Vision Opera

Address :
London
England
Post Code :
E11

Telephone Number :
0208 5397889

E-mail Address :
visionopera@aol.com

Web Site :
www.visionopera.org

Venue associated with this Company :
Wanstead House

If you would like to choose another company, enter all OR part of a Company Name Below

VISION OPERA
Working with the Community

We are a community based opera company based in East London whose aim is to include all sectors of the community in the exciting, energetic, fun world of opera. Members of the group pay a subscription to join each production.

The purpose of the group is to develop participants performance skills, to increase self esteem and to build confidence, broaden horizons and provide transferable skills.

We believe in inclusion and diversity and our members range from the the age of 5 to 75. We aim to perform productions of the highest standard.

We work hard in a positive, supportive, fun environment.

Some of our funding to date has been provided by the Waltham Forest Arts Council and the National Lottery. As a community based group we attempt to keep our ticket prices at an affordable level and our aim is to eventually become self-supporting.

"Vision Opera was set up because I was told it wasn't possible. I was told that people from ethnic minority groups wouldn't support the project. There was no opera in this area at all and I got fed up with always having to travel to West London to perform or audition for various roles.

I believe that the only way to keep opera alive is to bring it to new audiences. I also believe that music and performance is a much needed creative outlet for people.

The group has taken on a life of its own and what started off as quite a small project which was supposed to include a small group of professional/semiprofessional singers has turned into quite a large venture with at any one time around 70 to 80 people being involved, 90% of whom are from the community and many have never sung in opera before.

We have found that people have got behind the idea. We are particularly proud of the fact that all members of the community are represented and also that we are involving children as young as five.

We believe in working as a team and aiming for the highest standards within the strictures of having very limited funding and basically being a self supporting group. Everyone is encouraged to be the best that they can and we are privileged that many of our members are willing to share other skills that they have. Two of our members have taken on the roles of costumiers and we now have set designer who is a member of the community.

We believe in inclusion and the only thing that will stop you being a member of the group in a singing capacity would be the fact that you can't sing. Apart from that everyone is welcome regardless of age, colour, creed, sexuality or physical ability (even though we are limited due to premises we do have disabled participants in the group).

The group is also about building people's self- esteem and providing them with transferrable skills."

Deborah Aloba, founder of Vision Opera