The Cooperative is a young Sydney-based arts company and social justice project, whose ambitious mission is to create and champion art to influence audiences and society as a whole. Historically, art has always played a part in provoking social change, and the core purpose guiding The Cooperative is that there is no better medium to explore and confront contemporary social issues than opera.
Next on The Cooperative’s 2022 program will be the world premiere of Felicity Wilcox’s Threading the Light. This production marks the first new opera presented by The Cooperative.
Wilcox’s work is haunting and compelling, a pertinent and cathartic work. Designed for live performance with real-time interaction between performed and pre-recorded elements, Threading the Light is a multi-media gem-like concert opera for string orchestra, singers and percussion, electronic surround sound and images.
The title refers to the universal phenomenon of ritual, a constant in human culture, designed to transcend worldly concerns. The work features surround diffusion effects and delay and spectral processing that invite the audience to be drawn into this sculptural composition structured in four movements and named after elements commonly associated with ritual practices: Light, Water, Blood and Fire.
Text for the work has been sourced from prayers and contemplative writings across a broad range of faiths.
This production marks the world premiere of this extraordinary new work. There will be two performances at Pitt Street Uniting Church on November 25 and 26 at 7.30pm.
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