Looking at what’s been good about 2020 and then moving on.  We’ve all got stories to tell, pain to deal with and frustration. Time has distorted and for some, human relationships improved, perhaps we really see each other a bit more. The BT engineer in Glasgow telling me how much he missed his Nan, the local What’s App support group and a growing understanding of the artistic landscape by all, even perhaps the Government.  How much do we need music? Did you see the world dance when Trump lost? The need for the choir practice. I want to be with actors and singers in the theatre, live. Online doesn’t suffice, no matter how hard everyone is really trying. Half of life is missing. Let’s please be honest and not try and pretend everything everyone does is wonderful.
 
In March, along with everyone else, some of our projects were wiped out, funding disappeared, partners vanished, theatre’s closed and a cry of anguish sounded out from artists whose veins, filled with their life blood, had been cut. Yes, the mortgage, the rent and the children’s food but that gaping hole normally filled by making, creating, nurturing and giving for a purpose, empty and aching. Difficult to explain this but that’s what it feels like. Of course you can create work in an empty room without an audience, painters and writers do it all the time, but for musicians, singers, actors, dancers, clowns, comedians, jugglers, tumblers…..you are 50% of us and what we do, you reflect back to us the stories and the songs we share.

​So, everything stopped, and we thought, what do we do next? Bridport where Opera Circus is based, is a small town of some 13,000 people. Mostly generous and compassionate people. There was never a moment from what we could see, when someone couldn’t get their shopping delivered, or their medicine collected, all the local businesses began to deliver, everyone donated to the food bank and we all got to know our neighbours better, which was a delight. I am not ignoring the tragedies of the deaths, the lost education, the domestic violence, the hate crime, the growing right wing extremism and all the other horrors we read about and some deal with every day. Those that can must be rebuilding and not be filled with fear all the time, as the Government would wish.
 
We decided to develop more ideas, pick up some that were halfway into the workshop process and just fund raise, fund raise, fund raise. It truly eats away at the soul.
 
What drives the fund raising is the possibility of working with other artists to make something that is much richer than we could possibly create by ourselves, having the freedom to choose countries whose cultures you want to delve into and tell the stories you want to share with others, as you want to hear theirs. Brexit is truly cutting off our limbs and part of our reason for being, our profoundly shared culture and history, our shared Humanity, our Humankind. Our sense of being together and not isolated.

So what has this year’s work brought us:-
 
•A successful Erasmus + grant to work with 3 new partners on 2 TCFT youth arts and cultural  journeys to Pristina, Kosovo  In April and to Portland, Dorset, UK in June 2021. The partners are Termokiss, Kosovo, Beats across Borders, Denmark and b-side UK.
 
The title of the process, Freedom is Participation in Power – Building Youth Activism.   This was the penultimate opportunity to apply for an Erasmus + grant before we leave the EU.
 
•We have applied for the final UK led Erasmus + Grants scheme, the results of which we will hear on 31 December. More soon.

•Another way of participating in Erasmus.
​
We would like to thank Francesco Pipparelli, youth leader with TCFT, for introducing us to Ilaria Zomer of the NGO Sereno Regis in Torino, Italy.  As a result, Ilaria has applied for an Erasmus grant to explore arts and youth work with 6 other partners from Serbia, BiH (Maja Djokanovic and Verica Jovanovic leading), Greece, Turkey, Portugal, Italy, England and Northern Ireland. In 2021 we will have a study visit to Bridport Dorset with 19 youth leaders involved in the arts, a training week in Torino, Italy, a residency in Bratunac, near Srebrenica and a final seminar in Italy to discuss all we have learnt together and hopefully, in the same space. 
 
•Through Changing the Story, there have been opportunities to listen to youth activists from Columbia to Iran, from Syria to Rwanda and more.  Learning so much about those who are the real change makers on our Earth, talking about the need for a sense of belonging and historical dignity, young people desperately needing space from which to work and grow, everything they do is about justice, it’s all part of the same conversation, climate, race, democracy, politics, co building is part of the conversation and intergenerational  and horizontal relationships are really important. For young social entrepreneurs it’s essential to be ethical in everything you do. 
 
The activists expressed the need to be empowered and have NGO’s, small and large, find ways to add value to the work of young people, open doors and invite them in and provide support, funds, phones, networks. 
 
All this has really added to our conversations about TCFT and the changes we can make with that work, who makes them and how.

​Changing the Story continues with a small co-learning project bringing together all the thoughts from the work we did with Izazov and the work of the partners in Kosovo and UK- Tiffany Fairey and Henry Redwood, Kings College London, Jasmin Hasic, Director of Humanity in Action, BiH Paul Cook, Chair of World Cinema, Leeds University, Rory Newbery, Stephanie Schwandners-Sievers and Lee Ann Fenge, Bournemouth University, Nita Luci and Linda Guisa University of Pristina and Mary Drosopolous, Early Careers Researcher.  See further details on the CtS and Izazov web site.

​Theatre for Everyone GAZA.
 A new partnership in which we are truly delighted and honoured to be involved.
 
