This opera-in-concert will be the culmination of a week of collective creation when FAWN and a team of artists will come together to co-compose a graphic score for Belladonna, a queer techno-opera by librettist Gareth Mattey. During this week, FAWN and the Belladonna team will explore group composition techniques for opera, and document it as a graphic score. We expect the piece to be 45-60 minutes in length and a process discussion will follow to share the discoveries made by the team about how they approached working in this way as well as the piece itself.  

Rather than a “coming out” story, Mattey’s aim for Belladonna is to focus on a moment of self-reflection and discovery when coming to understand one’s own queerness. FAWN is using a collective creation method for the piece, as opposed to solo composition, to ensure the musical interpretation reflects the experiences of a community of people. 

Belladonna continues FAWN’s mission to explore ways opera can be made, along with their passion for bringing more voices and perspectives into the creation process.