Dina Ivanova

How has the Covid19 crisis affected La Scala and the opera world as a whole? What are the top strategic priorities for the theatre and which new initiatives can we expect to see at La Scala? What worked well at Vienna State Opera? How can we change the stereotypes about opera and make it more accessible and attractive for a wider audience? Why is it important to introduce children to the opera and classical music? If you have never been to the opera and would like some recommendation, what titles should you start with? These were among some of the questions we talked about with Mr Dominique Meyer, Sovrintendente of Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy back in May and those reflections are of particular interest in terms of the managerial perspective and historical context of the performing arts industry.

Dominique Meyer has been the Director of the Vienna State Opera since 2010 and the General Director (Sovrintendente) at Teatro alla Scala since March 1^st, 2020. Mr Meyer was previously the Director of the Lausanne Opera, the General Director and Artistic Director of Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, and the General Director of the Paris Opera, as well as worked for the French Government (the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Culture and Communication). He is a member of the Board of Directors of the European Music Theatre Academy (EMA) of the University of Vienna and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP).

Mr Meyer, could you kindly share your view on how the Covid19 crisis has already affected La Scala and the opera world in general? 

It is not a little crisis; I think we will have consequences for many years. If you consider the whole opera world, the business has been shut down since the beginning of March with different delays in different countries. More or less everything is closed until July. There are some differences between countries. In Vienna they allowed us to re-open slowly with 100 people in June, 500 people in July and 1000 people in August. Then there are some dramatic cases. For instance, the Paris Opera is nearly bankrupt because there were first many strikes with yellow jackets, then 1.5 months of strikes because of the pension, and now the coronavirus crisis. They have lost about 40 million euros. French government did not allow Paris Opera to use the financial system that we have for workers. So, they do not know how to solve that.

At La Scala we have made the plan with 3 items. Firstly, to remake the complete program not doing any new productions and play existing productions to save costs with the singers that we had under the contract. Secondly, to reduce the number of performances – it is obvious that we will not have the tourists, as nobody is flying anymore, and tourists are about 1/3 of the audience at La Scala. If we lose one third of the audience, we have to play less to reduce the expenses, because each time we play, we incur expenses, and concentrate the audience in the reduced number of performances.

We have made a massive plan of cost reduction and we have the deal with the workers. We use the system that was offered by the government. They give us about 1100 euros gross for every worker, which is not enough. We complete this amount of money to reach about 80% of the normal salaries. We reduce the costs, and one part is financed by the government.

However, the music is going to be different next year. Next year will be tricky because we will not have the tourists who represent one third of the audience and pay high price tickets, and it is a big loss. On the other side, we will lose the help of the government for the workers, as this help is granted only during the period of shutdown. At the same time, we will have full costs.

I have been working with my team for many hours just to try to reduce the gap, which is not easy because the loss of income can be up to 10 million euros. 2021 is going to be very difficult. It will take time. We have to reduce the investments in new productions, but we need new productions to capture the attention of the audience. We have contracts, and in our business if you do not anticipate contracts you do not have great artists. This means that the contracts for next season and the season after that were made by my predecessor, but I cannot cancel these artists. I have to reduce the number of performances and they will accept, but to cancel completely is very difficult. It is almost impossible to cancel all the new productions. We do not have so many options to reduce the costs.

How is the staff coping with the situation? What messages do you share with people to support them during this difficult time?

We have 1000 workers, and you need a different answer for each of them. All the offices are working, and there are people who continue to work. They work very well and have become specialists in Zoom. Now with these video systems we can work almost everywhere. At the beginning of the crisis the first decision to close the theatre was only for 8 days, nobody could imagine that the crisis would be so dramatic and long.

It’s not easy, because now everyone has had somebody who died in the family or among people that one knows. The fear is very deep in the brain and you can’t avoid that. Our job is to get everything for the people to feel safe to come back and to guarantee all the best safety option. We have prepared the complete plan for all the parts. Some of my colleagues at the Direction came back to the office because they cannot stay at home anymore. They want to work in the offices. Internet does not solve every problem.

Considering the situation now, what would be the top strategic objectives and priorities for La Scala for the next 2 – 3 years?

