Thursday 19 February 2009

Film and opera director Franco Zeffirelli famously said: "I have always believed that opera is a planet where the muses work together, join hands and celebrate all the arts."  Taking into account the necessity of the multiple skills required to perform opera successfully, it seems fitting that our multi-skilled, interdisciplinary undergraduate and postgraduate students in performing arts were taking part in workshops with Opera North earlier this month.  Members of the company involved in the direction, design, music and performance of Skin Deep, an entirely new operetta devised around the controversial issues of cosmetic surgery, arrived ready to explore with our students the range of tools required of the opera singer. 

The workshop developed into a melting pot of interests and expertise, with students directing the opera singers, inventing new narrative lines for the story and leading some interesting discussion around the notion of being challenged within our respective disciplines.  The workshop highlighted the very real issue of diversification in arts practice - the desire for new audiences to challenged in new ways and the fact that only having one skill is not only insubstantial but is no longer reflective of the range of arts practices we find in contemporary culture.

Oliver Bray

Senior Lecturer in Performance Practice
School of Film, TV & Performing Arts
O.Bray@leedsmet.ac.uk