Music can touch the soul and bring people from diverse backgrounds together, and the Arizona Opera is hoping to do just that with a new digital series called LOUD!
The series, which stands for Living Opera, Understanding Diversity, was created by Teniqua Broughton and Luis 'Weezy' Egurrola. Together, they are highlighting some of the best musical artists and performers in the Southwest.
"What I would say is a number of the operas, classical traditional operas, have been rooted literally in times well far from our present, and a lot of times that doesn't always connect the current generation or the current community to that work," Broughton said.
While the series is not an opera in the traditional sense, the essence of opera is still at the root of each episode.
"Opera is tied to a lot of the people's stories, their lives, their experiences, and you know, so when we think about... some of the folks who have performed like they had an opera background or they took that on as a potential..." Broughton said.
Season One of the series is already in the books. When it comes to picking their favorite performer, Weezy and Teniqua say they simply can't.
"I think, because we do tend to look to the Northeast...New York, whatever it may be, you know those are the hotspots, but I think things are going to start to change here...and there hasn't been one artist that really, like, stands out because they're all amazing. They all have their own talents, and this is why we choose them," Weezy said.