This comes from Jonathan Chadwick, Theatre Director of AZ Theatre, UK.
“Az Theatre and Theatre for Everybody have worked together on creative projects in Gaza since 2009 and were partners in the War Stories project from 2002.  After numerous projects focusing on young people in Gaza we produced Gaza: War & Peace, the first Arabic stage adaptation of Tolstoy’s novel, playing to hundreds and hundreds of young people in Gaza in the Al Mishal Cultural Centre that was destroyed by Israeli bombardment in August 2018. We gained the participation of many hundreds of people throughout the world in a dynamic outreach programme that employed online video public events, climaxing in HERE THERE EVERYWHERE at the P21 Gallery in London on November 2017.
 
THE EMIGRANTS will be an advocacy project for the rebuilding of the Cultural Centre in Gaza. The Al Mishal Cultural Centre was destroyed by an Israeli air strike in August 2018. Alongside all our statements and publicity on this project we will promote the idea and vision of a new cultural centre for Gaza. The initial contributions for the rebuilding of the Cultural Centre are still in the bank except for money spent on research amongst the arts community in Gaza.  We also have a few people who make monthly contributions for which we are so grateful!  
 
The production in Gaza will happen in April/May 2021. We believe we can organise a number of online video events world-wide where communities of emigrants can pick up the conversation the play will start. These can happen live during or after performances in Gaza. The publics involved in these exchanges with young participants in Gaza may come from many communities.  The experience of migration is crucial for humanity at this point in history.”
 
A conversation will begin soon with young people in Gaza and TCFT’s Network (UK, Italy, BiH).  A chance to explore cultures and art, friendships and creativity, social change and activism.
 
We hope to organise two online events, one whilst we are in Kosovo in April 2021 and one in Bridport in June 2021 through Bridport Arts Centre. We plan to share music, theatre, spoken word, film and food online for an evening. 
 
There will be an opportunity to donate to the work with young people in Gaza and eventually to help rebuild their theatre. You can find out more information here.

Bridport:
Opera Circus is involved in a number of projects where we are acting as project manager. This is partly due to the difficult times and our experience in organising complex events and productions but also because we believe in the work, it fits with Opera Circus core values and we want to see the artists thrive.
 
Exile: A Mind in Winter, a beautiful cross art form exhibition of the work of Ricky Romain, Robert Golden and Cedoux Kadima. Dates from 2 December – January 16th at Bridport Arts Centre. Full details here. It includes a local and global music concert to celebrate International Human Rights Day on 10th December at 7.30. 

 This Good Earth, is a documentary about soil, food, farming and what our agricultural policies and corporate food manufacturers are doing to us. The premier is at Bridport Arts Centre on 21st January 2021 at 7pm and online. More details and tickets will be announced soon. Trailer and more information here.

Naciketa and Music Medicine:

The next blog will explore the journey of the new chamber opera Naciketa and its work with Music Medicine. Its tour planned for the early Summer of 2021 and cancelled because of the Pandemic, resurfaces in a different and more vital and inspiring form.
 
Partnering with the NHS, Southbank and Dorset Council amongst others and led by Emeritus Professor of Music Nigel Osborne, MBE through his work with Music and Well Being and the NHS Recovery Colleges.

They say if you go to Srebrenica you lose your heart to the town and its people. 
I would say you find it there.  

​For many years in the 80’s and early 90’s I worked in London as a volunteer and fundraiser for Helen Bamber, human rights activist and founder of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. I was only ever on the edge of the work they did with people whose damage and suffering through torture was almost beyond imagination. My mind found it really hard to accept what humans can do to each other, willingly.
 
Helen’s words of wisdom were vital when I was first invited to Srebrenica in 2008.
 
Lock up your heart, be useful, it wasn’t your tragedy. 
 
At that time this wasn’t a place I would have visited without an invitation. I had read about the genocide tourists, those who photograph the bullet holes, those who came to try and help others for their own emotional needs and endlessly weep for themselves and the international organisations who came, imposed ideas without consulting local people as to what was needed, made money and left. 

"One thing is consistency. I mean consistency of people who come to post-conflict communities to work. People survived violence, refugee camps, corruption and lies. Years of lies. The reason why people trust you and the small number of others, is that you come back. You always come back. That is the only way to make a change. To stay there, or to keep coming back. Otherwise, we are just talking about people and projects that are offending people who live in these communities. You, as a person, as an organization need to show that you care.”  Written by a young director of the then Youth Centre in Srebrenica for a talk given in Brussels in 2014. The Youth Centre is no longer active.

The town now is a shadow of its former self. There are no available accurate and up to date statistics as to how many people still live there but local estimates are around 500.
 
After 16 years of working in Bosnia and Herzegovina, not just in Srebrenica, but in Mostar, Sarajevo, Visegrad, Bratunac, Zvornik and other smaller towns and villages, I know this country has changed me.  It has confused and inspired me and has left me for the rest of my life to question everything and try to understand; constantly in a place of dis-ease but very alive. 

