A new scheme which involves opera singers coming into people’s homes and singing to them is coming to St Helens.
‘Opera Helps’ is aimed at helping people with personal problems by arranging for professional opera singers to meet individuals to talk and sing to them.
The man behind the initiative, artist Joshua Sofaer, is working with an arts company based in St Helens called Heart of Glass, after he successfully ran Opera Helps in Sweden last year.
Joshua, who has worked on previous projects with the group, praised the work by House of Glass and its owner, Patrick Fox.
He told JMU Journalism: “It is amazing what Patrick has managed to do in St Helens, from having quite a poor infrastructure to now having people really responding to the artistic stuff they’re doing and taking pride in it. That’s what you find with St Helens, people really do take pride in the work they do, which is good.”
St Helens isn’t a town known for its love of opera, but Mr Sofaer is confident it will work with the public.
He added: “It is a free offer for them to try it out, and opera – out of all the art forms – is seen as a thing that is an interest only for posh people, but I completely disagree with that. I think that it is emotional, and in St Helens there is a lot of emotion so I think it will be perfect for it.
“What we are offering is not really a therapy, we don’t promise to solve a problem. What we are offering is opera, and I really believe that culture experience, whether that be through television, literature or music, can really help us in our lives.”
‘Opera Helps’ will run from between April 20th to 24th and anyone can apply for it through the Heart of Glass website.