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The Last Siren – Dementia Friendly Opera at UWL
30/08/2023 @ 2:30 pm - 5:00 pm
The Geller Institute of Ageing and Memory (GIAM), London College of Music (LCM) and The Music Troupe are putting on a free, dementia-friendly production of new opera The Last Siren (August 30) at Lawrence Hall at The University of West London (UWL) in Ealing, ahead of its world premiere at the Tête à Tête festival on August 31st.
This new, contemporary opera will take a fresh look at the Greek myth from Homer’s Odyssey with music by Edward Lambert, libretto by Norman Welch and directed by Jenny Weston.
“Dementia-Friendly Opera aims to give people living with dementia and their loved ones an opportunity to enjoy new experiences and engage with their community and the arts in a safe yet authentic environment”, says Dr Andy Northcott, Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Medicine within the Geller Institute of Ageing and Memory (GIAM) at the University of West London.
This new development is part of GIAM’s vision of bringing diverse communities together to experience new genres and meet new people to promote not only longer lives, but fun and fulfilled ones. This vision complemented The Music Troupe’s wish to expand outside of well-worn theatre venues to find new audiences for opera in smaller, more intimate spaces.
Edward Lambert: “Talk about opera usually concerns a small body of work by composers of the past; I wanted to show how the repertory can be renewed with contemporary works that are economic to produce and practical to move around.”
A well-established body of research over the last 25 years, and from around the world, demonstrates how music can minimise distress and agitation associated with dementia and can also be used to promote reminiscence and strengthen memory, recall and even recital. While seeing somebody living with dementia remember old times through familiar music can be valuable, reminiscence can also become a test that a person can too often fail. This prompted GIAM to explore showcasing a new work, providing a new experience without the burden of recall and lost memory.
The Last Siren is open to all and will be shown as it would be to any audience. Unique to this performance will be the safety of the venue, which will be staffed by professionals experienced in working with people living with dementia. The auditorium will be set out to minimise fall risks and the audience will be permitted to move around, speak and leave, removing the usual social stigma associated with interrupting a performance. There will be quiet areas for those who may not enjoy the performance or cannot sit through the whole production and volunteers will also be on hand to assist with guidance to toilets and other facilities.
The performance will be preceded by a short dementia-friendly workshop, explaining how the opera works and giving the audience an opportunity to sing along.
The aim of this collaboration is to develop and refine a toolkit that can be used by other organisations for putting on a variety of dementia-friendly performances at venues across the country, laying the foundations for any opera production to become accessible and dementia friendly.
Dr Andy Northcott and Professor Katie Featherstone, Director of GIAM, were at the forefront of pioneering dementia-friendly cinema in 2017 which is now widely available across the country. They hope that the same will happen with Dementia Friendly Opera.
Free Tickets on EventbriteThe Geller Institute of Ageing and Memory (GIAM)
The Geller Institute of Ageing and Memory (GIAM) is a major research centre at the University of West London delivering research and education that informs and improves quality of care and support for people living with dementia, their families, and health and social staff caring for them.
London College of Music (LCM)
London College of Music (LCM), a College of the University of West London, is the largest specialist music and performing arts institution in the UK and has been in existence for over 130 years.
The Music Troupe
The Music Troupe was established in 2014 by composer Edward Lambert and colleagues to perform new small-scale Opera. The Music Troupe bring back the art of beautiful singing into new operas that are designed for smaller spaces: works that aren’t scaled-down versions of grand operas but new chamber pieces in which the music and drama are tailored, not trimmed, to an intimate setting. 10 productions on the Troupe have given valuable opportunities to over 70 performers and creatives.
