Director
Conor Mitchell
The Selenites
Premiere of a new WFO commission by Artist-in-Residence Conor Mitchell
An intriguing new chamber opera merging the birth of cinema with dream-play and fantasy.
THE SELENITES
Text, Music & Stage by Conor Mitchell
Conor Mitchell is an award-winning Northern Irish composer, librettist and theatre director and is one of the most exciting opera composers working in Ireland today. A recipient of the Arts Council Northern Ireland Major Individual Artist’s Award, Mitchell was appointed WFO Artist-in-Residence in 2022.
Les Selenites explores the bizarre world of 20th-century French film pioneer and stage illusionist Georges Méliès. Méliès began his career as a stage illusionist and was renowned for his use of innovative magical special effects and visual tricks, a skill he brought to his work in the burgeoning early 20th-century film industry. Mitchell has taken this fantastical world created by Méliès as the starting point for his chamber opera.
Creative Team