The cast and company of Queer Voices invite the audience to a public conversation after the performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor on Wednesday 19 July.
Through re-writing hegemonic and heteronormative narratives within performance-opera, we propose a non-traditional casting that challenges the rigid and traditional opera hierarchy. We conceive our practice as a hybrid between performance, opera and theatre due to the critical thinking as a driving force, but also by focusing on the audience more than in a typical play or opera. The singers get very close to the audience and engage them in the play’s action and performance. The aim is to present a different performance in places where opera (and especially with a queer perspective) is not available as often otherwise.
Also joining our conversation is Daniel X.Y, Fong – Doctoral research Fellow at The Oslo dept of Musicology, who is researching gay singers’ experience of classical vocal education, and how masculinity is controlled, regulated and performed in Norwegian higher education.