OPEN CALL COLLABORATIVE OPERA WORKSHOP
TIDE
A MYTHICAL OPERA ABOUT POWER, ACENCY AND TRANSCENDENCE
APPLICATION DEADLINE OCTOBER 15TH
Take part in creating the new mythical and diverse opera TIDE with OperArkitekterne and composer James Black, librettist Lea Løppenthin, director Teiya Kasahara, conductor Rose Heiberg and safer space person Alex Delamare.
The workshop will be held at Udviklingsplatformen, Copenhagen, on November 17th-20th 2026.
In 2028 we will premiere this second piece in our four-piece opera cycle NEXUS - this is TIDE. This newly written opera TIDE will be a norm critical and diverse opera that, based on our common myths, renews the opera genre and allows it to reflect our times.
The opera cycle NEXUS examines how to establish a new norm critical foundation for creating opera, and will unfold as a contemporary oriented continuation of the genre and its aesthetics.
OPEN CALL
PAID COLLABORATIVE WORKSHOP WITH OPERARKITEKTERNE
TIDE
A MYTHICAL OPERA ABOUT POWER, ACENCY AND TRANSCENDENCE
APPLICATION DEADLINE OCTOBER 15TH
Take part in creating the new mythical and diverse opera TIDE with OperArkitekterne and composer James Black, librettist Lea Løppenthin, director Teiya Kasahara, conductor Rose Heiberg and safer space person Alex Delamare.
The workshop will be held at Udviklingsplatformen, Copenhagen, on November 17th-20th 2026.
In 2028 we will premiere this second piece in our four-piece opera cycle NEXUS - this is TIDE. This newly written opera TIDE will be a norm critical and diverse opera that, based on our common myths, renews the opera genre and allows it to reflect our times.
The opera cycle NEXUS examines how to establish a new norm critical foundation for creating opera, and will unfold as a contemporary oriented continuation of the genre and its aesthetics.
CO-CREATIVE WORKSHOP
In our creative development we want to foster a collective process and a safe creative space.
During the workshop, we will work together on finding the foundation for TIDE's existential, textual and aural universe. We aim for a framework where everyone can express wishes and limits in both the individual and collective work and take part in shaping a common expression. In the safer space, together we will create a structural renewal of the opera genre's normative performance culture full of archetypes, predetermined roles, dogmas and fixed expressions. Based on the co-creative collective work and common experience we gain during the workshop we will create and write the opera performance TIDE.
The workshop will end with a public showing at Udviklingsplatformen, where we will involve the audience in a conversation about opera and the future, and how we can ensure a wider representation on the opera's stages and begin a real cultural change.
WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
We are looking for a wide range of singers, opera singers and vocal performers from all genres who are interested in pushing the boundaries of cultural norms. Everyone is welcome, but we are especially looking for diverse lived LGBTQIA+ and minoritized experiences, and we strive to create a voice and platform for all ages, religious and ethnic backgrounds, different body types/norm-breaking bodies, sexualities and genders, to expand the breadth of representation within the entire spectrum on the opera's stages.
ABOUT US
The opera company OperArkitekterne is led by artistic director and conductor Rose Heiberg (she/they). Rose has a background in classical music and is working to create a cultural change in and around classical music and opera. The foundation of OperArkitekterne marks a starting point for the creation of a sustainable and broad representation in opera now and in the future.
Composer James Black (he/they) is a British-born composer based in Denmark. Their music is focused on creating and maintaining trance states, playing with energy and balance, using numerical systems to create fractal patterns, and walking a line between the expressive and the mechanical. They often use performative and theatrical elements are often used as central aspects in their works.
Librettist Lea Løppenthin (she) is a Danish writer. Lea has explored different myths in her works and captures the vulnerability that is attached to life and existence.
Stage director Teiya Kasahara (they/he) is a Nikkei Canadian transgender opera singer, interdisciplinary theater creator and co-founder of the arts collective Amplified Opera. Teiya explores the intersections of gender, sexuality, and race using elements of opera, theater, and electronics.
Safer space person Alex Delamare (they) is an experienced anthropologist with expert knowledge of gender, queer and norm-critical methods. Alex worked with us in our last production and will again support us in the strong and vulnerable space of creating and sharing together in a safer space.
APPLICATION PROCESS AND PRACTICAL INFORMATION
You must submit a presentation video in which you tell about yourself and your artistic practice. In addition, you must send us a video where you sing/perform at max. 5 minutes. This could be a clip from a live performance where you are clearly seen as a performer, or a video recorded for the purpose, where you sing or perform in a way that is telling for you and your practice. In addition, you must submit CV.
Please fill out the form and attach your CV here: https://forms.gle/oPNUtKpnNydJMYEb8
The videos must be made available via a link inserted in the form. Make sure that your video is accessible for us and make it public or send us a password if it’s a private video.
The deadline for submitting the videos is October 15th 2026 at 23:59. The submitted videos are evaluated by the artistic director and artistic responsible team of the project in order to put together the right group for the workshop. All applicants will receive a written notification as to whether you will be given the opportunity to participate.
All participants are paid DKK 8.000 for the workshop with a duration of four days.
If you are traveling internationally, travel costs and housing are covered by OperArkitekterne.
TIMES AND DATES
Deadline for submitting an application: 15 October 2026 at 23:59
Workshop 1: November 17th to 20th 2026 at Udviklingsplatformen in Copenhagen
Workshop 2: to be announced, during first half of 2027
Rehearsals for production, premiere and performances: aiming for April-June 2028
MORE ABOUT TIDE AND NEXUS
TIDE is rooted in the myth of Caeneus and explores transformation, agency, queerness, power, and the relationship between human beings and the sea. It is a contemporary reworking of the myth of Caeneus, who is often read as one of mythology’s earliest trans masculine figures.
At the center of the myth is a body reshaped by force and choice, and a world structured by hierarchies that determine who gets to exist, and how. TIDE confronts and questions the systems that produce these conditions: the logics of dominance, privilege, and exclusion that continue to shape gender, identity, and freedom. Water and the tide run through the work as both force and resistance. It erodes fixed forms and refuses stability. And it becomes a language for transformation and transcendence. Who has the right to define what a human being is? And what happens when we attempt to rewrite our own story?
Created through a collaborative process, TIDE continues OperArkitekterne’s commitment to a norm-challenging and co-creative opera, where we use the mythological universe as a way to unfold how we live, and how we might live otherwise.
TIDE will be the second work in our mythological opera cycle NEXUS created by OperArkitekterne.
NEXUS is a cycle of four operas in which the power of myth and the movement of water reflect and refract humanity’s past and present, its destinies and transformations. This quadrology is created by OperArkitekterne, a collaborative and norm-challenging opera company working at the intersection of classical vocal tradition and experimental performance. Their work is created in dialogue with contemporary voices and the societies they inhabit. Drawing on the worlds of myth and metamorphosis, the four operas are connected through their shared mythological themes; through a commitment to diversity and interdisciplinary artistic forms; and through a common ambition to create a new kind of contemporary opera that leads towards a different, broader, and less normative art form. In OperArkitekterne’s works, we encounter people, sounds, and bodies that have historically existed outside the boundaries of the operatic stage. Through these encounters, we explore questions of power, loss, identity, and the right to define oneself.
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