The first item we need to work on is to bring the audience back. It’s not going to be an easy thing. I think foreign tourists will come back gradually once the travel will be possible without too many complications, but we have a job to do to bring local audience back. There is this fear. In Vienna for the first weeks that the shops were open there were no customers because people were afraid. They are not used anymore to spending money on a new shirt or shoes and do not feel that it’s very necessary. I think the crisis has put people in front of themselves and of course, this consumption is broken.

There will also be an enormous economic crisis, unemployment, and many people will lose a lot of income. There are people who can’t be without opera, ballet and theatre but for many people it’s just a complimentary thing. I think it’s going to be difficult to bring the audience back and we will need to use many different elements to do that.

First of all, we need to work on the program. If we do specific projects that are intellectually very interesting, maybe it’s going to be more difficult. We have to find the right balance. I think the Artistic Director has to forget about his ego, and prepare the program thinking only about the audience.

The second thing that we will do regarding the audience, is develop the activities for children with some new elements. This is the key for the future. I think the work that was done at La Scala for the children is very good, so we continue that. I also would like to have activities to bring the families to normal performances, not ‘specific’ performances for children.

In Vienna we have a special price of 15 euros for tickets for children, even for people sitting in the first row of the stalls. This is a very good thing. I would so much like to do it at La Scala, as you have to bring the little children to the opera. I know this movement works for the ballet, and I think you have to do the same job for the opera. In Vienna when we do ‘Fidelio’, for example, we have 200 children in the audience. This is the normal way of life and I would like to have the families in the theatre.

We are preparing a global project. The third item which for me is very important is to modernise La Scala, to bring much more new technology in a few directions. One direction is streaming.

Is it similar to what you did at Vienna State Opera?

Yes, when I came to Vienna, I wanted us to become more independent. There is a massive technological change, and this change makes it possible, because the costs are not so high anymore, the new cameras are remote, there is very high definition, and no change of lighting is needed, which is very important.

The fact that they are very remote is very important for me because I hate the evenings when there are a lot of big cameras in the auditorium – it is noisy, people are speaking with headsets. It is not nice. I want people to sit there without seeing that somebody is working for the broadcast. This system helped a lot. We can broadcast 45 performances a year, so we have accumulated a treasury of the recordings. When shutdown started in Vienna, I decided to bring a new broadcast every night following the plan that we already had in the real program. We broadcasted three different ‘Toscas’ with three different casts. For opera lovers it’s marvellous. The system allows to speak to the whole world. During this period of shutdown we had 2 million people watching our performances.

The second thing that I would like to do is to modernise the system of subtitles. In Vienna we have had tablets for each seat for 5 years. There are 2300 customers every day and we have the same number of tablets. We now have subtitles in 8 different languages. If we want tourists to come back, it is a very good tool. We can also use these tablets to advertise the next production, cast of the day, or the history of the house. We also use it to order beverage for the interval. I think this is a problem at La Scala that the lines are too long. I think these elements can help.

This is also a method to communicate with the sponsors. If the sponsor comes and has 25 tickets, you can address the word only to these seats.

It can be very well organised. For instance, if you don’t want to read the subtitles, your neighbour can read it, but you don’t notice thanks to filters. It is a very good technology and now we know how to do it. I would really like to do it at La Scala. 

I also would like to use new technology for advertisements. When I came to Vienna, in the façade there were wooden boxes displaying one picture every time. It was so old-fashioned, and it created jealousy. If you have for each production only one picture, there’s only a picture of the tenor and the soprano is not happy. It is also a way to give new information, and it is not aggressive. It works well with the house. I never want to be aggressive with the house, the building needs to be respected.

I also have technological projects that are for the other part of the building. I would like to use tablets a lot more, for instance, for the rehearsal plans, and work on the stage. One problem for the stage managers is that stages are very big and wide and it’s very difficult to communicate. It’s always loud and you are not allowed to speak too much. If you work with the paper, you can have so many mistakes. If you use these tablets during the rehearsals, and there’s a modification of the entrance, you can put it on the score on the tablet and everyone has the same information, there is no risk of mistakes.

