In 2017, Bicycle Opera Project produced the Canadian premiere of Sweat, a 70-minute a cappella opera by Juliet Palmer and Anna Chatterton. Sweat enjoyed a 14-show run in 9 cities, including a mini residency at Ottawa Chamberfest. Now, Bicycle Opera Project is exploring the fusion of operatic and dance performance with cinematic storytelling. In 2022, Artistic Director Larissa Koniuk teamed up with director/choreographer Jennifer Nichols to adapt Sweat for the screen. Working with a limited budget and a skeleton crew, the team built a stripped-down world that conveyed the harsh reality of global sweatshops, the performers embodying the machine. Shot on location in Hamilton and Kingston, Ontario, the film premiered at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival and won Best Narrative Feature at the LA Independent Women Film Awards. Acclaimed film and opera director Atom Egoyan calls Sweat “an extraordinary film, made with care and bravura and full of rich emotion.”

About the Producers

Bicycle Opera Project presents opera for modern audiences through innovative approaches. Created in 2012 by two cycling opera singers, Bicycle Opera was founded to bring contemporary Canadian music to smaller communities where there is little opportunity to hear it. Bicycle Opera worked to close the gap between audiences and singers by performing in intimate spaces, performing in English (and French), and exploring modern stories. Since 2012, the company has grown considerably but maintains its environmentally friendly roots and creates productions that are renowned for their fresh and inventive style. Media response has been highly enthusiastic, and attention from the press has grown each year. Bicycle Opera has been featured on television programs such as CBC’s The National, CTV Atlantic, and TFO; in print on the cover of the Toronto Star’s Entertainment section, as well as The Globe and Mail’s Critics’ Pick; and on radio on CBC Radio’s Fresh Air and All in a Day; and online in The Toronto Star, CBC News, and CBC Music.

The Awards for Digital Excellence in Opera are supported by The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation.