OUGD603 - LIVE BRIEF - Left Bank Opera Festival - Research

Through the brief and outlines set by Northern Opera group, they suggest that participants look at there website to get some inspiration. Northern Opera's website is very basic and simplistic, the information held on there is kept to production and event details, who they are and to buy tickets.

Their website also shows the limited details of last years Left Bank Opera Festival, showing last years branding and promotional material.

Looking through the website, I have gathered important information which will help get a clearer understanding of the organization, the festival, target audience, and context behind why they hold the festival, its purpose.

Northern Opera Group -

-Registered Charity
-Dedicated to giving opportunities for audiences and performers to experience great opera

Northern Opera group has few artistic aims;
 - To deliver a wide range of productions and events.
-Champion composers and operas many may not have heard of.
-Collaborate with artists, venues, and other organizations.
-Create memorable and unique productions.

-Passionate about live opera


Northern Opera group was founded in 2015

Artistic Director - David Ward


The website has very little visual elements and pull to audiences. It is plain and feels very dated, this is the same with the visuals they use for promotion of their productions. The type face which they use on there website also makes it onto some but not all of there production promotion posters and flyers. Though not much is done for this, the brief asks for the creation of a visual which will be used to promote the Left Bank Festival, this visual/image/graphic should be then applied to posters, flyers, programmes and digital platforms. Keeping to what the brief is asking I will look to produce a graphic that can be implemented in these different ways. 




Productions - Being only in their third year of existence, Northern Opera Group has only a few productions to its name so far. Again not much thought goes into the visual promotion of there productions, the posters and designs used do not in keeping with the organization's aims and creative direction.

When researching into these productions and there backgrounds, it became clear that the visual promotional material used by Northern Opera Group was not well considered, the posters like cheap and poorly made, many of which felt they were representing school plays instead of Operas, considering these examples, it is the aim of the brief to produce a visual identity for the Left Bank Festival, that is relevant, informed and considered, keeping it sophisticated and bold as Opera promotions should be.

Examples of existing production visuals -

The Pirates - 24th-25th March 2018
Written in 1792 - ‘The Pirates’ is an anarchic comic opera with a colourful cast of characters.

The poster for the production of Stephen Storace's pirates is illustrative and serves purpose highlighting the range of characters within the play, mixing it with naudical symbols such as the background being an illustrated pirate map and the Northern Opera Group logo being held within a life preserver/ring, these elements feel forced and although a modern playful design has been used to represent the aesthetic of the characters and story, the cultural and historic relevance of the opera is lost, making it look like a poster for something much more mundane and ametuer than an Opera.

The Wandering Scholar, by Gustav Holst - 1930 - The poster for this production is much more considered and visually, aesthetically relevant and inviting to audiences. It has a level of sophistication which 'The Pirates' poster does not, it is clean and clear. The bold colours used work well and are well informed.














Left Bank Opera - 2017 - The aim of the Festival is to bring artists and audiences together every year to enjoy wonderful performances of rare and wonderful operas, and have the opportunity to explore these operas in more detail.

Left Bank Leeds is a multidisciplinary arts venue set in a beautiful Grade II Listed former church building in the Headingley/Hyde Park area of Leeds. Their mission is to preserve this amazing venue in order to inspire and empower the local community through a sustainable programme of arts and events that promote creativity, connection, and well-being.

2017 Festival - The theme of last years Festival is 'Great British Opera' - What is British opera? What are its distinctive characteristics? Where did it come from, and where is it going? - Last years festival explored these ideas with artists and audiences from across the UK.

 Putting on the new production of Thomas Arne's 'Alfred' at the heart of the Festival and also bringing Aspect Opera's new production of Britten's 'Albert Herring'

Across the three day festival, Northern Opera put on interactive talks on 'The First English Operas', an exploration of three original scores of 'Alfred' (in association with the University of Leeds), and many other events - all of which were free to attend.


Festival Programme -  Design Research -

Northern Opera Groups website still holds all the information from last years festival, not being updated yet as the line up and information of the 2018 festival is not out yet.

 Looking at the promotional material for last years festival I found that there was not much, if anything really, the website has a link to a PDF programme which can be downloaded, as we see it is a very simple document, something probably made internally. It serves its simple purpose of giving the viewer dates and times but visually it does not invite or excite.

As mentioned before, the brief wants a graphic/image/visual to promote this years festival, it feels as though this should be something which can be implemented onto the promotional material such as the programme, not only will these visuals help excite the audience but will also create a branding and aesthetic which is lacking in last years.





The visual which was used to promote last years festival was a photograph of the lead actor from the main production of 'Alfred' the picture was taken by Mark Webster.