Musical Director: Tim Burke

Director: Bill Bankes-Jones

Cast & Crew:

• Tyne Coast Arts Collective

• Can’t Sing Choir

• Backworth Male Voice Choir

• Forever Dance

• North Tyneside Music Education Hub Choirs

• Royal Northern Sinfonia

HOME is a new opera written for and by the community of North Shields, exploring what ‘home’ means through spoken word, song, dance and music. The project involves 230 North Shields residents in a confidence-building and interactive creative process where they dance, sing, act and are involved in the writing process.

The opera weaves together songs familiar to the adult choirs taking part, music from Glinka’s seminal opera Ruslan and Lyudmila, choreography by Home’s dance group, new songs devised by local children’s and youth choirs, and spoken word readings written and performed by community choir members - all accompanied by three professional vocal soloists and members of the Royal Northern Sinfonia.

HOME is led by Tyne Coast Arts Collective, a new group of professional opera singers and creatives based on Tyneside. The global environmental crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic combined make it vital that freelance creatives can root their practice locally, and the Collective aims to provide professional opportunities for outstanding creatives, and create new and exciting work which benefit the local community.

HOME was initially conceived by lead artist Tim Burke, Tête à Tête’s Music Director, who held R&D workshops to develop the project in May 2019, as a collaboration between Tête à Tête, Helix Arts and Sage Gateshead. 

“I have to tell you, I was sobbing several times during it. It just really, really had such an emotional impact. It was just the most wonderful thing to do. I loved it” Penny, HOME R&D participant.