We Are You - An Investigation into intersections between Western Contemporary Opera and Online Fan Culture

Robin Fiedler

Exposition

We Are You - An Investigation into intersections between Western Contemporary Opera and Online Fan Culture (2025)

Robin Fiedler

open exposition

About this exposition

Finding an audience we can relate to, or bringing our social circle into our audience is still a struggle for most younger composers. With the Western classical opera audiences ageing and the attempts to bring younger audiences into opera houses and concert halls, we need to ask ourselves as composers who we write for, and how we reach these people. My opera Serenoid which had its premiere in September 2024 at Tête-à-Tête Festival in London came out of a niche space of queer and disabled geek culture in creative online fandom communities that I have been part of since I was a teenager. These groups are hardly engaged with classical music as a genre, their creative focus is on visual art and writing, mostly around an established pop-culture franchise, in this case Star Trek. Often decried as cringy, the spaces in which they move have been melting pots for many people outside of the narrow representation of mainstream media in search for community and belonging since the arrival of the internet. The decision to take Serenoid as a story from an obscure niche space on the internet to the opera stage attempts to speak to its members and therefore open the doors my own community to become part of the “opera audience”. My research describes the process and outcomes of this experiment and hopes to prove that as classical composers we can speak to younger and diverse audiences by openly and authentically being part of the group we write for.

type	research exposition
keywords	fanfiction, opera, representation, community, diversity, audience
date	01/03/2025
published	22/05/2025
last modified	22/05/2025
status	published
share status	private
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	CC BY-NC-ND
url	https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/3460386/3460387
doi	https://doi.org/10.22501/koncon.3460386
published in	KC Research Portal
portal issue	1. Master Research Projects

Copyrights

name	Now kiss meme
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture, picture

name	Victoria Oruwari as Xaven
copyright	Claire Shovelton
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Taryn Surratt as Corrie
copyright	Claire Shovelton
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Philippe Eugusyene as Merton
copyright	Claire Shovelton
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Xaven and Chorus
copyright	Claire Shovelton
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Xaven fixes Corrie's Leg
copyright	Claire Shovelton
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Corrie with the children's toys
copyright	Claire Shovelton
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Corrie plays the violin
copyright	Claire Shovelton
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Merton & Ensemble
copyright	Claire Shovelton
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Merton's last attempt at disruption
copyright	Claire Shovelton
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Lincoln Steampunk Festival 1
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Lincoln Steampunk Festival 2
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Lincoln Steampunk Festival 3
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Lincoln Steampunk Festival 4
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Lincoln Steampunk Festival 5
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Lincoln Steampunk Festival 6
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Geordi LaForge
copyright	Paramount
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Data
copyright	Paramount
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Wide shot of the stage design at Cecil Sharp House, London
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	The "Children's Chair"
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Corrie's Place
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Sketch of the Stage by Edie Bailey
copyright	Edie Bailey
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Taryn, Victoria and Filipe in discussion with director Edie Bailey
copyright	Taryn, Victoria and Filipe in discussion with director Edie Bailey
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	The Cockpit Theatre with Victoria, Beth and Edie
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Serenoid Illustration
copyright	Wyatt Gaer
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Lidia Hughes-Rodríguez working on Taryn Surratt
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	Corrie and Xaven dancing
copyright	Claire Shovelton
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Serenoid Chorus: Miranda Ostler, Alto; Daisy Rushton, Tenor; Vicki Stilwell, Soprano; Vivek Haria, Bass
copyright	Miranda Ostler
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Harpsichord highpass
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Processed Train, Scene III, Dream Sequence
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Corrie's Heartbeat
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Harpsichord lowpass
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Flutter of Wings
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Xaven's Soundscape
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Corrie's Violin Melody
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Journey Motif
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Turning gears and voices
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Clockwork
copyright	Epidemic Sound
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Whispered phrases
copyright	Robin Fiedler
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

comments: 1 (last entry by Alison Isadora - 05/03/2025 at 13:17)

Alison Isadora 05/03/2025 at 13:17

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We Are You - An Investigation into intersections between Western Contemporary Opera and Online Fan Culture (2025)

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