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  • Osman Bey and the Snails PRESS RELEASE

Opera Circus is a performing arts company founded in 1991, which commissions, produces and tours new works of chamber opera and music theatre nationally and internationally.  We devise projects with children and young people using creative and cultural activities to explore issues of Equality, Inclusion and Child and Human Rights both in the UK and internationally, particularly in Italy, Bosnia and Serbia.  

• A still photograph from the new "lockdown' opera Osman Bey and the Snails.
Singers:- Nadine Benjamin and Lore Lixenberg .
​Music: Nigel Osborne Film: Robert Golden

Opera Circus is based in Dorset and works on a project by project basis, locally, nationally and internationally.

The company is run by Tina Ellen Lee as Artistic Director and Producer in collaboration with professional artists and skilled freelancers, producers, technical teams and a number of highly skilled young people.

Opera Circus is currently part of Changing the Story, a 4 year Arts Humanities Research Council project led by the University of Leeds.  The work is based in Bosnia, UK, Italy and  Kosovo. Details of the project can be found on the Izazov! web site.

Our next production is on hold due to the current crisis.  Naciketa, is a chamber opera written by Nigel Osborne, composer and Ariel Dorfman, playwright and poet.  The production of this opera is in the process of a complete rethink.


Opera Circus is a charity  and non profit company registered in the UK. 

We have a Board of Trustees of 5 people.

Tina Ellen Lee was one of the co founders and a performer with the company from its inception for over 10 years before taking over the artistic direction. She received the European Citizen's Prize in 2015 for her work in contributing to the cohesion of the European Community and the promotion of its Common Values alongside many artists and young people.  There are many people that have made everything we have achieved possible. They will be fully included in the new web site.

​Robert Golden, film maker and photographer has ensured that all of the work and stories of and about the company have been beautifully filmed and photographed. Many of the films can be seen in our video gallery or on Robert's video link.

Tina and Nigel Osborne have worked together since 2003 producing operas, music theatre, concert performances and arts projects particularly with children and young people both in the UK and Europe, primarily in the Western Balkans. 

​We are planning a variety of new Erasmus + youth residencies and engagement projects, if applications are successful. More news on this shortly. Partners are in Kosovo, Denmark, BiH, Serbia, Italy and the UK. This is the final year that we can apply for Erasmus grants due to the current UK government's desire to limit the future of young people in the UK through the ill considered departure from the European Union.

In Dorset UK, we partner and work with Transition Town Bridport, HOME in Bridport, Bridport Arts Centre, St. Mary's Primary School, the Lyric Theatre, the Electric Palace, the Youth and Community Centre Bridport, Arts Development Company and the University of Bournemouth.  We are also part of the Dorset What's Next group, the Co-Creation space with Battersea Arts Centre and Place of Sanctuary (Bridport and Dorset).

Our artistic and youth arts project partners in the UK include Urban Playground Team, The Human Hive, b-side, Glyndebourne, Young People's Insight, Croydon, Universities of Leeds and Bournemouth, King's College London, Lighthouse Poole, Southbank Centre, London, RIO, Plymouth, Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury as part of the University of Kent, Ideas Test, the British Red Cross, Plymouth, amongst others and on a project by project basis. 

In Europe, current partners include Humanity in Action, BiH, Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Italy, Beats Across Borders, Denmark, Termokiss and the University of Pristina, Kosovo and Teater Mimart, Serbia. 

We continue to raise funding from many sources for our projects from Arts Council England, Awards for All, the EU through Erasmus +, British Council and a variety of foundations and trusts. 

Further information as planning develops.


Below is a slide show of photographs (photos: Robert Golden) taken from some of our work, some present, some archived. Looking back we see how over the years both strands of our work have slowly come together, the performance art, the workshops and artist's development and the community, in particular working together with young people.   

Before we start any project we state that the space we work in together is generous and kind and a place of equality and access for all.  Sometimes it's a struggle to achieve it but we keep working at it. 

Next year is our 30th anniversary. We will keep sharing photographs as we dig back into our archives and use the inspiration from all these amazing people and the art we have created together to guide and inform us, to walk backwards into our future.  

We will start rebuilding the web site from October 2020. 
Contact: admin@operacircus.co.uk 

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