Exploratory Operas
Founded in 2018, Irish National Opera is the youngest of the partners but it is already building a reputation for its use of new media to innovate in opera. In response to this interest, and the absence of large theatres in most of Ireland, the INO trial is the first community opera to be created in and for Virtual Reality (VR). The opera they are co-creating with professional artists and participants will be experienced through virtual reality headsets, and will tour throughout the country from summer 2022 allowing them to bring opera to parts of Ireland usually excluded from access to this art form. The communities involved reflect a cross-section of Ireland today, including Irish speakers from the Atlantic island of Inis Meáin, teenagers from different rural districts and adults from Dublin.
The co-creation process started online, due to restrictions imposed by the pandemic with a series of workshops, held on Zoom, exploring visual design, composition and storytelling. Facilitators empowered the participants to create imagery, narrative and music which has been collected to serve as the stimulus for the development of the final opera.
Online workshops with Inis Meáin residents
Co-Creation Space Open Pilot
Co-Creation Space Open Pilot
INO used the Co-Creation Space in an open pilot for composition workshops.During these workshops, composer Finola Merivale worked with participants to explore a range of composition techniques, such as creating sounds with your body without singing or making instruments using household objects. This approach was designed to challenge participants’ ideas about what composition can entail and the ideas it leads to.
As part of the workshop, Finola prompted participants to create their own short piece or musical idea that they captured on their phones, a process that generated a huge amount of material. Rather than using tools like email or WhatsApp, workshop participants used the Co-creation Space Traction tool, not only to store and discuss recordings, but also to support one another’s work, through comments and emojis. Each workshop culminated in a co-created piece of digital music as well as providing creative stimulus for the final VR opera that will be presented in 2022.
You can read more about the open pilot of the Co-Creation Space here.
Co-Creating a VR Opera – Getting To Work
In-person co-creation workshops began on 19 August 2021. Despite several months of engagement with the INO trial, this was the first time participants, the creative team and the INO team were able to meet in real life. The Dublin workshops brought together teenagers from rural communities and adults from Dublin in two weekend sessions, digging deeper into our key elements of music, visuals and storytelling. Working with a series of stimuli, including workshop outputs from the previous 6 months, we began to get a picture of how our VR Opera would look, feel and sound.
Dublin workshop with teenagers from rural Ireland and adults from Tallaght
Co-Creating a VR Opera – Getting To Work
The Dublin sessions were followed by a visit to Inis Meáin, a remote island off the west coast of Ireland. The creative team boarded the ferry on a beautiful sunny evening, arriving on the small island to happen upon a music session outside the local (and only) pub. The evening was a strong reminder of the importance of in person meetings for community engagement and allowed the team to meet new members of the community, some of whom became involved in the co-creation sessions over the next two days.
The Out of the Ordinary team on Inis Meáin
Co-Creating a VR Opera – Getting To Work
The team spent two days based in the primary school, Colaiste Naomh Eoin, first working with school children developing some of the narrative beats that had come from the Dublin workshops and workshopping some of the choral music Finola had developed for the opera. The second day was spent working with a wider group of adults and children building further on the narrative and imagery for the opera.
Read more about our Co-Creation Workshops and hear the musical composition created by professional musicians and community participants.
Workshops at Colaiste Naomh Eoin on Inis Meáin
Participant trying out VR during the Dublin workshops
Exploring Novel Formats
The INO trial will explore new ways to present and experience opera utilising the power of virtual reality technology both in the co-creation process and for presentation. The end result will be an approx. 15-minute opera, in which the audience inhabits the role of the central character, exploring a series of different worlds on their journey.
Throughout all in person activities, TRACTION partners Virtual Reality Ireland have facilitated hands-on-experience of VR for the communities allowing them to explore the many possibilities that VR can hold for creativity.
Motion Capture Workshops
Participants will contribute to the VR world in a number of performative ways, either through singing in the chorus of the opera, contributing to the score with instrumental performance or through physical performance using motion capture technology.
After conducting some experiments in capturing the movement of humans for the virtual world, INO and Virtual Reality Ireland ran a motion capture workshop with participants in Tallaght in November. This allowed us to capture the movements of participants which will inform the animation of certain elements of the VR opera, such as seaweed, jellyfish and fish. The data captured will be mapped to the virtual assets of the opera by creative partners Algorithm who are designing and building the VR world.
Participants share their reactions to motion capture workshops in Tallaght
Participants share their reactions to the choral programme on Inis Meáin
Participants on Inis Meáin and in Tallaght also took part in a series of choral workshops and rehearsals, culminating in recording sessions to capture their contributions to the final score of the opera. For many, this was their first time singing in a formal choral setting.
A complex recording process, combining contributions from professional and non-professional singers and musicians resulted in the creation of the final recorded audio score for the work. This was then handed over to our Creative Partners at Algorithm for placement in the VR world. The process has been hugely experimental and has allowed us to explore different ways to incorporate as much of our community in the musical product as possible.
Watch to hear composer Finola Merivale and professional singers Daire Halpin and Naomi Louisa O’Connell discuss Out of the Ordinary / As an nGnách.
Presenting Out of the Ordinary / As an nGnách
The final opera was presented for the communities who made it during events in Tallaght in early August and on Inis Meáin in early September. The opera also toured a variety of venues, bringing this unique experience to audiences all around Ireland, starting with performances at the Kilkenny Arts Festival from 9 – 14 August and Dublin Fringe Festival.
Out of the Ordinary on tour
Stills from Out of the Ordinary ©Algorithm
Stills from Out of the Ordinary ©Algorithm
Stills from Out of the Ordinary ©Algorithm
Stills from Out of the Ordinary ©Algorithm
