Albarn returns to the Manchester festival four years after staging the premiere of his first opera Monkey Singer Damon Albarn has written and will appear in a new opera about a 16th Century alchemist, astrologer and spy.
Doctor Dee, about Elizabeth I's scientific and medical adviser Dr John Dee, comes four years after Albarn staged the Chinese opera Monkey.
Doctor Dee will receive its premiere at the Manchester International Festival, which takes place in June and July.
The festival will also feature a three-week residency by Bjork, performing her show Biophilia for the first time.
Other original productions will be created by immersive theatre company Punchdrunk, film-makers The Quay Brothers, comedian Victoria Wood and performance artist Marina Abramovic.
Manchester International Festival director Alex Poots said the event, which started in 2007 and takes place every two years, was "a home for major artists to realise their most ambitious projects".
Albarn's Monkey: Journey To The West was a highlight of the first Manchester International Festival and the Blur and Gorillaz singer will present his next opera at the city's Palace Theatre.
Albarn did not appear in Monkey but will perform in Doctor Dee.
The show will be directed by Rufus Norris, who staged Don Giovanni at the English National Opera last year and whose Broadway revival of Les Liaisons Dangereuses was nominated for five Tony Awards in 2008.
Bjork will take her show around the world after its run in Manchester After its Manchester run, it will go on to be part of London's Cultural Olympiad programme.
Bjork will launch the Manchester International Festival on 30 June with a show based on her new album Biophilia.
The Quay Brothers, celebrated for their dark, disjointed films and animations, will team up with Russian-born violinist Alina Ibragimova to stage chamber music in a promenade setting.
Punchdrunk will return after creating the acclaimed theatrical experience It Felt Like A Kiss with Damon Albarn at the last festival. Their new show, The Crash of the Elysium, will be the company's first for children.
Amadou and Mariam, a blind musical duo from Mali, will attempt to stage the world's first concert in total darkness, while comedian Johnny Vegas will present a new theatre show.
Victoria Wood is writing and directing That Day We Sang, about the 1920s Manchester Children's Choir, which will open at the Manchester Opera House.
Hollywood actor Willem Dafoe is to star in The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic alongside the Serbian-born performance artist. The production will feature music written and performed by Antony Hegarty from the Mercury-prize winning Antony and The Johnsons.
The festival will also involve rapper Snoop Dogg, singer Sinead O'Connor, artist John Gerrard, the Halle Orchestra and French composer Mark Andre.
Manchester City Council's executive member for culture and leisure, Councillor Mike Amesbury, said the festival "makes a massive contribution to the cultural offering of our great city and has helped establish us on the world stage as a leading artistic powerhouse".
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/entertainment-arts-12770942
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