In 2025 formidAbility undertook a project to explore integrating British Sign Language (BSL) into scenes from long-form opera. We navigated challenges of working in multiple languages at once, finding a path that respects differences between Deaf & hearing cultures to:

- Develop an affiliate pool of opera singers, Deaf actors and production team members to create a network of diverse creatives within the sector

-  Engage members of our affiliate pool alongside BSL creatives and opera professionals, developing a creative process with integrated training in BSL to improve communication between Deaf and hearing colleagues. Deaf actors who were working in opera for the first time collaborated closely with Deaf creatives to translate libretti into BSL and unlock their musicality through vision & touch. Opera professionals discovered a new way of working across cultures that brought rich new expressive possibilities to the art form.

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-  Create a BSL glossary of some of the terminology we use in an opera rehearsal room (see below).

 

Find out more about our affiliates here: Our Affiliates​​​​​​