Tuesday 25 October 2022 was the fourth edition of World Opera Day and an opportunity to unbox opera!
‘Unboxing Opera’ refers to the millions of videos to be watched on the World Wide Web, where users unbox products in front of their camera. They are filming themselves in the process of revealing the received object, and analyse and explain it to their virtual audience. The videos are usually enthusiastic and reflect the emotion and excitement someone can feel when discovering something new.
Opera goes far beyond a product that can be taken out of a box, but isn’t revealing opera, sharing its content, explaining its functioning, bringing it closer to people, and sharing strong emotions while discovering new art, the mission of World Opera Day?
Beyond the reference to the videos on YouTube, the opera boxes still found in traditional opera houses often recall the elitist image of the genre, and ‘unboxing opera’ evokes the idea of bringing it out of a rigid place and suggests to break the limits of the art form. ‘Unboxing Opera’ gives the opportunity to a wider audience to discover new facets of the opera, to deepen their knowledge about it and to be surprised and touched by the art form.