2021 OPÉRA DE-CI DE-LÀ RESIDENCY

Residency open to young early-mid-career authors, composers, stage directors, singers and instrumentalists

Opéra de-ci de-là residency offers a training program that explores the strengths, the stakes, and the potential for change in the opera industry. The program aims at training young creators and performers to create collaborative and immersive operas, in a setting that favors intercultural dialogue and interdisciplinary exchange. By investigating innovative and creative processes, the program provides young artists with the opportunity to develop short-form performances and offers them an immersive experience in the public space.

Gathering four composers, four stage directors, eight singers, four instrumentalists and two authors, the residency aims at underscoring the importance of storyline in intellectual discussions and the creative process. In the context of the pandemic, it also offers a unique space for reflection about the role of art in society today and how art can be used to respond in times of crisis. The theatre director and 17^th-century literature and modern science historian FRÉDÉRIQUE AÏT-TOUATI, contributed to the reflection with her research on Harmonices Mund by the seventeenth-century astronomer Johannes Kepler. This iconic book places art and sciences on an equal level and discusses the science of the natural world in poetic language. The participants will translate Kepler’s inspiration into their own modern thinking, which will result in a collective creation that places Courage and Feminism at its center. ANTHONY HEIDWEILLER who regularly holds workshops on artistic projects with a participatory dimension, leads the residency.

“There exists numerous links between Kepler and our world today. My story focuses in particular on the fine link between poetry and reason, while still leaving a large space for dreams.” Penda Diouf

“Why art?
To create a bridge between society and artists.
For a cosmopolitan society.” Anthony Heidweiller, 2019 Festival d’Aix

"Giving voice to people who don’t have a voice, looking for the silent voices, sharing new stories, addressing new audiences, bringing down the walls between performers and audiences, challenging the traditional artistic practices, exploring collaborative and spontaneous practices...” Anthony Heidweiller

MENTORS

Anthony Heidweiller — singer and artistic associate director of the Opera Forward Festival of Amsterdam

PARTICIPANTS

22 young authors, composers, stage directors, singers and instrumentalists from diverse artistic, sociocultural and geographical horizons among which:
Christian Andreas, Geordie Brookman, Simona Castria, Elise Chauvin, Amy Crankshaw, Josie Daxter, Seydou Diarra, Mimi Doulton, Penda Diouf, Lili Gomond, Colin Heller, Golfam Khayam, Carmen C. Kruse, Evan Lawson, Benjamien Lycke, Alberto Martínez, Halidou Nombre, Paulina Platzer*, Laure Poissonnier, Anna Schors, Eira Sjaastad Huse, Claire Tipy

* Participant supported by institution member of enoa network: Theaterakademie August Everding — Munich

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DESCRIPTION

— The 22 artists will be divided into artistic teams including an author, a composer, a stage director, and performers (instrumentalists or singers). Certain teams may be asked to develop a project involving a group of amateur artists from the Passerelles department.
— By the end of the program, participants will produce 7- to 10-minute-long performances – both collaborative and immersive, or even interactive – which will be presented in atypical venues not usually intended for live shows. These performances, to be shown in Aix en juin, as a prelude to the Festival d’Aix 2021, will be developed and composed for and in these spaces, based on interviews with leading figures linked to the venues. During the performances, the artistic teams will have no costumes, decors or technical support, and will perform while the spaces remain open for activity.

CALENDAR

Distance seminar (Zoom) in the fall 2020: 5, 15 & 26 October and 12 & 13 November 2020
Workshop: 27 — 29 January 2021
Residency: 7 — 12 June 2021
Restitutions: Due to health restrictions, no public restitution is planned this year. The Académie team is currently working on a digital format. More informations to come.

With the support of