Heroines of Opera.
Heroines of Opera consists of two multimedia chamber operas: Sacred Mountain: Incidents in the Life of Queen Nanny of the Maroons (2015), and Women of the Windrush (2018). Thompson’s opera performances and compositions counter most women’s roles in traditional opera canon by featuring strong, assertive, female protagonists, and focusing on colonial and postcolonial (in these cases, specifically African Caribbean) narratives told from the point of view of those not traditionally the subject of opera. In both operas, Thompson features a solo female voice, and devolves some of the narratological impact of the singer to other narrative agents. Her operas use video projection, off-stage narration, on-stage dancers, and they mix elements more commonly found in contemporary popular music with those more traditionally associated with opera. See Portfolio Booklet for documentation of research dimensions.
- Submitting institution
-
The University of Westminster
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- qqx4z
- Type
- I - Performance
- Venue(s)
- Sacred Mountain, Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival, 2015; Women of the Windrush, Women of the World Festival, 2018. See portfolio for further details.
- Open access status
- -
- Month of first performance
- -
- Year of first performance
- 2015
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Addressing whether opera adequately represents colonial and postcolonial histories, or is capable of providing heroic female roles, Thompson’s research examines the potential to create the effect of dense musical textures and epic theatrical staging with minimal instrumental scoring and solo singers. Exploring to what extent it is possible to cohesively integrate a wide range of multimedia elements, including video, spoken narration and dance to produce a unified music drama and narrative, Thompson’s performances demonstrate how the “high art” form of opera can address contemporary concerns. Her research also led to new insights in terms of the compositional technique of writing an extended solo line that also portrays an epic story.
Sacred Mountain and Women of the Windrush were commissioned by South Bank Centre, Arts Council England, Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival, and others. Performances include at Southbank Centre, V&A, Tête à Tête, London, Women of the World Festival, and other venues.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
