7 December 2006

Ok – so it’s the beginning of the festive season, when many people treat themselves to a trip to the theatre or pantomine. How about an opera? An opera with a difference? Award-wining arts and environment group Platform has just produced a downloadable opera for a walk in London.

For years Platform has been pioneering guided walks of the city of London, giving a critical analysis on the oil industry, especially the antics of BP or Shell.

Now they have gone one step further and produced a walk that is an opera. You download the opera and walk the route on your own at any time. Called “And While London Burns” it calls itself a compelling collusion of “thriller, opera and guided walk”. It is, says Platform, a requiem for a warming world.

I highly recommend if anyone has a spare hour in London to– if anyone is in London and fancies a Christmas treat. Then download the opera, plug in your MP3 player and off you go.

“We are trying to encourage people who don’t know the City to take a look but we are also trying to get people who do know the City to look again at what goes on here,” says James Marriott, who along with John Jordan co-wrote the libretto for the environmental arts organisation Platform.

“It is a virtual experience but also a real one. In some respects it is like being a character in a film. The listener has to put themselves in the hands of the narrator. She has control over you but unlike other art forms, where everything that happens is intentional, unexpected things can occur which adds to the experience of the listener and to what we are trying to say.”

Download the opera here.