Yo! Opera Festival 2005
In 2004, Yo! Opera becomes an independent foundation, no longer related to the Stadsschouwburg [City Theatre] of Utrecht. From then on, it will have its own board and staff. This step could be taken thanks to the confidence the municipality of Utrecht and many other subsidizers placed in us and the support they gave us. Next to that, the accession to the government's so-called Kunstenplan [Art's Plan] offered many new opportunities for the further professionalisation of Yo! Opera. Driven by a new zest, a strong vision and thanks to several permanent employees, artistic director Anthony Heidweiller and producer Saskia van de Ree succeeded in raising the level of the organisation. Apart from the realisation of the biennial festival, several research and development projects were initiated which were to establish a solid basis for Yo! Opera's mission. These projects all served one crucial element: positioning opera and youth opera at the heart of society, where 'society' can either refer to Dutch society, or can be split up into several fields: youth, the opera world, the inhabitants of Utrecht, opera makers, or students in vocational art schools. The awareness of the position art institutions take up in society increased over the 2004 project Opera uit het Hart [Opera from the Heart] and would not be lost after that.
A concept relevant to this positioning is that of community art. Community art is a generic term for all art which serves a social purpose. It can be related to socio-cultural work, art education, psychosocial help, but it can also involve the relation between art and its environment, artists who draw their inspiration from the news or the community they are part of, or the collaboration between professional artists and amateurs. During travels abroad, made in preparation of the first festival, Yo! Opera became acquainted with several inspirational examples of community opera projects, such as those organised by the English National Opera and the Scottish Opera. The interest in community opera suited perfectly with the ambition Yo! Opera had to coax opera from its ivory tower and to contribute to society by presenting meaningful stories. Community opera thus became the main theme of the 2005 festival, and of the international conference taking place simultaneously.
The third Yo! Opera Festival was dominated by the equally ambitious and provocative project Opera in de bus [Opera on the Bus]. The project was the logical successor to Opera uit het hart and it was produced in collaboration with Gemeentelijk Vervoersbedrijf Utrecht [the municipal bus company of Utrecht], which rendered its assistance generously.
During this third edition of the festival, the theme community opera was developed into many ambitious and multi-coloured performances. Simply elaborating on the possibilities offered by special locations, the festival organisation launched the first edition of De Operaflat. For one afternoon, a block of flats in the Utrecht district of Overvecht became a building full of song: singers were standing in the doorways of the apartments and sang their repertoire – opera and other vocal music – to anyone who rang the doorbell. A bridge in the Utrecht district of Kanaleneiland was the setting of a project set up in collaboration with Utrecht-Zuid College, a school for lower secondary professional education which – under its new name Globe College- would in subsequent years become a permanent partner of Yo! Opera. The project De Zingende Stad [The City Sings] joined 22 choirs from Utrecht together for one large-scale manifestation right outside the Stadsschouwburg. The results of the collaboration between VocaalLab, composer Merlijn Twaalfhoven and Oosterlicht College from Nieuwegein were presented in Winkel van Sinkel, a grand café in Utrecht. The performance Rough Girls was a prelude to a more permanent collaboration between this school, VocaalLab and Yo! Opera. It allowed pupils and professionals to create a show based on their own ideas. The renowned British opera house Glyndebourne was one of the special guests at the festival. It brought along a youth company, staging The Greenhouse Project in a greenhouse in Bunnik, a town near Utrecht. This great amount of projects, all taking place outside the walls of the theatre, gave enormous exposure to the festival. It was praised both in and outside Utrecht and in the press for the step it had taken.
The result of the overwhelming attention for projects and performances 'on location' was that it almost put the 'regular' festival programme in the shade. Still, that programme featured three beautiful shows by the regular festival attendee Music Theatre Company Transparant: Saulpain, Arthur and Dido. The Norwegian company Opera Omnia presented 3 x 3 and Poy, two operas for the littlest ones, and Opera Cinema staged Zo Zijn Ze [That's Who They Are] for young people, directed by Marcel Sijm. Of course there was a singalong concert, and children from the Utrecht district of Lunetten created the show Sterren in de Nacht [Stars in the Night]. The composition project Kloppend Herz was welcomed at Theater Kikker, featuring works by Paul Oomen, Thomas Myrmel, Zbigniew Wolny, Anke Brouwer and Matthias Konecny.