​In 2007 we were touring in Bosnia with Differences in Demolitions, an opera written by Scottish composer Nigel Osborne and the renowned Bosnian poet Goran Simic. We partnered with the National Theatres of Mostar and Sarajevo with a culturally mixed chamber ensemble, creative team and cast. This was when the invitation was given to come to Srebrenica. It was July and we were asked not to come by the local NGO because of the Memorial events and there was also trouble on the streets.
 
I travelled to Srebrenica a year later and was invited to meet with a group of young people aged 14 – 17. They had worked with a Dutch Musicians without Border’s trainer and musician for a number of years and a Bosnian youth worker who now works with Save the Children in Sarajevo.  These young people had had the enormous advantage of learning how music and theatre can help to rebuild communities and provide the space for recovery and communication. 
 
The rest in a way is history in that we started to work together through art, imagining and organising creative and cultural exchanges between young people in Dorset and Bosnia and Serbia, then with schools, and then with other partners in Portugal, Italy, Georgia, new partners in Bosnia and Serbia and others in the UK beyond Dorset to Blackburn, Kent, Sussex and London.  We now begin to work with new partners in Kosovo and Denmark.

The day after the Memorial to the Srebrenica Genocide, I wrote this on the private TCFT Community Group Facebook page.
 
“Yesterday's 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide has made many of us remember our times in this beautiful town, the glorious countryside, Guber, the kindness, the food, thank you Bato, Avdo, Omer, everyone who hosted us in their homes, the music, learning, generosity and the hope. You changed many of our lives for the better. 
Thoughts are with all the young people and families we have got to know, and in some cases have with them deep and long lasting friendships. People we miss deeply when we don’t have the opportunity to visit.
I read many of the reports yesterday from journalists who probably like everyone else, didn't even go into the main town of Srebrenica but only as far as Potocari where the Memorial Centre lies. One journalist interviewed the Mayor of Srebrenica and seemed to take his words as truth. He reported that there were 7000 people living there (probably now only around 500, no one wants to live there anymore), and as usual spoke nothing of the corruption, the disappearance of millions of Euros on mismanaged projects and theft and the Municipality that looks after itself and its families, no matter the ethnicity of the officers – except for one, a dear friend who is forever helping as many people as he can throughout the region. 
If you are lucky enough to get a job in the area (Srebrenica, Bratunac etc.,) you will probably have to join the political party in power to get it. 
There are still war criminals sitting in cafe's smiling at their victims as they pass. There has been some justice but not enough to create meaningful change. 
The local people and organisations carry on. There are some amazing local young people who work continuously using music to bring people together, Srebrenica Wave, and also those whose organisations have been there from the beginning like SARA, EMMAUS and the strong links with the Rotary Club in Vienna and the Rock School in Mostar, amongst many. 
Many of the wonderful young people we worked with starting in 2008 we still know and keep in touch with. The majority have left Srebrenica with aching hearts. They would like to have been able to stay but there was nothing to build new lives with, nothing honest anyway.”

​There is a conversation at the moment about the possibility of having a residency in Bratunac/Srebrenica in 2021.
This will be led by another organisation, possibly Italian. 
They will need a lot of voluntary help to support the young people to manage this. 
More news on this soon.
There are many blogs, poems, photographs, films about TCFT residencies in Bosnia and Serbia.  
​You can find them here by going back to the blog archive.
 
Here is the short documentary that Robert Golden made during the residency in 2015.
 
Ellie Ruby, poet and writer, wrote this piece after taking part in the Srebrenica residency.

Sandra Duric wrote about her experience and vision

ERASMUS – THE END - for the moment!
 
There is only one more deadline, that of 1st October, where we in the UK can apply for  Erasmus + grant funding due to the tragedy of this country leaving the EU.

Rory Newbery and I have written two more Erasmus applications, one has been successful for two residencies in Pristina, Kosovo and on Portland, Dorset, UK.  One we hope to hear about in August 2020 which is a large nearly 2 year Erasmus KA2 project, more news on this if we are successful. We may apply once more in October.
 
There is hope in that young people who grew up as part of the TCFT network are now in positions where they can invite Opera Circus to participate as an organisation in a partner country. We can’t lead or apply anymore as a lead organiser, but we can continue to help and support work with young people through the arts.  Francesco Pipparelli has already invited Opera Circus into two new Erasmus projects with a new youth organisation dealing with Health and Well Being.
 
Maybe the next generation will also lead the bid for the UK to re-join the EU in the future.
 
There are so many people to thank but I imagine we have all participated for the same basic reason, to be useful, curiosity, passion for the arts, wanting to see change and a love of life.

Tina Ellen Lee
Artistic Director
​Opera Circus

• During the subsequent civil war that lasted from 1992 to 1995, an estimated 100,000 people were killed, 80 percent of whom were Bosniaks. In July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces killed as many as 8,000 Bosniak men and boys from the town of Srebrenica. It was the largest massacre (genocide) in Europe since the Holocaust.
https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/bosnia-herzegovina/case-study/background/1992-1995

On June 23rd a press release was sent out into the World about a small “lockdown opera” called Osman Bey and the Snails. The music was composed by Nigel Osborne and the libretto by a variety of people who are called The Friends of Osman. The film was made by Robert Golden and the cast and further details can be found here.
 
