OPERA sans frontières
Report from the Rotterdam conference

More than 170 delegates descended on Rotterdam at the end of May to explore OPERA sans frontières.  The subject provoked some strong disagreements but also revealed some surprising alliances and partnerships.  It benefited from the multi-faceted programme offered by the opening weekend of OPERADAGEN ROTTERDAM and the hospitality of our hosts.  It was enlivened by the presence of 15 carefully chosen young delegates who infiltrated the debates and formed a think-tank to help formulate the planning of the next European Opera Forum to be held in London next March.  Our thanks go to our expert moderators and their deputies, who guided the debates and summarised the principal conclusions and outstanding questions.  While they did not solve all the problems confronting the presentation of new opera to audiences today, they did confirm that there is mutual benefit to be gained from working together and interdependence between large and small, institutions and independents.

Nicholas Payne

Opera, since Monteverdi, is a multi-faceted artwork in which no single element is dominant or subservient…  It is a universal phenomenon with a broad multi-cultural definition…  It is our task to think beyond the confines of our professional practices.
Jonathan Mills, Director of Edinburgh International Festival, in his keynote address on OPERA sans frontières

Opera will always find an audience.  The need for innovation doesn’t come from a lack of audience.  They always want to hear the same thing.  Innovation must come from an artistic impulse.  And therefore, opera must adapt its format to what artists want to say about man and world today.  There is a search for freedom, beyond the dictate of music.
Hans Bruneel, LOD Antwerp

Large organisations have a responsibility for nurturing the ecology of small organisations.
John Fulljames, The Opera Group London

There are two questions: why do contemporary opera? And how to do contemporary opera?  There is something worse than not doing any contemporary opera… That’s doing bad or uninteresting contemporary opera.
Stein Olav Heinrichsen, Den Nye Opera Bergen

Rotterdam’s arts organisations first agreed to share audience data, then to create a focus point once a year with the Operadagen.  They believed it made a stronger argument going to the public authorities with a common project.  The formula was that 50% of the budget came from the Operadagen and 50% was self-generated.
Gabriel Oostvogel, President and Director De Doelen

There is a great importance for the freedom of an artist in his research and development. Opera can really mean something in the world of today.  It’s a complete art form that brings together many fields of expertise.  It’s an encounter between new media, science and art.
The dramaturgy of opera in the 21st century will be more about experience than narration.
Paul Oomen, composer, Amsterdam/Budapest

Most opera houses don’t understand or aren’t ready for today’s forms of opera.  The space has become part of the production; it has a dramaturgy of its own.
Nicola Sani, composer, Fondazione Scelsi Rome

If we think opera is something to be discussed tomorrow, we have to create opera today.
Gerhard Dienstbier, Wiener Taschenoper

The audience is open to anything. The audience is not a problem.
Anthony Heidweiller, Yo! Opera Utrecht

In Russia, contemporary opera has burnt bridges between the opera and its audience, and classical opera has built an ivory tower around itself. We have to bring opera back to the heart of society, counting on its emotions and history.
George Isaakyan, Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre

Music is a plural reality.  The audience isn’t the main concern when planning a season. Selling tickets cannot define an artistic project.  Theatre is a public service.
Paolo Pinamonti, A Coruña Festival Mozart

It is necessary to break down the gated communities of opera.
Graham Vick, Director, Birmingham Opera Company

What to do when back at my desk on Monday?  How to explain what we do to the existing audience and to a new audience?  We seek a dialogue in which the audience has a voice.  We want a clear list of first steps.
Lena Vizy, Young Delegate and Marketing Coordinator, Netherlands Opera

A piece of work doesn’t become a piece of art until it has met an audience.  We must place audience at the heart of the art and art in the heart of the audience.
Paul Reeve, Royal Opera House Covent Garden