There is one point that I find very interesting – the digital scores. In Vienna they could send all the vocal scores to the singers through the Internet. Singers travel a lot and they do not want to carry 50 kg of scores every time. If they can store everything on the tablet, they are very happy. Many musicians hire these scores with the new technology when they want to practice.

Maybe we will find other issues. I think it will be good for La Scala to modernise. I like this type of modernisation, as nothing is really obvious, but it works. My wish in Vienna was never to be aggressive but now people are happy and think everything is normal. These are the points that I would like to develop.

What does an opera theatre have to do to remain relevant to the audience, keep the artistic excellence high and stay financially sustainable?

This is impossible. The interesting thing is to try to keep these elements together, to know that if you make an artistic decision, you will have consequences on the audience, costs, and the organisation. Even if I strongly believe that we have to produce emotions to the audience, I think we need to avoid our own emotions when we do that and never forget that a well-organised opera is an opera where every artistic decision is made knowing the consequences. You have to consider all these elements together.

Many opera theatres have been trying to attract children and sometimes young audiences as well which is a good initiative. What about slightly older generation, 30+, who is too old for UNDER30 but too young for seniors? Often this generation is interested in culture in general but sometimes lacks knowledge. If they are willing to get introduced into opera, but are unsure, what would you recommend?

I think that generation is in normal life. The only thing we need to guarantee is the accessibility to the theatres. I think La Scala is not badly organised in this matter. There is the ‘Loggione’ offer – 150 cheap tickets at 10 euros. I think it is good, maybe I will increase the number of these tickets. I do not think you should make specific offers for each part of the society. You have to make a decision. My decision is that as much as possible should be done for young children and families. The program that was made by Paolo Grassi is a very good program, so we continue. The decision to make the UNDER30 is a very good decision.

As far as the recommendation is concerned, I do not recommend one opera. I was 18 when I discovered opera. I went to see my first opera because of curiosity, and I saw “Parsifal”. I could see 3 meters of the stage and the pit and had a pain in the neck because it was a very bad seat. Maybe it was the most important moment of my life. Of course, there are some operas that are more difficult than the others.

You should never forget that opera was first created in Italy by composers who wanted to describe the widest range of ‘affetti’, emotions. Opera is about emotions. If you get those emotions, you are going to look to revive those emotions. If you liked that music or that voice, you want to listen to it more and more and perhaps go next month to experience again. This is the most important thing. Once you get the knowledge, maybe you can read a book, learn who were Mozart or Rossini. And then you will have access to another set of emotions that are intellectual. I would like to start from the beginning and not the goal – for me it’s about emotions and being simple. Therefore, if somebody wants to start with opera, I would recommend more operas that are simple and provoke strong emotions, like ‘La Boheme’ or ‘La Tosca’ – short and strong, that go straight to your heart.

Some people say you should bring children to the ‘Magic Flute’. ‘Magic Flute’ is a very wrong opera for children. They find it funny for about 20 – 30 minutes and then later it’s more complicated. It is a difficult opera, it’s trickier than people think, and it’s long. If you want to attract people do not start with the longest opera, although I started with “Parsifal” and did the opposite. I was completely open and thought maybe there was something interesting to discover.

If you are open, you can get it. The worst enemy of everything is when many people go to the performance or museum like judges. They want to decide who is good, bad or better. I hate these wars. We are not at the Olympic games and therefore, I don’t need to have somebody with a chronometer. I often don’t like the opening nights because there are too many judges. You should be more open and accept what the artists are going to deliver.

How can we change the stereotype of opera being for selected few and elitist and not for the mass audience?

It is very difficult to decide that you are going to change that. We have to be more simple, to speak warmly about that, and more on the emotional side than intellectual. I think the main question is to help people to be open, and not put too much discussion on the intellectual level. I have some colleagues, they say people need to take it seriously, study, know what it is about – it is like a religion. They put many obstacles, and I think this is a mistake. It’s better to have a very simple open approach. The tendency now is that many people when speaking about opera, want to show off and put themselves on the podium. I think this is completely wrong.

There have been concerns that people may get used to the free digital content of opera, ballet and concerts they have seen online thanks to many theatres streaming and broadcasting their performances during lockdown and may not be prepared to pay in the future. What is your view on this? Will this affect the revenue stream of performing arts institutions?

