Q & A: Flora McIntosh, CEO and Artistic Director of OperaUpClose, on ‘Flotsam’ & Conductorless Performances
By Jennifer E. Pyron(Photo: Ed Choo)
Born out of a belief that opera could be experienced differently — with an emotional immediacy like no other artform — OperaUpClose has evolved from its first award-winning production of “La Bohème” in a 35-seater pub in 2009, to becoming a trailblazer for London’s fringe opera scene, to a nationally touring company championing a new model for creating and producing operatic work.
The current Artistic Director, Flora McIntosh, took the reins in late 2022, steering the company through a successful bid to become a National Portfolio Organization and shifting the focus towards new work through a complete reimagining of canonical repertoire. This involves creating new sound worlds and contemporary interpretations, rather than mere reductions or translations, while retaining the structure and harmonic language of the original. The aim is to push the boundaries and make pieces feel both contemporary and historically grounded.
A significant innovation is the “Ensemble Storyteller Model,” where both singers and instrumentalists are integrated into the storytelling on stage. Instrumentalists are costumed, sing chorus parts, and sometimes take on character roles, eliminating the traditional “pit to stage” divide. This approach fosters deeper collaboration, encourages artists to develop diverse performance skills, and aims to disrupt hierarchical structures within the music industry. It draws inspiration from actor-musician traditions in musical and non-lyric theatre, while maintaining high musical excellence.
OperaWire spoke to Flora McIntosh about OperaUpClose and their vision.
OperaWire: Tell us about OperaUpClose. What are your recent projects and how did this organization get its start?
Flora McIntosh: The idea of OperaUpClose came out of a real belief that opera could just be an exciting bit of theater. And actually there was a lot that you could do with very small resources and bringing people really into it rather than there only ever being a ‘widescreen’ that opera often is.
In my career as a singer I worked for OperaUpClose as a soloist on several occasions. It was a really exciting and formative bit of my artistic practice. I was working at all scales, in bigger houses and on tour and all of the things, but I really enjoyed the intimate intensity of OperaUpClose’s work. It allowed you to explore things at a different level of detail more dramatically and musically.
As time progressed, I became more involved with the organization and then the founder Robin Norton-Hale moved on to English Touring Opera. I discovered that producing and artistic direction was something I was really interested in and stimulated by. We were thinking together about how OperaUpClose as a company had to evolve. We had to move on from the London fringe scene, towards a touring-focused model and clarified our new direction and purpose.
Since I took over, reinvention has become OperaUpClose’s key driver. With the score, with the music, it’s never a reduction, it’s never a translation. It’s really about a complete reimagining, creating new sound worlds that make the work feel both contemporary and hold its historical context.
As Artistic Director, there was a huge learning curve! This has been a period of personal evolution as well. I found that fostering a space for people to really find their creative energy is something that has become a real passion. What I saw in OperaUpClose was an opportunity to think about what we mean by ‘new work’ and how we could platform it alongside canonical repertoire. Our work became reimagining the canon by working with living composers and writers to really push the boundaries of how you can hold an echo of the inherited repertoire and turn it into something that resonates into the future.
OperaWire: Tell us more about your recent projects and your “Ensemble Storyteller Model.”
FM: We had a wild project looking at “The Flying Dutchman” back in 2023, which had been developed over a couple of years with Manchester Camerata. We had the instrumentalists on stage, on book, but they were costumed, they sang bits of the chorus. There was a real kind of multidisciplinary energy to it and that has been a huge motivation for me and for the organization to see how we can really complete that idea. So the Ensemble Storyteller Model, in which we both commission and produce work, is now about how we integrate all performers, singers and instrumentalists with complete equity. We are encouraging our artists to think slightly differently about their own practice.
We have been disrupting the traditional hierarchies within the operatic music industry by centering deep listening, trust and collaboration. The Ensemble Storyteller Model is inspired by a lot of what we see in both musical theatre and non lyric theatre– in the actor-musician space.
In March 2026, we made a completely reimagined “Gianni Schicchi.” That was where the ensemble was all completely off book. It was Puccini with no conductor! Singers and instrumentalists shared the storytelling with equal agency, they had to work as a true ensemble from day one of rehearsals. It changed how everybody listened to each other, how everyone supported each other. It created a sense of collaboration because frankly, if you don’t work in that way, it’s impossible.
It was a huge success! It really landed with audiences because it was a brilliant reimagining that changed the experience of the piece in seeing the company work together in that way. We had a musical director who was holding everyone to those new musical standards and making sure that they were ready to then go off on tour on their own.
