Carmen Elektra represents not just an opera company but a whole new approach to the genre.
Our aim is to rehabilitate opera by dispensing of its many cultural and aesthetic trappings and focusing on productions that are relevant to youth and popular cultures as well as the culture of contemporary art music.
To this end, Carmen Elektra has developed the ‘opera clubnight’ – an evening of short, accessible and engaging operas interspersed with DJ sets of multi-genre electronic and experimental music, and inspired by a unique and unconventional performance location.
This format can act as an impetus to re-discover the theatrical potential of familiar or forgotten works for a new venue and a new audience.
The opera clubnight demands creativity and innovation in its production and presentation, whilst simultaneously challenging ideas surrounding genre, performance and society in both performers and audience.
Rather than trying to wring contemporary relevance from a pre-existent repertoire, we focus on alternative, modern works, in English, which will work effectively in unconventional stagings and appeal to young and non-‘initiated’ audiences.
We believe that, of all contemporary art music, it is opera that has the most immediate interdisciplinary appeal and the greatest potential to engage with today’s broader artistic and cultural climate.
If ‘classical’ music is to regain its position as an important, relevant art form in modern society, Carmen Elektra will be at the front line.