EMERGENC/y is a contemporary opera composed by Felicity Wilcox with a libretto by Alana Valentine.

The work is built around Renata, a composer and pianist, successful until we find her at the start of EMERGENC/y hitting new headwinds mid-career, reluctant to name or shame her oppressors. But, when Renata overhears her colleagues whispering a spiteful and sexist exchange about her, she experiences a very dark night of the soul and undergoes a tortuous and deeply moving transformation during which she enters into a different consciousness about listening to the voices of the zeitgeist – the chorus of young change makers, the strains of past woes, and the choir of future possibilities.

The work unfolds as both the classic individual journey of dramatic opera featuring a powerful heroine, but also as a circular, collective journey where a Chorus and song cycles depict contemporary communities in change. As the work ends, Renata (meaning ‘reborn’) is in solidarity with her community of allies, drawing genuine power from listening to the quieter voices of the marginalised and her own consciousness.