Since our conference in Barcelona, the Opera Europa Next Generation (OENG) platform supported by the European Commission has been rolling out several activities to support and promote emerging artists.
AUDITIONS
Ten singers from the young artists programmes of Génération Opéra, Opéra Comique, Opéra national de Paris and Opera Fuoco auditioned for potential future employers, the casting directors from across Europe who gathered at the Artistic Administration & Producing forum in Paris from 22 to 24 May. Already in Barcelona, our conference participants enjoyed a audition recital by 7 artists from Barcelona, Kyiv, Valencia and Zagreb.
OPERAVISION
Opera Europa’s streaming platform continues to be an effective tool to promote emerging artists worldwide. OperaVision regularly features additional video content, which puts singers with smaller main stage roles in the spotlight. In addition, several recent streams have focused entirely on new talent such as: Blushing by the Youth Company of Finnish National Ballet, Dido and Aeneas from Dutch National Opera and several singing competitions – not the least of these being the Stanisław Moniuszko Vocal Competition Finals to be live streamed on 7 June. This competition will mark the start of a month on OperaVision entirely devoted to the Next Generation, ending in Graz on 28 & 29 June with a livestream of the Ring Awards, which supports the ambitions of the new generation of creative teams.
NEW OENG WEBSITE
The team has been working on a new platform website to give all stakeholders an overview of OENG activities. Please pay a visit to OperaNextGeneration.eu.
NEXT GENERATION TABS ON OPERABOOK AND OPERA EUROPA
Members should know that Operabook now highlights the emerging artists, who have benefited from support via OENG platform. Browse the search tools or the new ‘Next Generation’ tab of Operabook to find out more and click through via dedicated links to see the performances of these talents on OperaVision. The Opera Europa website itself has a new ‘Next Generation’ tab, where you can read about our activities. Members can use their Opera Europa login to post here the details of their forthcoming open auditions and competitions.
Opera Europa is also glad to announce its partnership with the new European online media The European Correspondent, to promote OperaVision and our emerging artists to audiences throughout Europe. They have a daily newsletter filled with stories from across the continent: www.europeancorrespondent.com
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The training elements of Opera Europa Next Generation really take off in autumn 2025.
From 23-25 October, we run the first ever Career Management Course in partnership with Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera Warsaw. Over 3 days, 20 singers at an early stage of their professional lives will have the opportunity to take part in feedback auditions, as well as modules designed to complement their artistic training. The course is designed in response to our spring survey, in which we invited Emerging Artists from across Europe to tell us what they want and need, and expert input from the OENG Artistic Committee. Covering topics such as resilience, finances, networking and developing an online presence, this promises to be a wide-ranging and valuable learning opportunity to prepare these artists for their career. Not only that: we look forward to the next round of online training, in which we will be exploring the relationship between sustainability and making opera today with creative teams at an early stage of their careers.
OPERA EUROPA EVA KLEINITZ SCHOLARSHIP
The Eva Kleinitz Scholarship honours the memory of Eva Kleinitz, Director of the Opéra National du Rhin until her death in May 2019, and past President of Opera Europa. In January 2025, Opera Europa coordinated the fourth edition of the Scholarship, working alongside jury members Jonathan Groves, Bettina Giese and Nicola Raab.
We received a total of 124 applications from singers representing 45 different nationalities! Over 50 of the applicants attended our online training session, at which the jury spoke about the origins of the Scholarship, explained how to do a compelling online audition and what they were looking for. They auditioned 8 singers online and made 5 awards. Check out the winners here.
OENG has grown out of the success of OperaVision in reaching audiences worldwide. The platform is, however, now much more than a source of interesting relevant content for streaming. OENG is taking root right in many places – from the Human Resources and Artistic Administration & Producing forums via Operabook to main conferences – to make the presence of emerging artists felt right across Opera Europa activities. Above all, we are learning collectively how better to meet the needs of the artists of the future and those that have already starting to perform today.
