Tomorrow morning  over 75 people will gather in the basement of the Dalhousie Arts Centre to start the eighth annual Halifax Opera Workshop: a four week long journey of shared creation that leads towards and through fourteen public concerts.

I can’t, just at the moment, really visualize what those 75 people are going to look like all together. I do know that casting these six operas was really tough, not because I didn’t have enough singers to choose from but because I had so many amazing ones and couldn’t offer places to everyone.  If there’s one thing I can predict about the four weeks coming up it’s that at the end of it we’ll feel exhilarated because we’ve created some damned good art together, and that we’ve supported and encouraged each other to do our very best.  I also know that nothing is more important than the human connections we will make as artists in the coming month, as we struggle to release ourselves from doubt and fear and move towards freedom and as we watch our colleagues do the same.

I can’t wait 🙂

Nina