OPERA OUT OF OPERA - FEDORA Prize for Education 2019

Presentation

Opera out of the Opera (OooO) is a project specifically designed to facilitate the “generational” transfer in the Opera field. Opera should be considered an intangible cultural heritage with the older transmitting the art to the younger in a process of audience development. To do so, we need to act with new approach and paradigm, analyzing why opera is now far from young generations.

Internal barriers are:

- oversizing (opera is considered one of the most complex and expensive theatrical machines and requires dedicated structures)

- lack of involvement (traditional Opera settings do not actively involve the watcher in the production) comprehension obstacles ( some words in the singing process may lose their intelligibility and often opera librettos and lyrics come from an antiquated language).

We also need to take in account external barriers like:

- self segregation (Opera takes place in separated “sacral” venues)
- lack of knowledge (Opera calls for a knowledge base)

- lack of dissemination (young people rarely or never come in contact with it).

Opera out of Opera is an innovative project that has the general objective of introducing younger generation to Opera world and reach them outside theatres and concert halls. To do so, we plan to accomplish a series of specific actions, strictly related to the barriers listed above: - reduce Opera logistic and economic impact with massive use of digital technol. – develop, using the most recent digital devices, an interactive real time system in order to involve and engage the audience – create a set of activities to further improve a general audience development strategy – experiment an easy replicable Opera live event to outreach audience in places where they would not expect to see an Opera - develop a replicable digital APP to help not expert audience have a basic understanding of Opera scenes and possibly discover more if interested – communicate that Opera is an intangible and eternal Cultural Heritage UNESCO (Infokit 2011), regardless historical set.

Opera out of Opera is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

Artistic Team

Opera out of Opera will gather 5 partners from IT, SP, GR, Au and Be, coordinated by Conservatorio Santa Cecilia. Each of them will bring different and complementary expertise and facilities. OooO team will be composed by: one General Project Manager (appointed by Conservatorio Santa Cecilia) and a Local Manager appointed by each partner (5 managers in total). A financial manager will be appointed by the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia together with an external evaluator.

Although globally involved althrough the whole duration of the project, each partner and and local manager will be responsible for different features and activities. Santa Cecilia Roma will lead the overall management, ensuring that activities, events and objectives are achieved within scheduled time and allocated budget. Michelangelo Galeti, the General project Manager will also guarantee a smooth monitoring and reporting processes. AEC local manager will be reponsible for communication and dissemination.

The partner will aim at:
- promoting project’ activities at local and transnational level
- promoting the itinerant O. events and APP
- defining the project communication strategy
- creating the visual identity, featuring also project’s website’s page layout, logo, poster layout, template for newsletter.

AEC will also be responsible for the final promoting event in Prague.
Art on- Petit Opera du Monde (GR) will work on audience development analysis, strategies and approach.
Local manager will be responsible for the events targeted to students and young people and for the definition of the APP for the interaction and involvement of the audience.
Mozarteum Salzburg AU local team will mainly approach the Co-creation process, coordinating the artistic part as follows
- identify the opera/s to be performed
- reduce size of the score
- reduce and highlight O. scenes
- foresee the parts for the audience involvement giving different options to the audience.