With the 2005 festival edition, Yo! Opera permanently opened its doors to the outside world - moving away from the ethical dogmas of the opera world and towards the adventures of everyday life. They are adventures everyone can participate in: children, youth, bus drivers, singers, composers, flat-dwellers and choirs participated in the festival. Each group made its own contribution and added its own perceptions, which was expressed aptly under the title of the publicity campaign: Your Opera.
A concept relevant to this positioning is that of community art. Community art is a generic term for all art which serves a social purpose. It can be related to socio-cultural work, art education, psychosocial help, but it can also involve the relation between art and its environment, artists who draw their inspiration from the news or the community they are part of, or the collaboration between professional artists and amateurs. During travels abroad, made in preparation of the first festival, Yo! Opera became acquainted with several inspirational examples of community opera projects, such as those organised by the English National Opera and the Scottish Opera. The interest in community opera suited perfectly with the ambition Yo! Opera had to coax opera from its ivory tower and to contribute to society by presenting meaningful stories. Community opera thus became the main theme of the 2005 festival, and of the international conference taking place simultaneously.
The third Yo! Opera Festival was dominated by the equally ambitious and provocative project Opera in de bus [Opera on the Bus]. The project was the logical successor to Opera uit het hart and it was produced in collaboration with Gemeentelijk Vervoersbedrijf Utrecht [the municipal bus company of Utrecht], which rendered its assistance generously.
During this third edition of the festival, the theme community opera was developed into many ambitious and multi-coloured performances. Simply elaborating on the possibilities offered by special locations, the festival organisation launched the first edition of De Operaflat. For one afternoon, a block of flats in the Utrecht district of Overvecht became a building full of song: singers were standing in the doorways of the apartments and sang their repertoire – opera and other vocal music – to anyone who rang the doorbell. A bridge in the Utrecht district of Kanaleneiland was the setting of a project set up in collaboration with Utrecht-Zuid College, a school for lower secondary professional education which – under its new name Globe College- would in subsequent years become a permanent partner of Yo! Opera. The project De Zingende Stad [The City Sings] joined 22 choirs from Utrecht together for one large-scale manifestation right outside the Stadsschouwburg. The results of the collaboration between VocaalLab, composer Merlijn Twaalfhoven and Oosterlicht College from Nieuwegein were presented in Winkel van Sinkel, a grand café in Utrecht. The performance Rough Girls was a prelude to a more permanent collaboration between this school, VocaalLab and Yo! Opera. It allowed pupils and professionals to create a show based on their own ideas. The renowned British opera house Glyndebourne was one of the special guests at the festival. It brought along a youth company, staging The Greenhouse Project in a greenhouse in Bunnik, a town near Utrecht. This great amount of projects, all taking place outside the walls of the theatre, gave enormous exposure to the festival. It was praised both in and outside Utrecht and in the press for the step it had taken.
The result of the overwhelming attention for projects and performances 'on location' was that it almost put the 'regular' festival programme in the shade. Still, that programme featured three beautiful shows by the regular festival attendee Music Theatre Company Transparant: Saulpain, Arthur and Dido. The Norwegian company Opera Omnia presented 3 x 3 and Poy, two operas for the littlest ones, and Opera Cinema staged Zo Zijn Ze [That's Who They Are] for young people, directed by Marcel Sijm. Of course there was a singalong concert, and children from the Utrecht district of Lunetten created the show Sterren in de Nacht [Stars in the Night]. The composition project Kloppend Herz was welcomed at Theater Kikker, featuring works by Paul Oomen, Thomas Myrmel, Zbigniew Wolny, Anke Brouwer and Matthias Konecny.
With the 2005 festival edition, Yo! Opera permanently opened its doors to the outside world - moving away from the ethical dogmas of the opera world and towards the adventures of everyday life. They are adventures everyone can participate in: children, youth, bus drivers, singers, composers, flat-dwellers and choirs participated in the festival. Each group made its own contribution and added its own perceptions, which was expressed aptly under the title of the publicity campaign: Your Opera.
