By end-July, OperaVision had accumulated over 11 million video views across all channels as well as reaching 50,000 YouTube subscribers during the 33 months since its launch in October 2017.
On 21 July, the European Council reached a deal on the new Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-27, including a 7% improvement on their earlier proposal for Creative Europe. It remains open to challenge by the European Parliament and EU leaders. A budget should be ratified this autumn, but calls for new Creative Europe projects are unlikely before 2021, with outcomes unknown until later next year.
Consequently, the current support for OperaVision, designed to expire at end-2020, will need to be stretched to cover 2021. Programming changes replacing live with archive content will enable budget adjustments.
Meanwhile, Opera Europa will spend this autumn refining its proposals, in response to the increasing role which digital content is playing in the lives of member theatres and the ongoing developments in its deployment. The need for an opera platform like OperaVision has grown immensely this year, and its value will only increase during the next years.
To date, 42 non-partner members have contributed content in addition to the regular offerings of the 28 partners, so that it is already a resource for 70 member companies. While the next steps envisage retaining the basic partnership model of around 20 committed theatres, we want to continue to welcome quality content from ever more diverse sources.
EDUCATION will play an increased role during the next stage, building on recent learning initiatives and content designed for parents and children. Imaginative deployment of the resources of our partners is a prime objective, supplemented by commissioning material devised with experts for targeted age groups.
CREATING DIGITAL CONTENT has gained traction because theatre closures have provoked artists and technicians into using digital means to create opera. The next year will see an explosion of such initiatives. OperaVision should be in the vanguard of discovering and promoting the best initiatives online, supplying a market fo innovations which will change the perception of opera during the coming years.
ADVOCACY of OPERA is a fundamental task of OperaVision, widening the public for: European classics brought alive for today; the best of what is being created now; the most vivid and entertaining performances from widely disparate sources. OperaVision can be the means to tell the story of opera worldwide. It is open to collaboration with cultural, educational, environmental and social partners to deliver a message of peace and well-being in anxious times. It can be an agent of ‘soft power’ in a changing world, helping to deliver the enduring European message of culture, democracy and tolerance.
COMMITTED PARTNERS remain at the core of the project as annual contributors to both content and finance, and consequent beneficiaries of regular EC funds. Those already committed to renewal include:
BE Opera Vlaanderen Antwerp / Gent / La Monnaie/De Munt Brussels
CZ National Theatre Brno / National Theatre Prague
DE Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf
ES Teatro Real Madrid
FI Finnish National Opera Helsinki
HK Croatian National Opera in Zagreb
HU Hungarian State Opera Budapest
IT Teatro dell’Opera di Roma / Teatro Regio Torino
NL Dutch National Opera Amsterdam
NO Norwegian National Opera Oslo
PL Poznań Opera / Polish National Opera Warschau
SE Royal Swedish Opera Stockholm
This list of 16 companies from 12 countries is not exhaustive. Others interested in joining the partnership include
DE Staatstheater Hannover DK Royal Danish Opera Copenhagen
FR Opéra & Orchestre National de Montpellier
Valued THIRD COUNTRY (under EU terminology) contributors include
RU Stanislavsky Music Theatre Moscow
UK Garsington Opera / Opera North Leeds / Royal Opera House London
We are also exploring the best means to encompass a wider range of companies unable or unwilling to commit to regular annual contributions. The purpose would be twofold:
1. Adhesion of theatres from previously unrepresented countries such as Austria, Lithuania and Switzerland
2. Inclusion of worthwhile contributions from festivals and more seasonal companies in France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Spain
