Date: July 2012
Client: Royal Opera House and Greater London Authority
Location: Various venues along the London Canals, ending up in the Olympic Park
As part of the very special London 2012 Festival unique to London in this Olympic Year, Joule was honoured to be asked by the GLA to collaborate with the Royal Opera House and Emergency Exit Arts to present a water-bound operatic spectacle based around the enchanting Edward Lear poem The Owl and the Pussycat. The Opera featured a libretto from ex-Monty Python Terry Jones, a new commissioned score from critically acclaimed musician and Oscar-winning (The Full Monty) composer Anne Dudley and was directed by Martin Constantine.
The Opera took place over 2 weeks in 6 unique and distinctive sites on the water from West to East London along the Regents and Grand Union Canals, finishing with performances in the Olympic Park. Working with 5 London Boroughs and many other stakeholders, Joule dealt with all the complicated and logistically challenging production issues on land, water and vessels and we were delighted that each performance took place seamlessly at each site.
This was one of the highlights of the Mayor of London’s ‘Secrets’, a series of extraordinary site-specific collaborations taking place in a range of hidden spaces across the capital in summer 2012.