Maybe it will be more difficult. In this situation we have advantages and problems. The advantage is that in Vienna we had more than 200 000 new subscriptions. It is a very good way to have a link to the customers. Our system was a pay system since the beginning. We just stopped payments during the lockdown period. I strongly believe that we can come back to the normal system of payment because it’s not expensive. The monthly subscription is 15 euros. For that you can have 4-5 broadcasts. There are risks to revenue, and we have to face that.

More interesting is the way that we do broadcasts. I love opera and don’t like most of the TV broadcasts. When I was younger, the first great deception I had was the broadcast of ‘The Ring’ at Bayreuth. I had seen that production there and was looking forward to the broadcast, but I was so disappointed. I thought there was filter between the show and me, and the filter was the director of the broadcast. There are too many cuts and close ups, no global view, too many movements which are almost against the rhythm of the music.

For instance, I do not like those broadcasts where there are too many close ups and movements. I do not like when there is a duet, and you feel like you are at Wimbledon, turning your head constantly. I want to see the reaction of the second singer. When there is a ballet, you often see when there’s diagonal, they put the camera in front of the dancer which ruins the effect of the diagonal. They cut the arms because they are too close, and you see the sweat of the dancers. I do not like that. There are very interesting theories about the distance, and I think a little bit of distance is a very wise thing because opera has nothing to do with closeups in reality. It’s about magic, and you need to have this space.

Now you can watch broadcasts on big flat screens that did not exist 15 years ago. You can also use beamers and if you have very good image quality and not too many movements you re-create the situation in which you are sitting in the audience, so you can decide yourself which side you would like to watch.  In Vienna we send two versions: one cut and one full screen with no movement. One third of the customers choose the full view. A few years ago we made the first ever broadcast in 4k. With that definition there is no need for many movements because you see it so well, it gives the audience the freedom they have when they sit in the real theatre. They can watch what they want. They are not obliged by the director of the broadcast to look only to one side.

We are now hearing a lot of debates why in this crisis businesses need to be brought back, and healthcare needs attention, with the Arts and Culture being seen as secondary. What is your view on the value of Arts and Culture, and specifically opera and classical music? Why is it important for all of us today?

I think it is very important because it opens doors. If you give that to your child, he will have a happier and a much richer life. I’m not only interested in opera. I can equally enjoy a piano sonata. Each time you do that, it opens the world for somebody, it gives so many possibilities to learn new things. Opera is very interesting and precious because it is the link between different sources of arts (music, painting, staging, theatre). There is always this link between the opera and the evolution you have in society, and it is dialectic. You can use opera to learn more about your own society and vice versa – your own society and political situation can help you understand more about the opera.

I think opera is a very good companion. What I like is that it is very international. On my side you have people who come from every continent and every culture. I was travelling to see shows abroad and could meet people that I would not have known otherwise. When I go to Bayreuth, I feel at home, because I always see the same people, it is like a family. When I came to Vienna, my first friends were Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra because they came to me when I was in Paris. I like this international family, and this is not only about the people who work in this business, but also the people who like opera. When you go to see performances abroad you meet people and you will have a connection with them as they all have the same passion. You have a common language.

What is your favourite opera and why?

I have no favourite opera; it changes every minute. This morning I had no opera in my head, I had Schumann’s Fantasie for piano in C, Op.17. There are operas I would love to see today – like ‘The Valkyrie’, ‘Don Carlos’ or ‘Falstaff’. I probably have 200 favourite operas. If you have children, nobody will ask you which one is your favourite, and it is the same for me with operas.

Editor: Dina Ivanova

Originally from Latvia, spent 20 years in the UK. MBA graduate, obtained her Master in Arts Management at SDA Bocconi. Left the corporate world to follow her passion for Opera and the Arts, keen to share it with people of all ages through education.

Dina Ivanova

What program can we expect to see at Royal Opera House in the new season? First virtual reality immersive opera – what is it? Is it better to stick to classics or new works to bring new audiences? Why is approachability so important? What inspiration can opera theatres take from Peter Brook to survive the current crisis? Can streaming be a threat to a live performance? Why theatres are safer than pubs and bars?  These were some of the questions discussed with Oliver Mears, Opera Director at Royal Opera House in London, UK.

