{"id":1103,"date":"2016-03-29T18:03:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-29T18:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.porticomagazine.ca\/?p=1103"},"modified":"2020-10-28T14:40:31","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T18:40:31","slug":"breathing-new-life-into-opera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/breathing-new-life-into-opera\/","title":{"rendered":"Breathing new life into opera"},"content":{"rendered":"

How do you create an opera for singers who can\u2019t safely be in the same room with each other? That was one of the challenges faced by playwright, poet and librettist David James Brock, MFA \u201906, as he worked on Breath Cycle<\/em>, an opera for singers with cystic fibrosis (CF).<\/p>\n

Having more than one person with CF in a room risks transferring resistant germs between them. To allow participants to interact safely, Brock and his collaborators conceived the opera as a multimedia performance, using online applications like Skype to record duets and other ensembles, and to allow participants to meet and interact.<\/p>\n

As an undergraduate student, Brock met Eva Markvoort, a young woman with CF who became the subject of the award-winning documentary 65_RedRoses<\/em>. \u201cI found her unbelievably inspiring,\u201d he says of Markvoort, who died in 2010.<\/p>\n

Markvoort\u2019s story stayed with him, and when he and composer Gareth Williams were in Glasgow, Scotland, working on a project together, they saw an opportunity to create something that could also help those with CF. Brock and Williams wrote music for participants to sing, while specialists at Gartnavel General Hospital studied the impact of singing on the health of participants. Because CF makes breathing difficult, project researchers are exploring whether classical singing techniques, including breath control and voice lessons, can improve the physical and mental wellbeing of cystic fibrosis patients.<\/p>\n

Brock and Williams interviewed the CF patients and learned about the limitations of their voices and the music they wanted to sing. \u201cWe wanted them to sing for pleasure, to enjoy the experience,\u201d says Brock. The research is ongoing and the opera will be relaunched this year in Glasgow, Edinburgh and New York, with some reworking of songs to suit a more standardized performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like any opera with high drama and high emotions,\u201d says Brock.<\/p>\n

Being a playwright and librettist provides a good mix of solo work and collaboration, he adds. \u201cThe composer and I inspire each other, but there\u2019s always that anxious part when I send my words over to see if they will work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up, Brock lived in several different cities across Canada. He earned a degree in zoology from the University of Manitoba, and then worked in the nutritional supplements industry in Vancouver for a time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t always thrilled to go to work, so I joined a community theatre group,\u201d he says. \u201cMy partner at the time said, \u2018You should find out a way to do theatre for a living \u2014 it\u2019s what makes you happy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Brock took that advice to heart. He studied creative writing at the University of Victoria before enrolling in the first cohort of the master of fine arts in creative writing program at the University of Guelph-Humber. He won the 2011 Herman Voaden Canadian National Playwriting Award and has produced several plays. In 2014 he published his first book of poetry, Everyone is CO2 <\/em>(Wolsak & Wynn).<\/p>\n

\u201cSo much of my writing deals with fragility \u2014 how we recognize fragility in ourselves and in others. And though that idea is always present in our Breath Cycle<\/em> project, I\u2019ve also learned so much about human strength,\u201d says Brock. \u201cSome of the most powerful singing I\u2019ve heard in my life has come out of the mouths of the Breath Cycle<\/em> singers. I love those surprises.\u201d \u2013 TERESA PITMAN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do you create an opera for singers who can\u2019t safely be in the same room with each other? That was one of the challenges faced by playwright, poet and librettist David James Brock, MFA \u201906, as he worked on Breath Cycle, an opera for singers with cystic fibrosis (CF). Having more than one person<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"Photo by Amanda Lynne Ballard","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":null,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":null},"categories":[16],"tags":[33,118,117],"yoast_head":"\nBreathing new life into opera -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/breathing-new-life-into-opera\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Breathing new life into opera -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How do you create an opera for singers who can\u2019t safely be in the same room with each other? That was one of the challenges faced by playwright, poet and librettist David James Brock, MFA \u201906, as he worked on Breath Cycle, an opera for singers with cystic fibrosis (CF). Having more than one person\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/breathing-new-life-into-opera\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-29T18:03:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-28T18:40:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/David-James-Brock-web-e1591749537790.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"554\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Portico Staff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/\",\"name\":\"\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/breathing-new-life-into-opera\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/David-James-Brock-web-e1591749537790.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/David-James-Brock-web-e1591749537790.jpg\",\"width\":640,\"height\":554,\"caption\":\"David James Brock has created an opera for patients with cystic fibrosis called Breath Cycle\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/breathing-new-life-into-opera\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/breathing-new-life-into-opera\/\",\"name\":\"Breathing new life into opera -\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/breathing-new-life-into-opera\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-29T18:03:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-28T18:40:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/ad735acac2eccbc0069f79d23598f533\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/breathing-new-life-into-opera\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/breathing-new-life-into-opera\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/breathing-new-life-into-opera\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Breathing new life into opera\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/ad735acac2eccbc0069f79d23598f533\",\"name\":\"Portico Staff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/46b428721fd31a9d9bde7e15d8054af3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/46b428721fd31a9d9bde7e15d8054af3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Portico Staff\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/author\/staff\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Breathing new life into opera -","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/breathing-new-life-into-opera\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Breathing new life into opera -","og_description":"How do you create an opera for singers who can\u2019t safely be in the same room with each other? That was one of the challenges faced by playwright, poet and librettist David James Brock, MFA \u201906, as he worked on Breath Cycle, an opera for singers with cystic fibrosis (CF). Having more than one person","og_url":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/breathing-new-life-into-opera\/","article_published_time":"2016-03-29T18:03:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-10-28T18:40:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":554,"url":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/David-James-Brock-web-e1591749537790.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Portico Staff","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/#website","url":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/","name":"","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/breathing-new-life-into-opera\/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/David-James-Brock-web-e1591749537790.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/David-James-Brock-web-e1591749537790.jpg","width":640,"height":554,"caption":"David James Brock has created an opera for patients with cystic fibrosis called Breath Cycle"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/breathing-new-life-into-opera\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/breathing-new-life-into-opera\/","name":"Breathing new life into opera -","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/breathing-new-life-into-opera\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2016-03-29T18:03:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-28T18:40:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/ad735acac2eccbc0069f79d23598f533"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/breathing-new-life-into-opera\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/breathing-new-life-into-opera\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/03\/breathing-new-life-into-opera\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Breathing new life into opera"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/ad735acac2eccbc0069f79d23598f533","name":"Portico Staff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/46b428721fd31a9d9bde7e15d8054af3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/46b428721fd31a9d9bde7e15d8054af3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Portico Staff"},"url":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/author\/staff\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1103"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4753,"href":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103\/revisions\/4753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}