A field of butterflies on the Pennine Moors, ethereal poetry and fascinating music in your ears as you explore the wild landscape above Haworth in West Yorkshire.
What’s this got to do with Opera?
This is Earth & Sky, Opera North’s extraordinary immersive soundwalk which has been created as part of the Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture as part of their Wild Uplands Programme and supported by the Delius Trust.
It’s difficult to categorise: most of our BMS reviews can neatly be described as being about a CD, a book or a concert, but this is way outside of the box. And what’s more, to really experience Earth and Sky, you have to make an effort…
For starters, you’ll need to squeeze into your walking boots, don your outdoor gear and be prepared for whatever the weather is going to throw at you. You also need to download the Earth and Sky app onto your smartphone, connect some headphones, and press ‘Start walk’!
And then off you go on your 2.6 miles / 1.5 hour exploration of the bleak and beautiful countryside made famous by the Brontës. Through the wonderful mystery of GPS, every step you take triggers a special soundscape featuring music, field recordings and poetry.
The Orchestra of Opera North perform work by Bradford-born composer, Frederick Delius alongside new commissions from three contemporary women composers and the voices of the Chorus of Opera North. You’ll also hear both real and otherworldly sounds created by a sound artist and the mesmerising words of a local poet.
Composers from Italy, Kenya and Wales have all taken their inspiration from the natural and industrial elements found within the landscape, including rock strata and quarrying processes of this wild landscape.
Manchester based sonic artist Sarah Keirle-Dos Santos takes the natural sounds from the site on Penistone Hill from the dawn chorus and curlews, to grasses rustling on the moors and the fluttering of wings. She has also augmented two works by Delius so the whole work seamlessly connects one composition to the next.
Welsh composer, Gwen Siôn’s piece is called Quiet Earth and beautifully combines electronic and acoustic instrumentation plus distorted environmental recordings and vocal recordings intertwined with fragments from moorland texts.
You will also encounter some extraordinary sculpture along the route: A monumental archway appears in the distance as if hewn out of the solid rock. As you get closer you realise it is simply the raw fleece of local sheep breeds.
Further on there’s a hidden valley of 99 butterflies intricately carved from stone. A hugely moving piece this inspired by the words of a Palestinian poet and mirroring the fate of those displaced by conflict.
Technically, Earth & Sky it is a masterpiece making incredible use of the technology available today. But it is much deeper than that: It is a thought-provoking exploration of identity and the human experience. I can’t recommend this enough – so you’d better get those boots on fast as it ends on 12 October.
For more information visit https://www.operanorth.co.uk/whats-on/earth-sky/ where you can also watch 360-degree videos for those who can’t attend in person.
Review and photography by Nicholas Keyworth