‘Write this down’
It was the end of a long day. We’d run out of time and the guards needed to get us
Category: Opera
Building Capabilities: Rethinking the social value of culture
Today will see the third performance of O Tempo (Somos Nós) , “Time (It’s Us), this time at the Gulbenkian Concert
‘From little things, big things grow’
Between the Traction opera performances in the prison last week, and those that will take place in Lisbon at the
The meaning of risk in community art
Three days ago, anticipating the first performance of the Leiria prison opera, I wrote that I didn’t expect to see
This is special
In the dusty hall of a disused prison workshop, 30 people shuffle into a big circle. Silence falls. They draw
Renewing opera
The problem of opera Opera is a problematic art. It’s not just the extravagant cost of producing it, or the
Working at another scale in community opera
It is a surprise, in my sixties, to find myself working on opera, as part of the Traction project. This prestigious art
‘Cabaret de la Gata’ – Traction takes off
As the pandemic recedes—or perhaps becomes normalised—it is becoming hard to recall the strangeness of those lockdown months, and the
Building a bridge
Suddenly, we are there. In the next six months, a series of performances will test everything we have imagined, planned, organised and created. There are dates. There will be audiences
Blinkered by my privilege
For decades, longer even, cultural policy in Europe has been imagined as a conflict between two ideas. The first is
A Restless Art 