There are some smaller discussions and partnerships in development, including an invitation to participate in a bid from the city of Timisoara for Cultural Capital City in Romania in 2021 and a possible Italian process involving Matera and maybe Bari.  Along with Ravenna and Sarteano, Italy seems to be a favourite destination of ours at the moment. 
 
We hope that your year has been as free as possible from disaster and conflict and that working together through the power of culture and the arts and a commitment to human rights, equality, freedom and truth we can find a way to turn the world around and begin to make something better of what we are as human beings.  In my journeying around the world over the last 24 months I have met artists, facilitators, teachers, farmers, refugees and even businessmen and people from the military who want to change society from being a less greedy and destructive form to something that works and supports all.  We have a long way to go but step by step, individual by individual it will change. We have to challenge the destruction of our environment along with climate change and the power of corporations, market forces, violence, poverty and inequality.  We can do something about this.

​I have just returned from a special week in Bucharest, invited to attend the Opera Europa conference, 18 – 21st November.  Our meeting rooms were in the magnificent opera house in the city and our hosts welcoming as you would expect from this deeply cultured country. 
 
There were 246 people from 32 countries, many of the major opera houses and arts festivals from around the world and it has given me much to reflect on, not least the place of opera in our lives and also its reputation and lack of diversity.  It was good to acknowledge the innovation and inventiveness of small scale companies and how we lead in many areas of education, facilitation, use of digital technology and diversity, out of necessity if not a much greater freedom and flexibility…I don’t include the struggle for funding in this statement!
 
People in general were very open and interested and we have made a couple of excellent contacts for future collaboration.
 
Thanks to Nicholas Payne for this inspiring visit.

​Naciketa, a new contemporary opera with music by Nigel Osborne and libretto by Ariel Dorfman, is now planned to premiere in 2017.  We can’t give a complete picture of the premiere and performances as yet, but will look to provide as much information as we can in the early spring. 
 
A simple page of description is on this web site http://www.operacircusuk.com/naciketa.html
 
We are delighted to welcome Sam Brown as our Director of the opera in its final stages and we look forward very much to working with him. 
 
During the year we have had many meetings and discussions with the Ravenna International Festival of Music, Italy, The Alchemy Festival as part of the Southbank, Poole’s Lighthouse, the University of Bournemouth and the Ashoka University in Delhi, India.
 
We have been hugely helped by the International Arts Producer, Gillian Newson and by ATER in Emiglia Romagna led by Francesca Zitoli.  
 
As a reminder of where we started with Naciketa, here are two commissions led by the great Scottish guitarist and expert on Indian Music, Simon Thacker. These were the exploratory pieces for the opera and gave Nigel Osborne, composer, the time and space to create the musical landscape for the opera.

The Birth of Naciketa   
Fire Agni

In 2016, Opera Circus will have been active in some form or another for 25 years.  We will find a way to celebrate this as part of TCFT in Bournemouth this summer, from 1 – 14th August.  Billy Alwen, from Cirque Bijou, will lead the facilitation and help to create an explosive final performance for all involved which will include the local communities in Dorset. 
 
Opera Circus has had many ups and a few downs, but the company, and charity, is finding an interesting and rich path in building its work with our youth led activities as well as exploring emerging young international artists through Naciketa’s journey.  We are invested in simplifying our processes, keeping our administration lean and efficient and reflecting back to the organisation the aims of truth, freedom and equality that the youth led work radiates.  We are also interested in learning how digital technologies can advance our network and support the building of our global community as well as our virtual office.
 
What has emerged through the work this year is the immense capacity of young people to empathise with others, their interest in creating a global community, their curiosity in other cultures and in 99% of the cases, their understanding and tolerance of difference, be it gender, race or ability.  I have been moved and amazed by their generosity, courage and hope for what is a difficult and unsafe future. They are impressive and an example to us all.

This was part of an inclusive performance in Srebrenica celebrating the end of the TCFT project in August of this year, beautiful work led by young artists along with Diverse City and others.
 

​What has emerged through the work this year is the immense capacity of young people to empathise with others, their interest in creating a global community, their curiosity in other cultures and in 99% of the cases, their understanding and tolerance of difference, be it gender, race or ability.  I have been moved and amazed by their generosity, courage and hope for what is a difficult and unsafe future. They are impressive and an example to us all.

So much to write about and so much progress.  The Complete Freedom of Truth project's first year in Srebrenica was transformative for nearly everyone that attended, be they partners, Ambassadors, professional established artists or emerging young artists and all the young participants.  The best thing I can suggest is that you read the web site set up by our young IT team with 95% of the content being written by youth participants from 7 different countries - Italy, UK, Serbia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal and Georgia.  To get a real feel of the work please read the blog as well as the creative evaluation, designed by Irina Maria Ganescu from Romania with support from Shaniqua Benjamin and Rory Newbery amongst other young writers, film makers, photographers and activists.  http://thecompletefreedomoftruth.com    

At the youth centre in Srebrenica - our host venue where breakfast, debates and performances were held.  

Erasmus + , an EU funding stream run through the British Council in Wales, has part funded a two and a half year process of cultural and arts activity, with 12 partners from 7 countries.  All information can be found on the web site.  The programme for 2016 is in the UK, full information to follow shortly and in Italy in April 2017.  Funding willing, there will be a second phase of the work finishing in 2019/20. We would like to thank the Arts Council England and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe for their on going support.