Read our reports on our various Spring forum meeting that took place in Mainz, Amsterdam, Milan and Brussels.
Don't forget you can download all the presentations from the various meetings in our Document Centre.
The Technical & Production and the TechSet Forum met this May at the Staatstheater Mainz to discuss burning technical topics, get inspired by each other and find ways to better collaborate, with a special focus on sustainability.
From the explanation of modular and standard sets (Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and Oper Wuppertal), through the presentation of Reset Scenery – a Scottish circular platform for sets for the cultural industries – and the testimony about creating a more sustainable framework for a sustainable production model (Royal Danish Opera and Dutch National Opera & Ballet), the participants received some very insightful information and examples on how to reduce their impact in the opera sector on the first day. Participants could also experience a live demo of the Next Stage winning XR project (Finnish National Opera & Ballet), which corresponded to both the sustainability and the digital pillars of the initiatives, all this in line with the NEXT STAGE initiative in collaboration with FEDORA. The group also discussed the best way to add technical details to the Operabook platform, to ease coproductions, production rentals and sales.
The sessions ended with a guided tour from the beautiful Staatstheater Mainz and its 3 stages!
The second day started with a discussion on staff exchange, its benefits and how to develop it between the technical departments. Then, the audience discovered how a very low latency conductor monitoring system was built at Dutch National Opera & Ballet and which are the criteria for a perfect transport wagon system (Dutch National Opera & Ballet and Royal Danish Opera). The participants received some updates from the Trail equipment exchange platform between opera houses from Finland and Sweden as well as a tip from Norwegian National Opera & Ballet to use Matterport, as it is a precise and easy-to-use system for sharing set designs to partners. Finally the group heard about the challenges technical departments have to deal with, when they are the only ones on which theatres count to work more sustainably.
As a nice conclusion of the meeting, Gemma Swallow from Scottish National Theatre, and working hard towards a greener future in culture, underlined the importance of professional networks like ours: cooperation is the basis to make an impactful change!
Celia Grau - Advocacy Coordinator
Members from the Costumes, Make-Up & Wigs teams met in Amsterdam at Dutch National Opera & Ballet in April for what was the largest forum meeting ever with 98 participants.
Sophie de Lint, Bob Brandsen and Costume Designer Klaus Bruns were generous in sharing their points of view during the Ask Me Anything sessions, tackling topics like mental health in the workshops and what makes a good costume designer.
As always, the worksop visits, Show and Tell and demos are eagerly awaited moments to exchange ideas and best practices.
Friday morning was practical with excellent presentations and advice on Planning and Staff training where everyone broke up into smaller groups to address the issues and look for processes to improve workshop efficiency. A large breakout exercise on Co-production issues provided food for thought and some volunteers to create a working group on how to streamline co-production processes in the workshops.
Saturday morning focused on Sustainability in the Opera houses and in the workshops before the conclusions which saw the steering group say a musical 'So long, Farewell' to Robby Duiveman, steering group Chair who will be leaving Dutch National Opera & Ballet at the end of this season.
Aline Chif - Communications Manager
This year, the HR forum took place at Teatro alla Scala in Milan. 55 delegates from 21 countries joined for three days of sessions, performances and many networking moments.
After a warm welcome and compelling keynote by Sovrintendente Dominique Meyer, participants heard about La Scala’s inclusivity project which is part of a comprehensive initiative undertaken by the new leadership of the theatre, consisting also of training designated staff members to become ambassadors of a safe working environment.
Dr Prioska Stubendek (Budapest) updated the group about their app for internal communication after their initial presentation at the last autumn conference, and could report encouraging results.
The second day brought delegates to the workshop facilities of the theatre, the Laboratori Ansaldo. In the afternoon, delegates were invited to reflect upon useful ways to benchmark HR practices, the session was facilitated by Polly Dufton (London ROH). We also heard from Marco Amoruso (La Scala), joined by Paolo Bruno (Bologna), about HR particularities in Italy.
A keynote presentation by Catherine Tanneau (CEO Variations International) focused on psychological safety. Inga Navickiene (Vilnius) and Nick Bol (Amsterdam) reported how their HR departments are addressing the issue. These sessions on inclusivity are part of our capacity building series of the NEXT STAGE initiative coordinated by FEDORA.
On our last day, Professor Helena Gaunt from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama gave us a presentation on their Opera 360 programme designed for professionals seeking to change their career to work in opera, completed by Karen Stone’s pitch on the Opera Management Course.
Lastly, a shared set of values was presented by chair Steven Foulston (London ROH) which are indeed the foundation of each of our Opera Europa gatherings: Respect, Openness, and Inclusivity – a forum is a protected peer to peer space where we respect each other’s work, company, background.
Susanna Werger - Membership & Services Manager
Three days of in-depth knowledge sharing on data, artificial intelligence and digitalisation were offered at the Marketing & Communications Forum in Brussels. For me, it was the first Opera Europa forum I attended and I am absolutely thrilled.
On the first day, we were asked to fill in a survey about what we hoped to get out of this forum. As I was travelling alone for Oper Frankfurt, the main focus was on one thing: networking. The forum absolutely lived up to this expectation. Between the exciting and compelling lectures, there was always time for exchange with the other participants. Looking back on the forum, this exchange was the most beneficial aspect. I had a lot of about common challenges, and it was very reassuring to see that we are not alone with some of our concerns. There were so many different and exciting people from all over Europe that I didn't manage to introduce myself to everyone individually. A goal for the next forum! In any case, the forum motivated me to initiate further processes in this field, and I returned to Frankfurt full of energy.
In terms of content, I was particularly impressed by the quality of the presentations and the willingness to share ideas and efforts from our colleagues. It is part of a forum like this to share not only the successes but also the failures from which lessons have been learned, and that is exactly what was conveyed in the presentations. The idea that we will celebrate greater successes only through shared knowledge has impacted me a lot.
Anne-Marie Antwerpen - Marketing, Oper Frankfurt
