COME May 30, the curtains will go up on the University Singers’ 2015 concert season.

It marks a departure from the norm for the renowned choir, based at the University of the West Indies’ Mona campus. The performances will feature the Franklin Halliburton-composed opera 1865, based on the Morant Bay Rebellion in St Thomas.

Led by Baptist minister Paul Bogle, that October uprising saw protesters demonstrating against colonial oppression.

Bogle was hanged that year for his involvement. He is one of Jamaica’s seven National Heroes.

Halliburton — director of the Singers — first showcased an abridged, 20-minute version of 1865 as part of the 2012 season, in tribute to Jamaica’s 50th anniversary of Independence. The overwhelming response sent him to the drawing board to expand his one-act work into a full opera.

Halliburton said the idea came from a conversation with the Singers’ artistic director Noel Dexter.

“In December of 2011 we were looking ahead to the music for the upcoming concert season. We began toying with the idea of staging an excerpt from one of the better known musicals — a Porgy and Bess or Sound of Music. We were excited and ready to run off and find the music, then in a very nonchalant way Mr Dexter said: ‘pity we don’t have anything of our own to present… Halli, go and write something’,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Dexter’s comments did not resonate with Halliburton at the time. But in the ensuing weeks, he recalls being haunted by the statement.

“I kept thinking to myself, all these composers whose work we wanted to perform — the Rodgers and Hammerstein and Gilbert and Sullivan, they have told their story and we need to tell our story,” said Halliburton.

For two weeks, the motif ‘War dung a Morant Bay’ rang out in his head and he finally gave in. Four months later, Halliburton presented the final draft of his opera.

It took one year to write the libretto for the two-and-a-half-hour version. Halliburton found his daughters, ages seven and two years old, to be excellent sounding boards during this writing process.

“I knew when I struck gold with a particular song. You would hear ‘play that again, daddy,’ and they would run around the place singing it for days. Children can be brutally honest and so I valued their opinions.”

The long version of 1865 is now in rehearsal, guided by noted theatre director Dr Brian Heap, assisted by Michael Holgate.

“Presenting an opera is unlike what we are accustomed to, which is standing and delivering choral music. Their task has been to turn us into a band of actors,” he noted.

To help his cast of 50 singers get into character, Halliburton and his team have employed a number of techniques.

“We have had presentations from Dr Clinton Hutton of the UWI whose PhD was on the Morant Bay Rebellion. Noted historian Professor Verene Shepherd has also been invited to share with the cast. We have also been on an excursion to the Morant Bay Courthouse as well as Stony Gut to shape the minds of the choristers as they get into character,” Halliburton explained.

Halliburton, whose mother was a music teacher for many years, is an attorney by profession. In addition to being a bass vocalist, he plays the piano and cello.