Opera is meant to be “a place for discussion and realisation”. That purpose seems to have got lost. Until now. First applause goes to Vancouver Opera for making opera open one of the 21st century’s headliner discussions.

Bigger applause to DDB Canada for selling Vancouver Opera’s idea.

Vancouver Opera’s newest production, Stickboy, is about bullying. It was composed by Neil Weisensel, with libretto by spoken-word artist, Shane Koyczan. It’s an exploration inside the head of a young boy transformed by bullying.

“Since its inception, opera has served as a platform for discourse on many aspects of life and society, including topical issues, and we’re proud to continue this tradition by taking on one of the most important issues facing society today:  bullying. Everyone has met a monstrous bully, or has been a monstrous bully, or has witnessed acts of bullying.  Vancouver Opera’s production of Stickboy and its innovative street art campaign aim to spark dialogue and inspire people to share their stories to shine a light on the monster of bullying,” James Wright, general director, Vancouver Opera, remarked.

Bullying is a hot potato topic that has an undebatable attraction for kids. Opera? Not so much. So to give this new opera magnetism, DDB Canada, created a street art campaign.

The agency commissioned four Vancouver artists – Nick Gregson, Carson Ting, Ben Tour and Ola Volo –  to create murals that interpret their own inner bullies as monstrous graffiti shadows. Then DDB put the artists’ work in places around Vancouver where they would surprise new audiences.

“To reinvent opera, we wanted to emphasise its role in expressing issues that are important to people and to their communities. That’s when we realized that street art might be the perfect medium to talk about this production.  Merging street art with opera may at first feel dichotomous but it is actually giving Vancouverites an entirely new perspective from which to be inspired. Vancouver’s creative community were eager to jump on board and experiment with these two genres to demonstrate that we all have the potential to be a bully,” Cosmo Campbell, chief creative officer, DDB Canada, explained.

Each mural is tagged, “There’s a monster in all of us,” and encourages people to visit the Stickyboy website to learn more about the monsters and Stickboy.  Once on the site, people can explore sketches from each piece, read the artists’ statements and purchase tickets.  Users may also share their own stories about bullying and contribute their own monster interpretations to the gallery.

A series of provocative posters has also been created to confront passers-by. Each is an aggressive statement to get people thinking about the plight of those who are bullied.