A Song for the Future
Archived: 2020/2021Overview
A Song for the Future is an opera made by WNO participants who came together to share their stories, songs and music during lockdown.
It’s an opera about inequality, about what it is to feel like to be an outsider. It’s a call to action about the necessity of regathering, of remaking the connections between us in order to come together.
In a world suddenly paused, a recently arrived refugee Zana tries to make sense not only of what she’s going through, but of the world we have created. Zana’s story is told through song, music, and spoken word as we explore the hopes, fears and dreams in the quest for a new future.
This brand new opera is co-created by Composer Boff Whalley, Writer Sarah Woods and six writers and musicians (who also perform) who have sought sanctuary in the UK.
A Song for the Future is Welsh National Opera’s second partnership with Oasis Cardiff.
Good to know
Available to stream until 30 May 2021
Facts
Co-produced remotely during lockdown.
Filmed in Cardiff and Wrexham, under appropriate social distancing restrictions.
Synopsis
In a world suddenly paused, Zana, a recently arrived refugee, tries to make sense of not only what she’s going through – but of the world we have created.
From the bedroom window of her shared house in Cardiff, she sees a starling building a nest in a nearby tree. As the days become weeks, the lives of the birds make more and more sense to her – more than that of the life she has temporarily lost. But as the injustices of the world bite: racism, poverty, division and inequality, she knows she must return, she must re-join her own species and fight for a better future.