Since its foundation 20 years ago, Opera Europa has benefited from the dedication and expertise of seven Presidents, who have actively contributed to its growth. Our first female President, Eva Kleinitz, bequeathed a legacy enabling scholarships to be awarded to talented young artists. The other six, plus Kasper Holten who served as Vice-President throughout Eva’s time, recall what the association and its director have meant to them.
ANTHONY FREUD, PRESIDENT 2002-2006
General Director, President & CEO of Lyric Opera of Chicago
Trying to do justice to Nicholas’s immense contribution to Opera Europa in 150 words is likely to result in incoherent and inane hyperbole that would make Nicholas splutter with rage. But here goes…!
When a fledgling Opera Europa was recruiting its first director we needed an international icon who commanded respect for their knowledge, passion, experience, vision, foresight, judgment and commitment. Those of us involved in the recruitment couldn’t believe our good fortune when Nicholas expressed his interest. He encompassed all these qualities.
Throughout his twenty years at the helm of Opera Europa, the organization has grown and strengthened to an extraordinary degree. The range and diversity of its members is more complex than ever. The last twenty years have seen immense and sometimes bewildering cultural, social, economic, political and technological change. Nicholas has worked tirelessly to ensure that both Opera Europa and opera as a whole embrace these evolving opportunities and rise to our escalating challenges.
The world of opera owes Nicholas an immense debt of gratitude.
BERNARD FOCCROULLE, PRESIDENT 2006 -2008
Composer
I remember the first time I spoke to Nicholas Payne about the need to make Opera Europa a professionally managed organisation: it was twenty years ago at Covent Garden, a reception after a première. A few months later, Nicholas started as the first director of Opera Europa.
At the beginning, we were about 30 members: Nicholas has developed it into a large professional network with more than 220 members! Opera Europa has been encouraging a common awareness about the needs of enlarging the audience, of working for and with young people, of diversifying the educational offer, of investing in new pieces, of finding new ways to communicate and advocate about this fabulous art form.
I remember the European Opera Forum organised by OE in Paris, the very first of the European Opera Days that have now reached so many people from South to North, East to West in Europe.
The essential quality of a network is that it encourages cooperation without forcing anyone. Nicholas has been an incredibly open man, searching for the best in all contacts with individuals and organisations.
I want to thank him personally for his friendship, vision, inspiration, and accomplishments over these two decades.
JOAN MATABOSCH, PRESIDENT 2008-2011
Artistic Director of Teatro Real Madrid
What a pleasure to be asked to write a few words on my association with Opera Europa and Nicholas Payne over the years, both being true cornerstone relationships of my professional life.
I have long profited from the devotion and efficiency that Nicholas has brought to our collaboration. Both in my period as a board member and then as president of Opera Europa it has been my great privilege to work closely with him, and to see how significantly the organisation has developed under his direction. One of the great marks of his vision for how this organisation could work and profit its members was the huge transition that he implemented during the years in which we worked closely together.
Thanks to him, what had begun as a small meeting place for intendants and artistic directors to meet, gradually developed into a series of dedicated forums in which technical departments, marketing, human resources, production and education departments et cetera were also enfranchised. This built a relevance to our field that allowed it to become the great meeting point for the pursuit of best practices that it is today.
The melting pot of people from across our sector interchanging experience and culture that Opera Europa now is, owes everything to Nicholas’s passion, dedication and vision, and for that I thank him.
PETER DE CALUWE, PRESIDENT 2011-2013
General Director of La Monnaie/De Munt
During the almost 20 years of your tenure as Director, you have been building an organisation so solid and so well organised that it can be labelled ‘exemplary’. Opera Europa has become not only much larger (growing from 115 members in 2011 to 229 now) but it also managed to penetrate deep into the different member organisations, involving all ingredients of our work and bringing every specialisation within our houses together, in order to exchange good practice and to learn from each other. That is an immense achievement for which we will remain eternally grateful.
This strong basis allows us to focus on what is needed today more than ever: advocacy for our sector, lobbying on the highest European and local political levels in order for us all to remain creative and relevant. Isn’t culture the only cement left to keep Europe alive? Thanks for the great foundations you have laid to build further towards continued respect for and financing of our sector.
Soave sia il vento, dear Nicholas!
KASPER HOLTEN, VICE-PRESIDENT 2012-2017
CEO of Royal Danish Theatre
If there are two things that have mattered in my professional life, it is to fight for the artform of opera – and to promote European collaboration. Both are things that we need more of. It was thus an intense pleasure to serve on the Board of – and for a while as VP of Opera Europa. Under Nicholas Payne’s leadership, the organization has seen an impressive growth, and we launched new groundbreaking initiatives, such as The Opera Platform, which grew into OperaVision.
The biggest risk of the operatic world seems to me to be that – under pressure – we sometimes revert to becoming defensive, or we hope for status quo. I am sure opera has an important role to play in tomorrow’s societies. When we work together, we learn from each other. When we stand together, we are braver in embracing change.
This is what Opera Europa is all about –not least thanks to Nicholas’s amazing work for the organisation and for all of us.
EVA KLEINITZ PRESIDENT 2013-2017
Former Director Oper Stuttgart/General Director Opéra du Rhin
Applications for the second edition of Eva Kleinitz Scholarships are invited from young artists currently in higher education before the deadline of 20 December.
Details available at https://www.opera-europa.org/news/opera-europa-eva-kleinitz-scholarship
BIRGITTA SVENDÉN, PRESIDENT 2017-2021
Former CEO & Artistic Director of Royal Swedish Opera
Over the years Nicholas Payne has inspired the members to take new steps and to see the need of making a development within the art of opera that is connected to rest of the society.
By introducing a digital platform, OperaVision, he made a statement that the art of opera needed to be available to anyone in a global context. This was the way of reaching out to a new audience and strengthen the relevance of the art.
During the years of the pandemic OperaVision became a most important channel to keep the contact with the audience around the world.
For us members of Opera Europa, Nicholas’s dedication, strength and channelling into the future, especially during the pandemic and its aftermath, was vital and important to keep us united.
His work with the FEDORA Prizes should also be mentioned, as it is of great importance for young emerging artists to make possible that a new repertory will find its way into the history.
I have not met that many people who have Nicholas Payne’s strong faith in the art of opera and because of that he has been able to lead the development successfully within a field that is built upon old tradition and historical values.
I am proud and grateful for his work and dedication!
ANNA MARIA MEO, PRESIDENT 2021-
Since I have the honour of presiding over Opera Europa, and thanks to the extraordinary contribution made by Nicholas at the head of the Association, we have constantly asked ourselves how best to deal with the challenges arising from the situation we are facing today, when it seems that the pandemic wants finally to loosen the grip that has held us for three years almost to the point of suffocating us.
The approach we have adopted has always been based on the desire to look beyond and it is with this spirit that we have designed the Next Stage initiative, dedicated to sustainability, inclusion and digital transformation. OperaVision, one of the key projects carried out by the Association in recent years, has obtained the confirmation of the funding that guarantees its implementation in the next three years. All this was possible thanks to the tenacity and foresight of Nicholas Payne, supported by an extraordinary staff. To them and to Nicholas in particular goes my gratitude, and I am sure, that of all the members of Opera Europa.