Osman has so many friends, as has been seen by the global response to this beautiful small artistic expression in support of Osman’s freedom from prison in Turkey.
 
With thanks to two extraordinarily generous PR companies, Bolton Quinn and Eskenzi PR, Osman’s opera has been viewed by over 25,000 people on Vimeo (Turkish subtitles) and You Tube (English subtitles) and the numbers are growing daily.
 
The opera has been seen on 170 mixed press and media sites from Borneo to Argentina, South Africa to India including major articles in The Economist, The Financial Times, The Guardian and the Observer; interviews with Nigel Osborne and Tina Ellen Lee on BBC World Services programmes, The Cultural Frontline (about 9 mins in) and Newshour. The latter two programmes alone have an audience of over 17 million. Many have taken to Twitter from Amnesty, PEN, Human Rights Watch, openDemocracy, Bournemouth and Leeds Universities, Kings College London, amongst many others, both organisations and individuals.

"I thought the opera was totally brilliant!    Reality and metaphor in  a deftly crafted and  beautifully understated musical theatre" 
Brian Walker
Former BBC Political Editor Northern Ireland, Editor of Political and Parliamentary Programmes at Westminster.
Hon Senior Research Fellow The Constitution Unit University College London.

We have received many thoughts and good wishes from supporters of Osman, those who have known him for years, and others who have discovered his plight through the opera. 

"An impressive, collaborative piece of work, developed by artists in the spirit of solidarity and to raise awareness of political imprisonment in these fraught times." Dr Jen Keating, English Department, University of Pittsburgh, USA. 

“What a beautiful gesture! Composing that mini opera in homage to Osman is a heart breaking initiative. Thank you so much for letting us enjoy it.” Americo Castilla Director Fundacion TyPA Argentina.

“Osman Kavala, the human rights activist and philanthropist, and the snails he tended in a Turkish prison – he is still detained – are the subject of Osman Bey and the Snails, a lockdown world premiere, composed by Nigel Osborne and produced by Opera Circus, that stars, among others, Nadine Benjamin and Lore Lixenberg as the unexpectedly beguiling snails. Persuasive musically, and technically a coup, it’s opera with a cause: the 10-minute work is being shared through Amnesty International, PEN and Open Democracy.”
Fiona Maddox The Observer’s Classical Music Critic. UK

"Our thoughts are with Osman and other political prisoners who suffer in solitary confinements for reasons known only to those who meet out such atrocities on their fellow humans. We know that the human spirit is more powerful than the greatest weapon any human can make. We have faith this spirit that holds unbelievable resilience will carry him through such hours of uncertainties." George (614, George Abungu, Cultural Consultant, Kenya)

A beautiful short animation about Osman created by his artist’s friends can be found here 
 
We have a dream to perform the opera live for Osman on his release by the lake at the Schloss Leopoldskron, home of one of the Friends of Osman, Salzburg Global Seminars. 
 
At the moment there is no campaign we can sign up to, but you can add a comment in support of Osman at the bottom of this web page.  

Do please copy and paste the snail into the comment box with any thoughts you may have about or for Osman.

🐌

We have received many powerful and supportive comments from around the world from people moved by the plight of Osman Kavala in prison.  Many have also said how much they have enjoyed Osman's opera and the way it has shared Osman's story and that of his Snails.

This morning we received the words below via Anthony Barnett, one of the team of the Friends of Osman who has helped not only with the libretto but also in sharing the opera through his vast and concerned contacts as co-founder of openDemocracy.  It comes from a Professor in India who has been friends with Osman since the 1980's.

"It is not often that we can all do something when a great injustice takes place in another country.  Everywhere millions of people are joining their voices and employing their creativity to oppose violence, injustice, and discrimination in their own countries. 

The #MeToo movement, Extinction Rebellion, the mobilisations for the liberty of Hong Kong, against the threat of Muslim genocide in India, and now for Black Lives Matter, together are changing the world. Not in a way that will be easy or quick and the resistance will be powerful. But the epoch of the populist ‘iron men’ has begun to meet its match.

In one country there is an injustice that symbolises the contest between hateful, polarising, elected despotism and truth and justice. The jailing of Osman Kavala in Turkey.

Kavala is Turkey's best-known supporter of culture. A philanthropist, human rights champion and bridge-builder to minority communities he has spent his whole life working for equality and respect for repressed peoples. He stands for the democratic and tolerant beliefs of probably now a majority of the population.
​
For this he is approaching 1000 days in Turkey’s highest security prison on trumped-up charges on the orders of President Erdoğan. 

Now there is a simple way for all of us to protest against his fate and demand his freedom. 
Watch, enjoy and share 'Osman and the Snails'. 

It’s the first ever lockdown opera, ten minutes long, an international cooperation made when everyone was in isolation from COVID-19. 

The music is composed by Nigel Osborne. The production is by Opera Circus. The singers are world class. 
​
I’ve been friends with Osman since the 1980s. Two weeks after he was  jailed, in October 2017, I wrote in outrage about his innocence, sure that he would be released before now. 