Before joining Royal Opera House in 2017 Oliver Mears was the Artistic Director at Northern Ireland Opera from the company’s foundation in 2010. His productions included Don Giovanni, Tosca (winner of the 2012 Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Opera), L’elisir d’amore, Der fliegende Holländer, Macbeth (with Welsh National Opera), Salome, Agrippina, Hansel and Gretel, The Turn of the Screw (with Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre, Moscow) and Noye’s Fludde (part of the London Cultural Olympiad). In 2004 Mr Mears co-founded London-based opera company Second Movement and directed numerous site-specific productions. He has also directed for other companies including the Young Vic, Aldeburgh Music, Opera North, Scottish Opera, Pimlico Opera, Nevill Holt Opera, Early Opera Company, Nederlandse Reisopera, Theatre Magdeburg, Bergen National Opera and National Opera Studio.

How has the Covid crisis affected programming at the Royal Opera House?

It has been a disaster for our program as it has been for most opera companies in the world. The problem of the orchestra and in particular of the chorus is very hard to see around until there is a vaccine. Certainly for the foreseeable future, at least until 2021 the one thing that we can’t envisage is having a full Verdi or Puccini sized orchestra with a chorus of 60-80 people on stage and a full audience. At the moment we are prioritising to get live audience back in the theatre with 40% capacity, which for us is 900 people. The problem is that since we have a live audience, we are not able to expand into the stalls with the orchestra as we did on the 4^th of September with the Gala evening. That means that we are very constrained in terms of the numbers of players that we can have in the orchestra pit. At the moment we have around 30 players who are suitably socially distanced in the pit. We still have not resolved the problem of chorus. In the concert situation when we can space them, we can put them into the boxes if we are only doing live streaming, but as soon as we have the audience, the orchestra shrinks and the chorus is not really possible to achieve.

What are your plans for the new season?

We are doing a mixture of work this coming autumn. We have this virtual reality opera, which I think is the first of its kind, in Linbury Theatre in December. It goes back to my own roots as an artistic director seeking out short pieces. They are in a programme called 4/4. We have 4 pieces by 4 very different composers, none of which are strictly speaking operas but all of them have small orchestras and 1 or 2 people on the stage and no chorus. It is also an opportunity for us to put the work on the stage that we never normally would do (“Phaedra” or “Frankenstein!!”) and work with directors that we are very close to like Richard Jones, Deborah Warner, for example. In some ways they had to go back to their own origins working on the Fringe.

Peter Brook wrote a book called “The Empty Space” where he talked about what theatre fundamentally is – one person on stage in front of the audience, and nothing else. That is what we are asking to think of in this sense, because of course we are very limited in terms of resource, we lost 3/5 to 4/5 of our income, pretty much overnight in March so we have to cut our cloth accordingly. I think that in the program that we chose (partly because Britten and Handel are particularly close to Covent Garden’s history) there is a real range of colours and contrasts which will engage an audience and potentially represent a way forward in future.

Looking back at pre-Covid era even though we never had the level of funding some of our colleagues have on the continent, I think there has been perception that opera has to have very elaborate sets and costumes, when actually the new era maybe will force us to think in terms of something that is a little more distilled and essential and that will probably last longer than the impact of the pandemic.

In addition to that, we are also doing concert performances of “Falstaff” by Verdi and “Ariodante” by Handel. “Ariodante” was the piece that was premiered at Covent Garden nearly 300 years ago and seems like a logical thing for us to do. We wanted to have a range of works from the beginning of our story in the 18^th century through to the boldest most progressive type of work like the virtual reality opera. That seems a good spread of works that adapts to the circumstances that we find ourselves in. Amongst those we have a concert from Antonio Pappano who is one of the leading Verdi conductors in the world. For him to tackle “Falstaff” is logical and it doesn’t require a huge chorus. We can just about fit the chorus for “Falstaff” on our stage and also the orchestra isn’t too big, so we can get those in.

