Director Andrew Staples talks about his radical staging of Puccini's La bohème
BBC Music Magazine / July 2011
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Andrew Staples’ new venture, Opera for Change has the aim of taking Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte on tour to Africa.

The Telegraph Opera Critic Rupert Christiansen applauds Andrew Staples' plan. "It’s currently called Opera for Change, and behind it is the idea of taking an articulated lorry and a couple of coaches containing a company of about 50 singers, musicians and crew on a 5,000-mile journey from Nairobi through the Rift Valley to Cape Town, performing a flat-pack version of Die Zauberflöte."

Andy explains that the objective is to ‘bring together international musicians and performers with local artists and communities to jointly produce incredible shows that aim to entertain, to inspire and to transform lives.’

The proposed route stretches from Nairobi to Cape Town and will cover 10 countries in total. Click here to see the route map.
“We will make perhaps 10 stops en route, playing for a week or so at each of them and linking up with charities, schools and hospitals. We want to make the opera very upbeat and full of good news, based on the idea that conquering fear is always the biggest step towards a better life. But we don’t want it to be just health propaganda: it’s got to have artistic and musical integrity, too, and I’m hoping we can find and use some great young African singers.” 
To read the full article from The Telegraph, click here

To find out more about this project visit the Opera for Change website.