But there is one problem in calling for Osman’s freedom. He is an organiser who works tirelessly for others. This means he personifies democratic, civil society in Turkey. But he is not a singer, or writer, or painter. The wider world cannot experience his voice, vision and example. 

Now we all can. By watching 'Osman and the Snails'.

And every one of us who watches the opera becomes a grain of sand in the movement of support for his release. 
Watch it. It is musically a joy. Then please share it and help free Osman Kavala."

Original press release with contacts and further details.
​The film by Robert Golden.

In 2014 Nigel Osborne, composer and human aid worker and Tina Ellen Lee Artistic Director of Opera Circus were invited to a session on Building Peace through the Arts as part of the Salzburg Global Seminars. 
 
We met and heard many inspiring people, one of whom was Osman Kavala, a Human Rights Campaigner from Turkey.
 
As a result over the last couple of years we have been part of a small team of people, who are part of many such teams and groups, fighting to have Osman released from a Turkish prison where he has been unjustly kept in solitary confinement for nearly 1000 days.

Recently a story came out about Osman and his pet snails.
https://www.duvarenglish.com/human-rights/2020/02/20/osman-kavala-looked-after-snails-in-prison-had-to-abandon-them-after-rearrest/
 
Someone in our team casually commented to Nigel,…why don’t you write an opera about this wonderful story? And so Nigel did.

The English subtitled version can be found on Vimeo here.

The Turkish subtitled version and the Youtube links can be found on the press release here.

A work of true collaboration began with numbers of the team helping to write the text; Nigel writing the music over two nights; Opera Circus asking some of the brilliant singers who have worked with the company for many years if they would give their time; a wonderful new partner with TCFT, the youth arts programme of the company, Mikael Hegelund Martin of Beats across Borders in Denmark cleaning up the sound; Andy Morton helping the singers into their roles and Robert Golden, film maker/ photographer working across the globe under our “lock down” making the film. Everyone worked for free and without ego; the purpose to free Osman.

Darren Abrahams who sang the part of Osman said, "  It was a real honour to be asked to sing the role of Osman in this opera. I don’t think I appreciated the technical difficulties of putting together an opera in lockdown when we began. Having to be actor, singer, director, camera, lighting and sound operator at the same time as interacting with imaginary other singers sitting in kitchens on the other side of the world was a very interesting challenge - a bit like when you see Hollywood actors reacting to invisible CGI characters on a green screen. But the result is beyond expectation (thanks to the skills of Robert Golden and Mikael Hegelund Martisen). I hope it delights and entertains while also highlighting the case of a great human who deserves his freedom".

Osman Bey and the Snails film in English on Vimeo here.
You tube and Turkish subtitled versions can be found on the press release here.

The cast are:
Osman:  Darren Abrahams
The Lawyer: Robert Rice
The Snails:
1.  Nadine Benjamin
2. Lore Lixenberg
The Prison Guard: Andy Morton
Piano: Anthony Ingle

Lore Lixenberg, a Snail said, "The UK had been in lockdown for around 6 weeks , Osman had been in prison for almost 1000 days when I was invited by Nigel, Tina and Robert to have the honour to be served to him as a singing snail in his bowl of rocket salad. I was mindful of his plight during the whole process of my small part in the creation of this mini-opera. This was absolutely the focus.

It was the ultimate collaboration over many countries with people I have worked with for years, also with a brilliant soundman who I felt as though I had worked with for many years as well.

On a personal level, it was wonderful to be part of an opera again, as all my projects for the summer vanished in 48 hours after the lockdown was announced, as this was for everyone. It was a joy to work in a team again, to be reminded that making opera exists still.

The technical issues I encountered (creating a total blackout in a white bright, domestic space full of clutter, trying to get the lighting right with a couple of music stand lights, etc), were a challenge, especially as even in lockdown the desire for perfection and excellence is like a homing instinct, anything less than perfection is a stress. But the challenges the performer faced were nothing compared to the amazing alchemy that Robert Golden performed in knitting these disparate mobile phone clips together into a seamless coherent whole at the same time keeping a strong sense of his inimitable style. Why don’t we just do it ‘zoom’ style, I kept asking myself? My question was answered when I saw the result of the work, a smooth poetic whole, that really does justice to the multifaceted, multilingual, beautiful, tough music of Nigel Osborne. 

The amazing work that Mikael ( the soundman who I have never actually met!) was also at such a high level I can only take my hat off in admiration.

It was also really gorgeous to be working, however remote, with my friends again. It was maybe a little painful because no matter how lucky we are to live in a time where communications are so easy, what I really wanted was to be in a rehearsal room with my friends stinking of rehearsal. It made me think again of Osman. How long since he has been in a room with his friends and family. I hope Nigel and Robert's gentle activism helps to get him out of prison."
​
Anthony Ingle is a brilliant and unique musician, one of a kind and a superb improviser. Anthony has worked with Opera Circus for most of its life and is the pianist of improvisatory genius for Impropera, the renowned improv opera company that grew out of Opera Circus in the 90's. 