In early 2021 we are trying to predict as best we can what the circumstances are going to be like and probably in the first couple of months of the year prioritise those operas that can be realised either without chorus (for example, chamber operas) or works that could potentially work with chorus off stage. In Zurich they pursued with the chorus and the orchestra being in different spaces and then piped in. That requires a huge financial investment to get that kind of the quality and even then not everyone is delighted with that approach and prefer the orchestra and the chorus to be inside the auditorium. We have to be open minded to the solutions like that. It sounds like a great success what they could manage in Zurich. I think we wouldn’t go as far as to have an orchestra in another space, because the impact in terms of communication is very direct.

We have to be agile, imaginative and open-minded to keep the show on the road. Without extreme mitigations in terms of testing, for example, at the moment it is hard to see how one would do the very large-scale pieces. We have seen even in the last couple of weeks productions being cancelled if one person gets Covid from the chorus. As circumstances change, you are at a very high risk. This is also one of the reasons why we were so keen on this 4/4 program because they are very resilient. Even though you are now allowed to have choruses, because we are live streaming them as well, we can still present them even if we can’t have the audience.

Some theatres are approaching this from the point of view of leaving the theatre, for example, my colleagues at English National Opera are doing the drive-in operas – “La Boheme” in a car park.

For us we always wanted to maximise the building that we have which is one of the most beautiful theatres in the world. It is a portal to transport you to another place. We have a streaming capability as well and can reach a global audience. It doesn’t make sense for us to go to a different space because we can make things here very beautifully at a very high standard.

What is the hyper reality virtual reality opera you are planning to show this season?

It is a real departure for us because we have been looking into the potential of virtual and augmented reality and we got a fantastic team, which is all female. We got a composer, a writer, a very well-established opera director Netia Jones and asked them to approach this with a blank sheet of paper and see what an immersive virtual reality opera could look like. I think it will be really interesting as it will blend several genres (cinema, live performance, installations) and it will be something that no one has ever seen at the Royal Opera House before. A lot of people all over the world are looking at how we can deal with the pandemic and nobody really knows how long this is going to go for. Everyone is assuming that the vaccine will come to the rescue next year but we don’t know that. If that’s not the case, we have to be as bold as we can be in imagining alternatives.  Virtual reality seems like a possible way forward or blueprint for the future.

Over the last few years ROH has done a lot about inclusivity and openness. In your opinion, how can opera be made more accessible and interesting for a wider audience who have never been to the opera before?

If we take the UK, it has very unique circumstances and history in relation to opera. There has never been a particularly strong indigenous opera tradition. Certainly between the times of Purcell, at a stretch Handel and Britten, there were really known operas of a world class standard in the UK in that time, the best part of 200 years. That is one problem. It’s always entailed high ticket prices and because we have this strong class system, opera has always been associated with the class system. That has meant that institutions like ours have unfortunately always been associated with elitism in the worst sense of that world. We don’t like elitism, but we are unapologetic about standards here being elite. It’s important that we hang on to that and somehow we communicate what the essence of the opera is which is extraordinary artists, highly trained and breath taking when everything goes well on the night of the live performance performing the great masterpieces of the last 300-400 years. These experiences must be open to everyone.

I think the biggest challenge for us is perception and the Royal Opera House (and the clues in the name) does suffer from people’s first impression being very elitist. There are also a lot of misconceptions about what going to the opera is like. For example, we did a focus group when we asked people who would go to the theatre, galleries and cinema but had never been to the opera before why they hadn’t. They thought they had to wear black tie to go to the opera, they would not understand the words, they didn’t know about subtitles, for example, and they thought there was an elaborate etiquette to go to the opera. Our building is so beautiful, but it can also be intimidating.

We need to communicate that opera is something you can go to see and enjoy, and it doesn’t have to be so expensive. We have a range of tickets that are under £50 (an affordable experience) and no more expensive than a football match or a musical theatre experience, but somehow that message isn’t coming across enough. Once people cross the threshold and they see their first “Carmen” or “Tosca” they are normally enthralled by that.

The one thing that is quite interesting for us is that there is an assumption about new work bringing new audience, and all our research contradicts that. People who come to the opera for the first time, almost always want to see “Carmen”, “Tosca” or “Traviata”, where they know the tunes. Those are the ‘gateway’ operas and the new works tend to be favoured by opera aficionados. The more risks we take with our repertoire or the way we present work the less appealing that tends to be for the newcomers despite what you might think.

