During Opera Europa’s spring conference in Wiesbaden, members were invited to take an active role in the future of our association. An Open Space session, moderated by BPI Learning and facilitated by our Opera Management Course participants, encouraged them to share their thoughts on our various initiatives: Opera Europa current services (from conferences to online tools such as the Address book), the creation of new specialist forums (watch out for our Dance forum and our Advocacy forum), Operabook (with an encouraging 78% vote to continue its development!), OperaVision (our free streaming platform with 30 official partners but open to all proposals of content), our public profile (our legitimacy and presence representing the sector) and World Opera Day (a PR-initiative highlighting the value of opera for society).
Next steps
Opera Europa’s team has spent time analysing the return of the Open Space and in conversation with members, under the guidance of our new director Karen Stone. You might already notice minor changes to our operations in the coming months!
With these new found insights, Opera Europa’s Board will be meeting in June to establish priorities and set a strategy for our membership association’s development over the next few seasons. Opera Europa president Ignacio García-Belenguer has also suggested the creation of special committees on our Board, calling on membership expertise, to better delve into some issues.
More about this during our autumn conference in Copenhagen and Malmö!
First few changes
As a founding member of THE SHIFT project for sustainable cultural networks, Opera Europa will be reducing its paper newsletter edition to 3 instead of 4 numbers this year. Your next hard copy of OE NEWS will be with you at the end of the year. You will receive e-newsletters, e-newsflashes and emails from our thematic mailing lists for updates and reminders on our events before then. Make sure you are signed up to our e-newsletter!
Operabook is recognised by the international community as the most reliable source of data – including by Opera Magazine UK and Bachtrack! Our team of 8 regional data managers, led by our very own Gérald Philippe, continue their work in updating your season data. They follow your season announcements and updates on social and specialist media, and we encourage you to keep them informed. But Operabook is more than a casting tool – it’s also a rich database of productions available for rent and sale. The interface to upload photos and technical information on your productions will be revamped, while our technical consulting committee is coming up for the development of a theatre technical database this fall.
Work is being done to clean up our Document Centre, which holds presentations from past conferences, forums and online meetings. The search tool allows you to find contributions based on the event, the specialist forum or the general theme they may touch upon.