From the grandeur of concert halls to the cosy surrounds of your front room – an innovative performance project is bringing opera to people's homes.

Opera Helps, a project created by artist Joshua Sofaer, is coming to this year's Norfolk and Norwich Festival and people can now apply for the unique chance to have a free, personalised performance.

As the name suggests, the one-on-one performances also aim to help their audiences, by using the power of song to encourage fresh perspectives on issues in their lives. People who apply for a free performance are asked to outline a problem they are trying to deal with and, if they are picked for a performance, one of nine professional singers will visit their home, talk to them, and sing an aria that is appropriate to their issue.

Mr Sofaer, who first developed the project in Sweden, was inspired to create Opera Helps to demonstrate the 'transformative power of song' and also introduce opera to new audiences.

He said: 'Historically opera was always a popular art form.

'Even 50 years ago hairdressers in Italy would sing arias as they worked. Yet now it is seen as something highbrow, for the rich and highly educated, inaccessible to most people. By relocating opera to the home and relating it to personal problems I truly think we can introduce people to the music who wouldn't otherwise have given it a chance.'

All performances take place in audience members' homes and last about 30 minutes.

To apply for an Opera Helps performance during the festival in May, visit www.operahelps.com or call 07783 340789.

Do you have an arts story? Email arts correspondent Emma Knights at emma.knights@archant.co.uk