Re:sound, Streetwise Opera
Re:sound is a year-long festival that will encourage artists and audiences to rediscover the cities they live in, through the eyes – and voices – of people who’ve been homeless. Manchester Histories partnered with Streetwise Opera to explore the history of the city through a series of participatory history and heritage sessions.
Running from April 2022 to March 2023, Re:sound brings together composers, choreographers, designers, filmmakers, singers and people with experience of homelessness in Manchester, London and Nottingham, to create a collection of nine micro-operas. The works will be performed live, re:sounding together, in March 2023.
Manchester Histories developed a learning programme which enabled the group to explore the history of Piccadilly Gardens, the Worker Bee emblem, and the theme of Protest in Manchester, through a series of group sessions, talks, archive and museum visits and walking tours. Heritage research and archiving skills were learnt and information gathered by the group will be used to support the creative process in the development and performance of the micro-operas. It will also be shared with Streetwise groups in Nottingham and London as part of a national presentation session.
I learnt a lot about the history of Manchester and all the places I usually just walk by and knew nothing about or thought about either
It’s been for very useful for thinking about the micro-operas because we’ve learnt a lot about the history of different people and buildings from Manchester and also learnt how to find useful archives and artefacts for ourselves
100s of fascinating facts about Manchester explored!
3 new Manchester focussed micro-operas created
8 historian / fact finders reporting back to the full singing group
