme became a core company activity when we engaged hundreds of Toronto students in the Iron Road Education Programme, a pilot project funded by the Millenium Bureau. Our creation-based INside Opera programme has since targeted students from grades 5-12, many of them in underserved areas across Ontario. Working with the Toronto District School Board arts coordinators and other school boards in the GTA, we have continued to bring this transformative arts programme to many other schools.

Since 2006 Tapestry has worked to extend the reach of INside Opera beyond the walls of the classroom. In July of 2006 Tapestry conducted a pilot education project with a small group of summer students from the Regent Park School of Music who plunged into the unknown waters of new opera creation in the Tapestry New Work Studio. During the 2006-2007 season, Tapestry continued to adapt the programme to meet the needs and desires of diverse participants both in and outside the school and in addition to collaboration again with RPSM, we participated in Cityhope ‘s KNX youth leadership programme in St. Jamestown. Both of these partnerships continued in 2007-2008 and in 2009 we expanded the programme to include after school sessions. In 2009 we also partnered with the Alliance for Canadian New Music Projects for Opera in the Classroom with INside Opera programmes in the Jane-Finch corridor, Brampton, Kingston and Gravenhurst.

Photo: INside Opera participants from the Regent Park School of Music, Summer 2008. (c) Tapestry

PHOTO: RPSM participants perform their INside Opera creation. July 2008

For more information on INside Opera please contact us at

education@tapestrynewopera.com
or 416.537.6066 x224