Chamber Made Opera 2010

Welcome to the edge of opera.

Chamber Made Opera is a household name in its home town of Melbourne, with 21 years of groundbreaking and inspirational productions under the direction of Douglas Horton. It is both an honour and a privilege to lead the company into a new era, and I invite you to follow us into people’s living rooms, into artists’ minds and into places that you never imagined opera could be found.

John Cage composed his ‘Living Room Music’ in 1940. Seventy years on, our 2010 program introduces three Living Room Operas, all world premieres by some of Australia’s freshest and most startling new voices. By making a booking, you can be involved not just in the performance, but also in the co- commissioning of these new works. And if you would like a new opera at your place, we are already auditioning living rooms for next year’s program.

This year we are working closely with the cross- artform company Aphids to create what may well be the world’s first iPad opera: a fusion of Helen Gifford’s chamber opera EXILE with the multimedia talents of Amsterdam’s Champagne Valentine.

We continue our collaboration with the Victorian Opera on NOVA (New Opera Ventures Australia), involving the creative development of five new Australian chamber opera and music theatre works.

And we begin research and development with RMIT’s SIAL Sound Studios into auditory spatialised performance, exploring the unexpected connections between opera and architecture.

However you experience Chamber Made Opera this year - by coming to a free event, co-commissioning a Living Room Opera, or downloading the iPad app - I am sure it will surprise, delight and probably shock, taking you to the exhilarating edge of opera.

David Young, Artistic Director