Although various CHROMA musicians had worked as freelancers on previous productions, CHROMA first worked as an ensemble with the innovative and much-lauded Tête à Tête on "Odysseus Unwound" in 2006, providing the orchestra and curating the education/outreach programme for the production. The website chronicling the very Odyssey-like adventures of the education team in Norway, England and Shetland is here.

Now officially established as Associate Ensemble, CHROMA is collaborating with Tête à Tête on its plans looking ahead for the next three years. In August 2007 the company launched its first and hugely successful Opera Festival, at Riverside Studios - an exciting, varied and unpredictable mix of performances, workshops and socialising, as Tête à Tête, opera practitioners, opera fans and the simply curious took over the whole of Riverside Studios for three weeks. The festival returns to Riverside in August 2008.

November saw the première and UK tour of six opera shorts, dubbed "Blind Date", a fun and warmly received presentation of what one audience member described as "opera for the YouTube generation".
The Observer:
“a hilarious tour de force”
“Monty Python's imperishable 'parrot sketch' now has a potentially immortal operatic rival.”
The Guardian:
“it is perfectly articulated and sizzles with invention”
The Stage:
“the evening is a feather in the cap of artistic director Bill Bankes-Jones”

Coming up in 2008 is the opera based on Iain Pears' novel on the Robert Dudley wife-falls-down-stairs mystery, "An Instance of the Fingerpost", composed by Phil Cashian.

Tête à Tête: www.tete-a-tete.org.uk

Artistic Director: Bill Bankes-Jones
Music Director: Tim Murray
Associate Ensemble: CHROMA
Associate Designer: Tim Meacock
Associate Lighting Designer: Mark Doubleday
Adminstrator: Anna Gregg
PR: SoundUK
Company Secretary: Caroline Steane
Consultant: Sarah Playfair

Chris Allan "Odysseus Unwound"

Susan Atherton, Damien Thantry, Stephanie Corley "Feathered Friend" music Helen Chadwick, words Alasdair Middleton