The Mile-Long Opera, a citywide public engagement project, brought together 1,000 singers from across New York for free performances on the High Line, October 3—8, 2018.
In October of 2018, the Mile Long Opera combined 1,000 singers, dozens of choirs and thousands of walking audience members to experience opera in a whole new way on the High Line in NYC. Audiences were invited to walk the High Line, while a sung narrative around the theme of “NYC at 7 pm” washed around and over them. It was an extraordinary innovation, which cracked open how to produce new opera for the 21st century, how to activate a beautiful public space with new performances, and how to provide audiences with great work, while also supporting what many people want most today – choice and freedom during performance.
If you haven’t experienced the Mile Long Opera before, luckily the performance was also filmed and captured on their website so you can travel through the opera on your own, in your own time.
To experience the Mile Long Opera for yourself in 360, click here.
Co-created by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang, with words and lyrics by acclaimed poets Anne Carson and Claudia Rankine, The Mile-Long Opera: a biography of 7 o’clock is an ambitious, collective, free choral work that shares personal stories from hundreds of New Yorkers about life in our rapidly changing city.
Set in one of the most dynamic public spaces for observing New York City and its multitude of intersecting lives, The Mile-Long Opera invites audiences to move in and out of groups of singers as they walk along the High Line.
At the heart of the work is an extensive community engagement initiative that activates non-profit cultural organizations across all five boroughs. Seven Anchor Partners serve as a hub for engaging local audiences—from recruiting singers, to holding and welcoming the public for open rehearsals and workshops, to hosting social and cultural events in the lead-up to the October performances.*
To learn more, click below:
*From milelongopera.com.