On 25 October World Opera Day was celebrated on OperaVision and other media with a special concert being curated in collaboration with Opera for Peace – Leading Young Voices of the World.
Opera for Peace was launched last year, during Opera Europa’s conference in Strasbourg. It is a new cultural movement reflecting the reality of today’s globalised world, building our cultural and creative future together through passion and determination. It believes in the strength of connecting nations and transcending differences through unifying communication of opera. Working closely with opera houses, institutions, and international organisations, it aspires to facilitate understanding by identifying, supporting and guiding the world’s next generation of opera stars. These young artists are ambassadors for positive universal values.
The artists represent six continents and have been recorded in 15 different locations. Australian soprano Nicole Car, along with French soprano Elsa Dreisig and Mexican tenor Leonardo Sánchez, are in Paris. New York is the location for Lawrence Brownlee, Raehann Bryce-Davis, Alec Carlson, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Brian Jagde, Isabel Leonard and Gabriella Reyes. Moscow offers Victoria Karkacheva and Dmitry Korchak; Berlin Sawan Al- Bahiti and René Barbera; Munich Etienne Dupuis, Hyesang Park and Golda Schultz. Zeina Barhoum sings from a historical setting in Jordan; Vuvu Mpofu and Chuma Sijeqa from among South African vineyards. Further recordings are made in Japan, North and South America.
The four acts of the concert remain available until April 2021 on OperaVision.
This unique compilation is being offered by the artists and the producers as their contribution to World Opera Day and the values of inclusion which it espouses.
The music is supplemented by short video messages from a few prominent people who support the campaign, including the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, Belgian composer and organist Bernard Foccroulle, American theatre director and teacher Peter Sellars.
Ai Weiwei