Anthony's comments on working with the "Snail Opera Team", "It was a remarkably steep learning curve in terms of the technical requirements (I believe for most of us) but, given the impetus of Osman’s situation, the power of Nigel’s writing and the unique world circumstances, the perfect time to give focus to such learning. And the prospect of being part of something which has such potential to make a difference far beyond its immediate aim, with trusted, respected and beloved colleagues, sharpened the focus still further."

The opera will be shared and distributed through Amnesty International, PEN, Open Democracy and by everyone who loves and believes in justice and freedom.  

Please share this blog or the official press release, whichever is appropriate and let us create more global support for Osman's release. Maybe now in this current climate of world collaboration fighting other injustices, Racism through Black Lives Matter, Climate Change led by Greta Thunberg and tens of thousands of young activists or the overwhelming kindness and care for those affected by the tragedy of the Pandemic. Perhaps a global wave can free Osman and others like him, the journalists, writers and others fighting for social justice. Further information can be found on the web site for Osman.

Two weeks after Osman's was jailed Anthony Barnett, co-founder of openDemocracy wrote this article.

Nadine Benjamin (a Snail) wrote, "As someone who is quite severely dyspraxic, I knew that creating art in this way would be a challenge for me. The number of emails, telephone calls, video calls to learn how to actively create a work that would have the authenticity running through it required me to meet every one one of my struggles head on. While doing so, I kept a picture of Osman in front of me knowing that I was not alone in this challenge - that every one of us was meeting an opportunity to grow and surrender to the moment.  Nigel's writing has always had the ability to make sense of the world in ways that are rare and unique. This piece to me is in celebration of an artist and I believe all our artists are here to make the world a better place."
 
This is a work of art. Osman and the lawyer are real people, the prison guard in our story is a fictional character. The snails are themselves.

Osman sent these words to us, “I find the snails’ lines quite realistic, but I cannot say the same thing about the portrayal of the conditions here in my prison. The guards and other employees here talk and act with civility”

Full Press Release: https://www.operacircusuk.com/osman-bey-and-the-snails-press-release.html

​
​Next year it is 30 years since Opera Circus first emerged out of the master classes and performances several of us created in London with the great buffo bass Federico Davia. (We have attached the only biography we could find.)

What followed were nearly 10 years of touring with newly devised and commissioned productions - more information about this elsewhere on this web site - and then a number of years of recreating the company and how we worked and who with.  Often every year something different, depending on the offers, funding successes and the people rolling up.

Probably the most important of these being Nigel Osborne, Composer, Inventor, Human Aid worker, Emeritus Professor of Music at Edinburgh University, community music advocate and recently creator of Music for Well Being with the NHS as well as the music project with Cat Stevens for Syrian Child refugees in Lebanon, the Harmonics Programme.

Currently Opera Circus is working with Nigel and the film maker Robert Golden on a 9 minute "lockdown" opera called Osman Bay and the Snails.  This is based on the story of the imprisonment of Osman Kavala in Turkey and two pet snails who kept him company for a while in his cell. See more of the story on the blog below this one.  The opera will be on line in a few days on this web site and all of our social media platforms. Links to follow.

 What's Next! 
Opera Circus is part of the Dorset section of a national group of people and organisations concerned about the shrinking and distortion of the arts in England called What's Next.  A very interesting process where over 150 artists and arts organisations in this small and underpopulated county are speaking once a week and acting together to help those who are in danger of going under. As usual Governments have no idea of how freelance artists work and talk of profits and this lack of understanding of creative working structures is causing the collapse of many people's livelihoods.  They have just understood how self employed plumbers work so maybe at some point they will try to comprehend the lives of artists.! 

At the moment the What's Next Dorset group are supporting the arts ecology in the county by sharing furloughed staff and their expertise, raising funding through an emergency crowdfunder and promoting projects that are still running to continue to source funding, for instance Bridport Arts Centre's Bridport International Prize for Poetry, Short Stories and Novels. The latter has a deadline of the end of May with chances of winning prizes up to £5000.

Izazov! grows slowly and carefully with the films created through the project work in Sarajevo and Dorset now part of Changing the Story's International Short Film Festival online 1 - 5 June 2020. 

There are plans to screen the films live in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the first weekend of October 2020, if we are allowed to travel and gather. That weekend Reactor-Cluj should be performing at MESS Festival, their 60th anniversary, in Sarajevo and we are looking forward to seeing their work and the long term TCFT activists and friends, Raul and Petro. Dates and details to follow when we know more.

Several of the young people who created the films are either working on a second short film or Part 2 of their first film idea.  If you click on the Changing the Story link above you will find the times of the film screenings as well as the opportunity to join a Q and A with the young film makers at midday on the 5th June.  

Erasmus + KA1 and KA2

If you have never applied for international funding from Erasmus + you are about to lose the opportunity for ever. Between 2014 and 2020 the EU provided €14.7 billion in grants for youth, sport, training  and education. The UK, although many people didn't know that this funding existed, still managed to successfully apply for just under one billion Euros (including University education and exchanges) over this period and there is still one deadline to go for Erasmus +, 1st October 2020.  After that the far right ideology-led Brexit will remove our right to participate in these grants.  It is young people who will suffer the most and this funding will not be replaced in the UK.  

