Hip-h'opera hits Sussex

• 12th Sep 2005

A leading Lewes opera company Glyndebourne has teamed with a Brighton hip hop collective in a drive to make opera of the non-soap variety cool.

The result: Hip H’opera – A School for Lovers, a genre-twisting blend of Mozart with today’s hottest street sounds.

The production follows the storyline from Mozart's Cosi fan tutte and has been developed in collaboration with Brighton-based hip hop development agency Momi Inc.

Katie Tearle, head of education at Glyndebourne – the world-famous opera company – believes: “This is more than an opera – this is a new way of working. She believes that, were Mozart still alive, “he would certainly be a hip hopping”.

Tearle added: “Opera lends itself to experimentation and working with other art forms is on one of the best ways of doing that.

“One of the aims is to bring more young people to the opera house but also to the arts in general.

The cast of hip hop artists and singers includes a British rapper, two soul singers and three professional opera vocalists.

The co-production from Glyndebourne and leading operatic companies in Helsinki and Berlin opens in Lewes next March before touring Europe.