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A composer takes charge of homeless opera

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norman lebrecht

February 14, 2019

Streetwise Opera has named Hannah Conway as its next artistic director.

She is a widely commissioned composer.

Streetwise is an opera company for people who are or have been homeless.

Comments

John Borstlap says:

February 14, 2019 at 10:25 am

It’s a community work composer:

http://hannahconway.co.uk/?projects=musical-director

https://vimeo.com/81046611

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBmZGZ0PoO8

Her work does not appear to be about music, but about social intervention.

Whether sharing culture with the homeless would improve their accomodation problems, remains to be seen. But it may be that discovering the fate of Dido, Donna Anna’s father, Norma and Pollione, Siegmund, Siegfried, Don Carlo and Posa, Salome, Elektra, Pelléas and Wozzeck, will put their own problems in some perspective.

V.Lind says:

February 14, 2019 at 10:59 am

Are you nuts? I am not and never have been, by the grace of God, homeless, but contemplation of the problems of that lot does not factor in the slightest in my dealing with my own. Doesn’t mean I have not enjoyed many a happy hour IGNORING them while enjoying the operas!

Reply
- Doug says:
  
  February 14, 2019 at 4:56 pm
  
  Haven’t you heard? In the new Global People’s Democratic Republic, Supreme Chairxir Hillary Clinton (alongside People’s Purity of Thought Committee: Comrades Soros, Macron, Corbin, Junckers, Merkel) has declared that all “art” must be solely at the service of “the cause” or it will be condemned and ostracized with the new “N-word” [nationalism].
  
  Reply
  - John Borstlap says:
    
    February 14, 2019 at 6:39 pm
    
    Macron’s ideas about the role of culture in politics is something quite different, and he is currently the only head of state who understands its meaning in forging a united and flowering Europe, as is obvious from his Aachen speech.
    
    This is the text (in french):
    
    http://www.elysee.fr/declarations/article/transcription-du-discours-du-president-de-la-republique-emmanuel-macron-lors-de-la-ceremonie-de-remise-du-prix-charlemagne-a-aix-la-chapelle/
    
    This is a German TV report:
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbyMJMAqBkA
    
    Reply