PRESS RELEASE
ENO announces Mini Operas: A Worldwide Online Talent Search to Inspire People to Create Opera
ENO announces Mini Operas, a world-wide, online search for composers, writers and film
makers that will seek out emerging opera talent of the future from across the world. Three
competitions to find future stars of all the components of creating an opera will be launched
online allowing everyone to submit entries for one or more categories.
Live from 26 March 2012, this groundbreaking and innovative worldwide search for new
talent will seek to create the future of opera. The hunt for exciting visionaries will take place
entirely online in conjunction with Mini Operas partners: Vimeo, Soundcloud, BFI, British
Council, Classic FM, Sound and Music and The London Film School.
The competition will run in three rounds dedicated to each discipline with renowned talent
judging the entries. Artists with strong connections to ENO; Will Self, Terry Gilliam and Nico
Muhly, will judge submissions for each relevant category. One participant will provide
inspiration for the next as each round will be activated by ten final entries from the previous
stage.
Existing and budding writers will be invited to create a script based on three example story
lines, provided by Will Self, AL Kennedy and Neil Gaiman. Later in the year, the ten
scriptwriter finalists will be put forward and composers will have the opportunity to compose
an original score to these unique stories. From here, ten composer finalists will be picked by
composer Nico Muhly and ENO Music Director Edward Gardner. The competition will then
open up for film makers to construct their vision for the complete Mini Opera. The film
section will be judged by film legend and director of ENO’s The Damnation of Faust, Terry
Gilliam.
Terry Gilliam said, ‘Opera is really, really hard to do well. I know. I want people to find it out
for themselves. I’ll be judging, and I want to find future stars who can work with this
ridiculous, stupefying, insane, wonderful artform. Good on ENO for trying to find anyone mad
enough to have a go.’
The finale to the contest will take place at the BFI, in autumn 2012. Terry Gilliam will pick
one winner from each category. Selected films, scripts and soundtracks will be showcased at
the event, and one person from each category will be chosen to be mentored by leaders in
their field: BAFTA Award winning composer, writer and director Jeremy Sams, who has
worked extensively in theatre both in the UK and New York and whose credits include Chitty
The Musical, Amour, and The Water Babies; Composer Nico Muhly, whose opera Two Boys
was premiered at ENO last year; and Leo Warner, whose productions include Waves and
War Horse at the National Theatre and who has also produced work for the National Theatre
of Scotland and the Metropolitan Opera.
E