With an improvising company it’s not about commissioning work and dramaturgy because, well, it’s all made up,” says David Pearl, artistic director at Impropera – an operatic improvisation group he co-founded in 2000.
“It’s about developing and sustaining the ensemble over time, creating the conditions where people feel secure to take the kind of risks that improvising opera on the spot entails.”
For the past few years, Pearl has been running Muso, where his troupe of singers and musicians delivers an improvised 75-minute performance to a small audience in an intimate museum setting.
With tickets costing from £5 to £10, the performance involves the cast taking the audience on an exploration of the museum, telling stories about certain artefacts and treasures from the collection. The players interact with the audience, inviting them to share their ideas and ask questions.
Evocative surroundings “It’s a combination of a music concert, comedy show and a Night at the Museum experience,” Pearl explains, saying that he got the idea for improvisational opera in a museum from a chance encounter with University College London (UCL) academic Chiara Ambrosio. “She mentioned there were some great hidden collections at UCL, including the wonderfully evocative Grant Museum of Zoology. It sounded intriguing and the rest is ‘natural history’.”
Supported by a grant from UCL Grand Challenges and development funding from the Arts Council of England, Muso has been allowed to blossom, and is halfway through a run of six shows this year.
“UCL saw the work that we were doing with the Grant Museum – bringing the collections alive, pulling into the university a range of people who would never normally go there and involving them in the creative process,” Pearl says. “This was very consistent with their own UCL Culture programme and so they decided to support our work. Our current tour couldn’t be happening without them.”
As Pearl says, improvised opera is very different from traditional performances and so preparation is different too. Usually, the group arrives early to spend some time at the museum, soak up the atmosphere and chat with the staff.
Expressing reactions “We always promise we’ll rehearse, but usually this degenerates into playing around and mistake making – which, funnily enough, is perfect preparation for improvisation,” he says. “This is a balancing act, though, because while you want to respect the location and connect with the genius loci, being too prepared can be death for improv.
“The audience love that we know as little as – or less than – them. Our job is to express the audience’s reactions to objects, not our own, but we do have a guest academic on hand to correct us and tell the audience what it’s really all about.”
The experimental opera group has performed at London’s British Museum, Grant Museum of Zoology, and Horniman Museum, among others. From Impropera’s original set-up, Pearl (tenor), Susan Bisatt and Morag McLaren (sopranos), Anthony Ingle (musician and musical director) and Peter Furniss (clarinet, recorder and saxophone player) all remain. Niall Ashdown, Louise Crane, Phillip Pellew, Fiona Finsbury and pianist and flautist Yshani Perinpanayagam complete the group that delivers the Muso events.
Pearl is open to seeking more museum partners, mentioning Dean Veall, an educator at Grant Museum, who has become the de facto producer and is helping promote Muso to other potential locations. “We didn’t know how this would be received – that’s the wonder and terror of improv. However, a couple of years into the experiment, museums are asking for more and audiences are growing. As long as they are asking for Muso, we’ll be there, singing museums to life!”
Read more from this issue of Attractions Management magazine
View contents of Attractions Management 2018 issue 1
Industry Opinion: Waterparks
More water leisure operators are investing in becoming more accessible, writes WWA's Aleatha Ezra
Industry Opinion: Zoos & Aquariums
Species survival expert Bill Robichaud shares the trials of the saola and what zoos are doing to save this near-extinct creature
Interview: Bob White
Bob White, COO of Village Roadshow, on
weathering a dip in attendance and keeping
his eyes on investment and expansion
Inclusivity: Open to All
Kath Hudson reports on some inspiring
initiatives to help include people who
face physical, social or economic
obstacles to visiting attractions
Heritage: Lofty Ideals
Westminster Abbey is getting an attic
conversion of sorts. We found out more
Waterparks: Under the Weather
Meet the team who helped bring
Epic Waters to fruition – an undercover
Texas waterpark on an epic scale
Profile: Andreas Andersen
IAAPA’s new chair Andreas Andersen sat
down with Tom Anstey to talk about industry
growth, sustainability – and queueing
Theme Parks: Think Big
Liseberg CEO Andreas Andersen reveals
details of the park’s €200m expansion
Themed design: The Story Builders
Disney’s Joe Rohde and Scott Trowbridge
and Universal’s Thierry Coup reveal the
secrets of their trade – well, some of them!
With an improvising company it’s not about commissioning work and dramaturgy because, well, it’s all made up,” says David Pearl, artistic director at Impropera – an operatic improvisation group he co-founded in 2000.
“It’s about developing and sustaining the ensemble over time, creating the conditions where people feel secure to take the kind of risks that improvising opera on the spot entails.”
For the past few years, Pearl has been running Muso, where his troupe of singers and musicians delivers an improvised 75-minute performance to a small audience in an intimate museum setting.
With tickets costing from £5 to £10, the performance involves the cast taking the audience on an exploration of the museum, telling stories about certain artefacts and treasures from the collection. The players interact with the audience, inviting them to share their ideas and ask questions.
Evocative surroundings “It’s a combination of a music concert, comedy show and a Night at the Museum experience,” Pearl explains, saying that he got the idea for improvisational opera in a museum from a chance encounter with University College London (UCL) academic Chiara Ambrosio. “She mentioned there were some great hidden collections at UCL, including the wonderfully evocative Grant Museum of Zoology. It sounded intriguing and the rest is ‘natural history’.”
