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MANIFESTO TO ALL BIG OPERA HOUSES
TIME TO BRING OPERA CLOSER TO THE WORLD AND AUDIENCE OF TODAY!!

Smaller production structures and independent producers offer the trigger of change.  They are already engaged in reaching new audiences: by exploring and expanding the limits of the conventional opera format; by giving voice to new generations of artists; and by providing original alternative projects that enrich the operatic ecosystem. However, the real power and resources to operate a deep paradigm shift reside with the big opera houses.  They have the destiny of opera in their hands.

Now is the opportunity for major theatres to concentrate on a younger audience, because it is crucial to legitimise their own survival.  The majority of opera consumers is over 50 years old.  People under 40 years are starving to rediscover the world and have new experiences after pandemic lockdown!

We must not miss the chance to ignite their passion for opera!

It’s time to commission new works from young composers.

It’s time to ally with other theatre, cinema, dance, performing arts centres.

It’s time to join with smaller opera producers to engender a healthy and vibrant opera industry.

It’s time to follow the example of cinema, the storytelling medium that came after opera and was predicted by great opera composers.

It’s time for variety of offer, of plots/libretti, of aesthetic language.

It’s time to be audacious, to risk, to rejuvenate; it’s time for a paradigm shift and change of the global image of opera society in general, to transform the usual prejudice of opera as an art form, crystallised in the past.

The opera audience and the range of operas have to be varied in order to promote a closer bond with the world of today.

BIG OPERA THEATRES AND FESTIVALS have to descend from their pedestals and to join the real world, where the majority has no idea or curiosity about opera. Be aware of the world that surrounds us; recognise its population’s financial support to your/our theatres; reach new audiences with more engaging formats and models.  Give voice to new the artists of today and the audience of today and promote dialogue and exchange with other Performing Art Institutions and independent producers!

Opera world has to actively work to reach a new paradigm and bring opera closer to society and audience of today!

Lisbon, 16 May 2020
Catarina Molder
Soprano, Producer, General and  Artistic Director, Ópera do Castelo & Operafest Lisboa