Opera Bizarre
Educative Performance about the Voice, the Body & the Space 

These and many other questions appear, alongside unexpected answers through Opera Bizarre, resembling an operatic dream, a collage of operatic arias, folk songs, and vocal sounds, a repertoire everyone chose freely. ‘Give a voice to the Voice’ could be the motto behind this project. We all have an inner voice, thoughts, dreams, and desires that reside in us. Singers also have an outer voice they have been crafting for years. Vocal education involves a lot of technical knowledge around the corporal procedures behind singing, like the different breathing techniques of the various genres. At the same time, singing demands a strong emotional awareness, and the ability to connect with the spatial aspects around your body.

Aiming to find new ways to approach these notions, the vocalists attended multimodal workshops designed and led by the architect and musician Iris Skolidi. The creative process was based on participatory music-making and a transformational leadership mentality, encouraging everyone to express their ideas and contribute equally.The concept and practice of Educative Performance, which Iris developed throughout her master’s in Musical Leadership at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, has a dual goal: First to fortify the participants with alternative mediums for their musical craftmanship and open the discussion around vocal matters. And secondly, to reveal to the audience the intricate process behind the art of singing.