We are going to continue making work where we take away those perceived and real parameters between the pit and the stage to the audience, and think about telling stories in the most complete way. It’s what opera does. It’s amazing. The music, even when no one’s singing, tells you so much, there’s so much in it!
And when those instrumental players are on stage and in character, depending on the piece, you know, the aesthetic might be completely different because sometimes you might actually be a named character. You might have a role to play in “Gianni Schicchi.” Our instrumentalists were the witnesses and also took on the roles of the Doctor and the Lawyer. So there were specific things where they were stepping in and out. And we had a gorgeous thing that the director came up with, with the accordionist/lawyer using their accordion as a typewriter, which was just a lovely concept and a very joyful, fun thing!
We have a children’s opera, “Flotsam,” that’s coming later in fall of 2026. But in 2027, the big reinvention of a known work is our “Salome.” And that is going to be a completely different aesthetic. I guess the word that I would use is distillation. We are about distilling the thing down to its concentrated essence. You’re exposed. It is you. And the thing about the unamplified voice is you haven’t got anything between you and the audience. You have to have such courage. But I think that art is all the better for it and I really hope that it’s an exciting and disruptive version of “Salome,” just as it was over 100 years ago.
OW: Who is your target audience and why?
FM: We are targeting opera go-ers, theatre lovers, curious humans and those who have never even considered this as an artform for them. We are committed to diversifying who opera is for, broadening our audience base, and also taking with us those who already like and attend opera, but perhaps they think that it is a certain thing — people who might think, “Oh yes, we might go and see this small version of something and, how charming it’s reduced,” realize that that’s not what we’re doing at all. They experience the art form differently and realize that actually there is a different source of energy that the art form can have and that there’s a future for new work. Many of that audience bracket are interested in new work and new composers, but many might also think ‘contemporary’ would never be their cup of tea. I really want to keep challenging those people and reintroduce them to pieces they think they know alongside thrilling new writing voices.
We also have “OperaCocktail,” our jukebox show of opera’s greatest hits, completely reworked into a narrative, into a story. It uses our model where we have everybody on stage in character. With three singers (drawn from National Opera Studio recent Young Artists) and accordion — we can pop up in a wide range of venues, including community and school spaces, be entirely site responsive and maintain excellent musical and theatrical standards.
OW: Tell us about “Flotsam.” How is this project making an impact on younger generations?
FM: In the spirit of reinvention, we have been working with early years’ texts that are geared towards ages four to five years old. These are books that the teachers may have used in the classroom. We think about how we reinvent them in words and music. So, we landed on this beautiful picture book “Flotsam” by David Wiesner, American illustrator and author, which has no words, just pictures. This seemed so perfect for augmenting, enhancing and reinterpreting it through music and words. From an artistic point of view, one of the reasons that I really wanted to make sure that we worked a lot with very young people in making it is because they are pretty much the most operatic people in the world. They are sort of uninhibited. And of course, we learn to dial that down and actually, particularly in those multiple ways of communication, very young children have so much to offer you. They’re unfiltered in a really amazing way! They don’t really care what opera is. They don’t have any preconceptions about it. They’re kind of amazed when they see someone come into their classroom and play the flute, or someone sing or something like that. And I think, therefore, you get an immediacy of response and an authenticity from them.
Over a period of just over a year, we developed “Flotsam,” with five schools on the Isle of Wight, off England’s south coast. We chose a book that spoke to the seaside and things that we knew those young people would immediately connect with. So we did three big sections of workshops. We made sure that they got to know us and we were working with a tremendous composer who also is a librettist, Kerry Andrew.
Composer and Librettist, Kerry Andrew taught the young people how you can represent sound through visual art. Kerry worked with the young people to make these beautiful graphic scores. Kerry has done something fabulous by embedding visuals the young participants created directly into the score. We’ve partnered with Half Moon Theatre, a special young people’s theatre also in East London. We’re going to be opening it there and touring the show around theaters in England and also going into schools on the south coast and the Isle of Wight.
So we’re going to be sending them the score for their classroom. Even though a year is such a long time in a young person’s mind, they will remember and notice those things and this work belongs to them.
OW: What do you believe has been the greatest contributing factor to OperaUpClose’s evolution? Where is this organization heading?
FM: Changing how opera is made, who makes it and who it’s for through a holistic ensemble approach. Going forward, we’ll continue refining our Ensemble Storyteller model as the foundation for everything we create. This autumn, that model comes to life for younger audiences with our new children’s opera, “Flotsam,” touring in Fall 2026, and in 2027 we bring it to one of opera’s most iconic and demanding works with a new production of “Salome.”