Supported by a grant from UCL Grand Challenges and development funding from the Arts Council of England, Muso has been allowed to blossom, and is halfway through a run of six shows this year.
“UCL saw the work that we were doing with the Grant Museum – bringing the collections alive, pulling into the university a range of people who would never normally go there and involving them in the creative process,” Pearl says. “This was very consistent with their own UCL Culture programme and so they decided to support our work. Our current tour couldn’t be happening without them.”
As Pearl says, improvised opera is very different from traditional performances and so preparation is different too. Usually, the group arrives early to spend some time at the museum, soak up the atmosphere and chat with the staff.
Expressing reactions “We always promise we’ll rehearse, but usually this degenerates into playing around and mistake making – which, funnily enough, is perfect preparation for improvisation,” he says. “This is a balancing act, though, because while you want to respect the location and connect with the genius loci, being too prepared can be death for improv.
“The audience love that we know as little as – or less than – them. Our job is to express the audience’s reactions to objects, not our own, but we do have a guest academic on hand to correct us and tell the audience what it’s really all about.”
The experimental opera group has performed at London’s British Museum, Grant Museum of Zoology, and Horniman Museum, among others. From Impropera’s original set-up, Pearl (tenor), Susan Bisatt and Morag McLaren (sopranos), Anthony Ingle (musician and musical director) and Peter Furniss (clarinet, recorder and saxophone player) all remain. Niall Ashdown, Louise Crane, Phillip Pellew, Fiona Finsbury and pianist and flautist Yshani Perinpanayagam complete the group that delivers the Muso events.
Pearl is open to seeking more museum partners, mentioning Dean Veall, an educator at Grant Museum, who has become the de facto producer and is helping promote Muso to other potential locations. “We didn’t know how this would be received – that’s the wonder and terror of improv. However, a couple of years into the experiment, museums are asking for more and audiences are growing. As long as they are asking for Muso, we’ll be there, singing museums to life!”
Read more from this issue of Attractions Management magazine
View contents of Attractions Management 2018 issue 1
Industry Opinion: Waterparks
More water leisure operators are investing in becoming more accessible, writes WWA's Aleatha Ezra
Industry Opinion: Zoos & Aquariums
Species survival expert Bill Robichaud shares the trials of the saola and what zoos are doing to save this near-extinct creature
Interview: Bob White
Bob White, COO of Village Roadshow, on
weathering a dip in attendance and keeping
his eyes on investment and expansion
Inclusivity: Open to All
Kath Hudson reports on some inspiring
initiatives to help include people who
face physical, social or economic
obstacles to visiting attractions
Heritage: Lofty Ideals
Westminster Abbey is getting an attic
conversion of sorts. We found out more
Waterparks: Under the Weather
Meet the team who helped bring
Epic Waters to fruition – an undercover
Texas waterpark on an epic scale
Profile: Andreas Andersen
IAAPA’s new chair Andreas Andersen sat
down with Tom Anstey to talk about industry
growth, sustainability – and queueing
Theme Parks: Think Big
Liseberg CEO Andreas Andersen reveals
details of the park’s €200m expansion
Themed design: The Story Builders
Disney’s Joe Rohde and Scott Trowbridge
and Universal’s Thierry Coup reveal the
secrets of their trade – well, some of them!
OMA has completed a major transformation of New York's New Museum, creating a larger
cultural campus that combines expanded exhibition spaces with learning, performance,
hospitality and public programming.
A US$50 million (£44.2 million, €51.2 million) transformation of Chicago's historic McCormick
Mansion has created a new destination that combines live magic, immersive theatre, dining and
private membership under one roof.
The Montana Historical Society has officially celebrated the opening of its new Montana
Heritage
Center, a US$107 million (£79 million, €92 million) destination that combines immersive
storytelling with cutting-edge audiovisual technology to bring the sta
San Antonio Zoo has reported a US$283 million economic impact for 2025, following a decade-
long transformation programme that has seen almost US$200 million invested into the Texas
attraction.
Plans for the AU$180 million redevelopment of Reef HQ Aquarium in Townsville, Australia, are
progressing, with the project set to transform the attraction into a global centre for reef
education and conservation.
Abu Dhabi-based investment firm Mubadala Capital has made a binding, fully financed
€1 billion
offer to acquire Pierre and Vacances SA, the European holiday resort operator behind the
continental European Center Parcs business.
Disney has reaffirmed its commitment to investing US$30 billion in its US parks and cruise
business by 2033, using new America250 celebrations to underline the role its attractions play
in supporting jobs, tourism and economic growth.
Expo 2030 Riyadh is being planned as a permanent visitor destination, with organisers
confirming the six-million-square-metre site will become a Global Village after the event closes.
The owner of one of Australia's best-known waterparks has acquired a major competitor,
creating a new attractions business spanning two of the country's largest visitor destinations.
The Toverland theme park in the Netherlands has announced a €98m expansion programme
that will add a resort, new attractions and staff facilities as it pursues plans to become a multi-
day destination.
+ More news
COMPANY PROFILES
QubicaAMF UK QubicaAMF is the largest and most
innovative bowling equipment provider with
600 employees worldwi [more...]
IAAPA EMEA IAAPA Expo Europe was established in 2006 and has grown to the largest international conference and [more...]
instantprint We’re a Yorkshire-based online printer, founded
in 2009 by Adam Carnell and James Kinsella. [more...]
Taylor Made Designs Founded in 1993, Taylor Made
Designs supply corporate clothing
and brand-enhancing merchandise
to [more...]
