LABORATORY
of young composers and playwrights
ABOUTUS
The COOPERATION workshop is established as a creative and educational project for the young composers, playwrights, directors and set-designers. We are going to invent an innovative opera creation model by the genre borders discovery, contemporary music theatre and drama research, as well as actual problems and today’s theatrical process analysis.
OUR GOAL is to involve the young composers and playwrights into the music theatre territory with a view to create new compositions. We hope to draw the professional community’s attention to the young authors’ works and to expand the discussion area in the musical theatre field.
The workshop is divided into four stages:
«CONCEPT» — lectures and seminars, the creative teams shaping;
«BOUILD» — individual work;
«COMPOSITION» — the score itself;
«OPERA» — rehearsals and the first showings.
The lectures and masterclasses are held by the different disciplines’ leaders of today’s opera art. The project is about to consolidate creative intercommunications and networking among Russian regions youth, with the assistance of our colleagues from abroad.
Within the three years of its work, the Laboratory has released 26 new works for musical theatre. It held more than 150 hours of educational lectures and master-classes with leading experts in the field of contemporary and classic opera: composers, conductors, directors, music critics, theater leaders, as well as foreign experts: Jim Shaeffer (Center for Contemporary opera New York), Roman Reeger (Staatsoper Berlin, Infektion! Festival), Evan Gardner (Opera Lab Berlin), Michel Poels (Zangstudio Haarlem), Perangelo Valtinoni (Vicenca, Italy), Gerhard Dientsbier (Die Wiener Taschenoper).
Laboratory participants were the most outstanding and promising young composers, playwrights and directors. All of them got unique experience in creating an opera work from scratch; from developing an idea to implementing it on a professional stage. We are not afraid to experiment and to implement the most complex ideas. Therefore, in the summer of 2019, the “CoOPERAtion” held the first open-air festival of modern opera in the history of Russia, where 5 new operas have been integrated into the landscape of the natural and architecture park. Moreover, in December 2019, we released a special project dedicated to the opera for children, where the children themselves wrote the librettos under the guidance of playwrights-curators, and adult composers and directors created baby operas for the youngest viewers 0+.
The Laboratory also unites the best teams engaged in contemporary art. It gives the opportunity for creative and professional growth to diverse independent artistic groups like:
- GAM - Ensemble (Gallery of Actual Music),
- “La Gol” Voice Theatre under the direction of unique Russian contemporary music artist Natalya Pshenichnikova,
- InterActive vocal ensemble,
- “TSDL - Calligraphy” calligraphy platform,
- RADI SVETA Art Company& Theatre,
- “Voice FUSION” choir,
- TSEH Contemporary Dance Centre as well as the "Curiosity Media Lab".
In order to solve one of the objectives of the project - to popularize modern opera and reach the wider audiences, the Laboratory organises educational events, discussions and showcases at various Moscow venues like:
- the Stanislavsky Electrotheatre,
- the Chamber Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia named after B.A. Pokrovsky,
- the Concert Hall "Zaryad`ye",
- Museum of A.N. Scriabin,
- Community Stage venue,
- ZIL Cultural Centre and so on.
The Laboratory’s final showcases are annually held at the stage of the project permanent partner - Moscow Academic Musical Theatre named after K.S. Stanislavsky and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko.
The “CoOPERAtion” Laboratory offers the fundamentally different approach to managing the creative process and engaging young but already bright and outstanding composers, playwrights and directors with the opera art. Their mutual interest and great desire to work in this sphere and get acquainted with each other's achievements is a huge incentive for our project. The professional community annually praises the laboratory results. Lab receives wide positive response of audience and huge media coverage, which definitely gives us an incentive for growth and further work.
In 2018, the “CoOPERAtion” Laboratory was recognized as the best project of the year in the field of theatre, and in 2019, it entered the top ten list of best theatrical producer projects in Russia.
We create a new language and reflect the new generation thinking. Modern musical theatre gives the widest understanding of the trends of contemporary art, as it unites representatives of all creative professions.
Each new laboratory project is unique.
Modern opera is the spotlight on future.