There has been a great deal of lobbying the DCMS, education and youth departments but the assumption is October 1 is the end.

It is the young people from backgrounds where parents cannot afford to pay for trips and school holidays abroad, different educational offers for exchanges, scholarships and studying within Europe, who will have these opportunities denied to them in the future. 

TCFT carries on albeit slowly. The work began to develop in Srebrenica in 2008, more information elsewhere on this web site, and has carried on developing in different ways ever since.  

We have been applying to Erasmus + (KA1 and KA2 Youth Mobility and Strategic Partnership Funding) and at the moment are waiting to hear about the KA1, the announcement is only 7 weeks late.  The KA2 we will hear about on the 16th August. More information on this on the TCFT web site soon.  We will apply again for another KA1 in October and with luck should have 70% of the funding we need for at least another 2 years work with partners in Italy, Kosovo, Serbia, BiH, Denmark and UK.  More soon.

Naciketa - a new chamber opera - music Nigel Osborne and text Ariel Dorfman:

This bit of news is not going to turn into a big moan about Arts Council England and its current emergency funding failures, nor the disinterest of the government in the arts in the UK, see above re this.  
This is part of the Great Pause.
We have no idea.  
Having said that,
​there is a lot of creative thinking going on.  
​We will let you know when we have an idea of
What's next!
​for Naciketa...
and other new work.....

Thank you to everyone who has helped us get this far.

More news very soon.

Photography and Film: Robert Golden

​Most of us have been in self-imposed isolation for 30 days. On April 18 2020 Osman Kavala will have been in enforced isolation for 900 days in an Istanbul jail cell. 

Nine hundred days away from every friend, family member and colleague, without seeing even a tree or the horizon. During this time, we have not stopped thinking about our friend, Osman Kavala. 

Today we announce the upcoming world premiere of a small opera film made over seven days by artists in lockdown, entitled Osman Bey and the Snails.

This modern fable is the story of a beloved Turkish philanthropist and activist cruelly jailed-- and of the two little animal friends who shared his cell. Osman Kavala has fought for human rights in Turkey for 30 years. He has used art and culture to build bridges with Kurds, Armenians and Greeks, to make Turkey a fairer and more humane place.

Osman has always loved animals. In his youth he stopped his family firm from building of a hotel on a beach used by loggerhead turtles to lay their eggs. 

In 2017, Osman Kavala was sent to jail by a court on politically motivated fantastical charges. He became one of the country’s best-known political prisoners, kept in severe conditions of isolation. So, the animal-loving prisoner was delighted one day when he found  two snails in his lunch-time salad. The pair became his companions in isolation.

In February this year, in a move that surprised and delighted everyone in equal measure, Osman was acquitted by a court which ordered him to be released forthwith. The prisoner’s first concern was not to abandon his new friends, so he gave the two snails to his lawyer for safekeeping. But that same day he was cruelly re-arrested—on different charges. 
The snails are now free, Osman is not. 

In this era of coronavirus, Turkey’s ordinary criminals have been released; political prisoners have not. Osman's conditions are now even more severe. Family visits have been stopped and he can only speak to his wife and mother for 20 minutes a week on the phone.

Osman enhanced the world of culture by harnessing its power to heal wounds and make peace. Now it is the turn of the world of culture to support him. 

The music is contemporary classical but reflects the various cultures that Osman has honoured in his life's work.
The opera-film Osman Bey and the Snails is written, directed and performed by a team of international artists isolated around the world, all proud to call themselves ‘Friends of Osman’. We look forward to sharing it very shortly.

We will not rest until Osman is free, with his loved ones, and among us, where he belongs. 

“Friends of Osman” 

Darren Abrahams
Anthony Barnett, Co-Founder, openDemocracy
Nadine Benjamin
Robert Golden
Anthony Ingle
Tina Ellen Lee, Artistic Director, Opera Circus
Lore Lixenberg
Mikael Hegelund Martinsen Beats Across Borders
Andy Morton
Paula McFetridge, Artistic Director, Kabosh Theatre 
Nigel Osborne, Emeritus Professor and composer
Robert Rice 
Clare Shine, Vice President and Chief Program Officer, Salzburg Global Seminar

​

In Get Close to Opera, the partners in most cases were delightful, experienced, concerned and delivered interesting and thoughtful work. We all had our roles and we all took our tasks seriously, whether web site design, research, translation, delivering training for the residential week, actively participating in the social media plans, etc.,  We all did far more work than we had been paid for, as is usual with any project, and, in particular, if you are not on a salary. The commitment was obvious. 
 
There was a good mixture of organisations, RESEO, the International Association for Higher Education in Opera and Ballet, the University of Patras, Greece, ESART, in Spain , The European Network of Migrant Women, highly skilled and our moral compass and us, for the UK, the opera company. Each of us had a project manager and we were lucky enough to work with Foteini Galanopoulou, highly skilled in delivering EU projects and with a deep knowledge of inclusion and access in the arts.

