WEST EDGE OPERA

Our on-line commissioning and development platform. In 2020 as Covid made performing impossible, we turned to the internet and advances in video collaboration technology to create an online community dedicated to creating and developing new opera. We assembled a group of diverse curators and focused on breaking down barriers for artists to apply. Part reality show, part think tank, part online artist retreat, a promise of one commission of $60,000 drew over 80 submissions half of which were by and about people of color, half were by female artists. Aperture was funded through members who, for a monthly membership fee watched videos of the artists at work crafting their projects.

Primary location: Berkeley United States