Last September, the quartet of directors (Benjy, Elaine, Chloe, and Ian) convened to figure out how to put up an opera without a theatre and without essentially anyone being in the same place.

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We wanted our production to tell a story that is relevant to our uncertain time and to honour Harvard's separated artistic community. This desire led us to repurpose our originally intended production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream into an original pastiche, drawing from artistic collaborations between writers, actors, visual artists, filmmakers, poets, dancers, choreographers, and musicians. Inspired by the original Midsummer’s, our keyword for the production is “dreams.”

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Dreams are our way of processing external events into private experiences. As we try to grapple with dramatic disruptions to our life and wellbeing, we believe that art-making is crucial for articulating, processing, and healing. Dreaming and art-making have a parallel purpose of rejuvenation which we hope to experience with our audience members.

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The creative process was deeply collaborative. After receiving submissions from Harvard’s artistic community, the quartet of directors made a ‘match’ between different artists whose works complement or make fascinating contrasts with each other. In conjunction with the directors, these teams each created scenes that each represent a different stage of sleep to constitute a dream sequence.

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The modular and interdisciplinary framework of our pastiche offered us carte blanche to reframe and reimagine what constitutes both opera at large and Harvard College Opera as a space of artistic community and collaboration. Music guides and propels the piece—as in more traditional contexts—but we have curated and generated an eclectic sonic experience, ranging widely in musical styles. An opera aria sits next to an improvised electroacoustic sequence. Original soundscape allows stately Baroque songs to eclipse into a fiery neoclassical cadenza. A 19th-century French melodie art song bridges the brand-new work of singer-songwriters and an instrumental-choral ensemble number. We have placed a spotlight on new and original student work as well, which meditates on various dream states: a contemporary classical Theme and Variations in neo-Baroque style highlights the self-awareness and agency that characterizes a lucid dream (as well as a theater audition), while extended techniques on the flute punctuate the atmospheres of a singer-songwriter’s original Lullaby.

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Our production also celebrates the close connection between visual and aural art-making, especially in this digital format: dancers and the work of visual artists are not only presented in conjunction with musical sequences in the show, but have also been close and invaluable collaborators in the creative, curative, and generative process. The opportunity to involve and feature music less often associated with operatic contexts—art song, contemporary classical music, narrative soundscapes, and the work of singer-songwriters—in order to foster inclusion, innovation, inspiration, and artistic and personal inter-connection has been a touchstone of our show’s project and purpose, and that of Harvard College Opera at large.

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We express our most sincere gratitude to all artists who made this production possible—this has been a dream(!) to work on—and cannot wait to share the fruit of our collaboration with the audience.