In any EU funded project I think it must be very difficult to deliver a piece of work where everyone agrees about everything, we certainly didn’t, but there have been many benefits and learning from the various topics being researched.

In the vitally important context of dealing with Nationalism and Fascism across Europe and really making a difference to all our millions of new citizens, we probably didn’t move mountains. On the other hand we changed some minds, we had important discussions and presentations in large opera houses and small towns and their village halls. We had an opportunity to create small projects reflective of our learning and we did this one…Conversation on Portland which seems to have resonated with a  lot of people.  

We were able to invite three people to work with us in Matera during a training week in February 2019. Opera Circus were lucky enough to be able to invite Nadine Benjamin, Ruth Mariner and Katherine Harri.  They were a vital part of the Conversation on Portland pilot project.
 
We all agreed that GOOD COMMUNICATION is vital always and every time and that it’s not easy. The other is respecting everyone equally and acknowledging everyone's contribution, no matter how small. Creating good and thoughtful partnerships is always hard and there is never enough time to develop these properly. There should be time to talk about values and principles and do we share them, the use of language and the differences, social behaviour, work practice. There is usually the assumption that you put people into a room and somehow we all innately get on and know how to work with each other.  It has made us consider a partnership development process prior to any project, however short, to ensure that there is an understanding before we start and that there are points during a project where we can question and discuss together. It can't just be about outputs and outcomes, data and timelines. 
 
I learnt a great deal from watching Paolo Montemurro from Matera Hub and his incredibly diplomatic and patient project management.

We all were given the gift of being able to visit each other’s cities and countries, Patras in Greece, wonderful food and a culture of deep hospitality, Brussels, learning to love this city, its different quarters and its Turkish food, being able to hold our heads up in tiny Bridport with the support of a local landowners beautiful accommodation and the Jurassic Coast on a sunny early September evening. We had Matera. If you have never been you should go once in your life. Italy is so richly full of beauty and cultural sites but Matera’s strangeness and darkness sits with you and you can believe the Gods exist deep inside their caves. It is unique and a privilege to have been able to work in such an ancient environment.

The great and unique thing about Erasmus + KA2 Partnership funding (GCTO) is that you can actually pay people, unlike KA1 which only pays expenses for travel, accommodation etc, but no fees. KA2 you can get paid, not massively by UK standards, but very welcome in a world where less and less funders want to pay the people who actually organise the work, as if somehow it gets done by magic.

I didn’t realise quite how “freelance” the UK is and how much of an anathema this is to the EU. I don’t think they quite get it.  As much as I love them and don’t want to leave, much of the Erasmus work we have delivered since 2012 as had sometimes been managed as volunteers.  It’s not always possible to find match funding. You also learn the hard way the difference between our financial reporting, rigorous enough as it is, and the gruesome task that is the EU’s requirements.  
 
We, apparently are going to carry on being able to access some EU funds till December 2020 and possibly beyond.

The number of organisations in the UK who have applied for these funds over the years has been very small in comparison to the hoards in Europe who apply.  We estimate in 10 years we have raised around €500,000 (remember no fees and no core funding is included in this sum, only accommodation, travel, visas, and some funding for those who need special assistance to participate) from a mixture of Creative Europe, Youth in Action and Erasmus funding. Most of it has gone to give around 1600 young people from 14 partners (UK (lots from Dorset and London, Manchester, Blackburn, Brighton +), Italy, Georgia, Portugal, Serbia, Romania, Kosovo, Denmark, Bosnia and Herzegovina) the chance to travel and experience other cultures, learn about themselves and their creativity, access a huge number of opportunities from higher education, finding work, learning new skills and responsibilities, finding support and long term mentorship, participating in youth activism, to being part of an international network of friends - even a marriage! 
 
Nothing worthwhile is easy but while we still can, we encourage you to apply for some funding.

Take a look . There are lots of places to seek advice.

ERASMUS + FUNDING 
Next deadlines April and October 2020
 
As we leave this flawed union, I feel my heart going darker and heavier. I am a European, I grew up deeply imbued with European Culture, my Culture, and it seems to me that taking it away is a criminal act.  I can only hope I live long enough to see the new and far more socially active and caring next generations, demanding to return.  
 
Below are a few of the many hundreds of photographs taken, mostly by Robert Golden (you will be able to tell the difference), of some moments from the many projects we have created with artists, organisers, carers, young people and their communities since 2004 both in the UK and in Europe. They are in no particular date order. At one point we will try and give each a title but don't have the time at the moment. All the projects have been mostly funded by the EU grants for young people's activities with often additional support from Arts Council England and others, including regular crowdfunding. So many people involved, so much skill and creativity, so much love and willingness to work towards the change we must have. Memories, memories!

There have been many names for the projects, Wake Up!, Simply Human, Like a Film in my Mind and
The Complete Freedom of Truth.

The latest project along with Changing the Story is Izazov! and in 2020, the next Erasmus + funded project is called, Freedom is Participation in Power - Building Youth Activism. (TBC)
​
More information soon

Tina Ellen Lee Artistic
​Director and Creative Producer 
​Opera Circus
​19th January 2020