MELIOR Opus Griot is an ocean-floor, time-travel fantasy conceived, written and composed by Carleen Anderson. Performed in the dramatic theatre format of an Opera, it blends Gospel, Soul, Jazz, and Classical music for a fresh staging of theatrical storytelling.

A little girl is thought to be lost at sea. She is rescued by a mystical water spirit and guided to the seafloor society of MELIOR. It is a tale of surrealistic humans who use their gifts to advocate people choosing to behave better with each other in the midst of chaos and global destruction.

To help reach the goals of covering the costs of recording and public release expenses for a Double Album of the MELIOR Opus Griot music, as well as the expenses for staging a theatre production premiere, a SOLO Live fundraising event is in the making. Updates will follow as they surface.

So far, the monies raised by this crowdfunding website campaign has paid for the studio recordings of three MELIOR Opus Griot music scenes. To studio record the remaining nine music scenes would cost upwards from £12K. Plus, there are marketing and distribution expenses to consider.

There is a female creative production team led by Carleen, with Laura Kriefman, (former CEO of Barbican Theatre Plymouth ( https://www.helliontrace.com/about/laura-kriefman/ ), whose choreography will have interpretive dancers parallel the storyline in the scenes through body movement expressions. Plus, the futuristic stage direction of Helen Tiplady, (Deputy Creative Director at Hall for Cornwall ( https://www.hallforcornwall.co.uk/about-us/our-team/helen-tiplady/ ), using visual media film projection to coordinate with the music narratives, will deliver this blended-roots Opera styled offering, with its Folk Opera origins surfaced from Carleen’s early childhood memories of her Grandfather’s theatrical settings that his church members would create with rags and scraps to actualise Biblical themes that Carleen, from the age of seven, would composed music for, to now, bring to life her vision of a fresh approach to dramatic music storytelling. The voice of her classically-trained Juilliard Scholar Aunt, Betty Faye Anderson, who was also a much sought after Gospel singer during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement before her death in 1970, greatly influences Carleen’s combined-genre vocal stylings.

The ultimate goal of this work is to expand upon tradition to create a platform that existing and future music storytellers can use to express their creative artistry.