I think in some ways it is about being proud about those core repertoire titles and present them in a fresher way as we possibly can that does speak to contemporary sensibilities. The key is how we present ourselves in a way that is open and how we make the experience as open as possible, even right down to how our staff greet people when they come into the building, what kind of food and drink do we offer so that opera is not just associated with luxury branding which it always is.

Approachability is key and that is why we do have a great strength. Antonio Pappano is extremely approachable, he can communicate really well, and is not this aloof Olympian figure as many conductors are. He is someone who will stop and talk to you in the corridor and that comes across in the media.

For somebody who has never been to the opera and is a complete novice, what opera would you recommend?

“La Boheme”, “Tosca”, “Madame Butterfly” are perfect introductions to opera. The operas of Puccini are classical opera works, they are gripping, not too long, they have great characters, great music and tunes. Those would be the ones I would have chosen. My favourite opera is “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”, very accessible and direct in its own way but maybe not for everyone. That was the first opera I really loved. I can also recommend Janacek because they are theatre pieces and they are very short. They would be a perfect introduction for people who are coming at it from the love of theatre.

From your experience, what educational initiatives and projects work really well?

In my personal experience it is things that involve participation, getting children to get involved with the experience of making and performing opera, in particular the work that is very well known in the UK, “Noye’s Fludde” by Benjamin Britten which involves children making props, costumes and singing and playing. The more we can go to schools and get people involved in singing, creating their own version of “Carmen” or “The Magic Flute”, the better. Those are the projects that seem to really work. Somehow if you can change people’s perceptions when they are still young, then they are more likely to go see an opera when they are a bit older. A lot of people in their 20’s are too busy partying to go and see an opera, but what you really want is for people in their 30’s and 40’s to have a good memory of the times when ROH came into their school and worked with them on opera. Then they would be more open-minded to it. Those experiences can be very transformative.

What is your view on streaming? Can it be somewhat of a threat to a live performance or not?

It’s very early days to be able to tell. When this first kicked off, there was a huge amount of appetite for the free content that we were putting out there. As the year progressed it became clear that it wasn’t financially sustainable even though each performance we did attracted donations. Also artists felt that by streaming works for free it was not really valuing what they do. We moved to pay-per-view model which is very inexpensive. The income from pay-per-view streaming isn’t equal to one live performance, and it is live performance that brings in the income for us. It’s the largest single sourse of income for us and that makes us very different to our European competitors in Germany and France, in particular.

As the year has gone on, I am feeling a huge hunger for live content, people want to be in the theatre. We don’t know the extent to which people will be nervous about coming in until there’s a vaccine, but I do think that people are going to want to come back to the theatre. While there will be people who won’t what we have to prioritise now is get back on our feet in the theatre using live streaming and pay-per-view as a compliment to that but I don’t think it will ever replace the live experience. The electricity of being in the theatre, it’s a communal experience and that’s why it’s so primal and that’s why it connects to Greek tragedy and what that experience was like. I don’t think the screen can ever replace that.

The one thing we as theatres are not doing enough of is pushing the idea that theatre can be very controlled and safe spaces. I’m talking about temperature checks coming in, mask wearing, no intervals, testing the performers. Theatres are much safer environments than pubs, bars and restaurants, and if pubs, bars and restaurants can be open, I see no reason why a theatre can’t if the mitigations are in place. I think we need to be louder about making that case.

What changes are needed for opera theatres to survive the crisis that has affected performing arts industry worldwide?

It depends on which country the theatre is in and what the funding model is. Theatres in Germany are more or less insulated against total collapse. In general, on the continent the theatres will be protected by the state to a greater extent than they are certainly in the US. Peter Gelb has made a very difficult decision to close the Metropolitan Opera till autumn next year, and it makes sense for him and his theatre. I am sure he is doing the right thing from that perspective.

For us we would like to do as much as we can within the financial circumstances we find ourselves in to try and make sure that everything we do even if it doesn’t bring huge revenue at least pays for itself, and we keep offering the opportunities to freelancers so that the company keeps producing work of whatever scale  and hope for better times when we can re-open. That is all we can do. What we can’t do is immediately go back to full scale performances which is in some ways irresponsible. We can’t go through the cycle of trying to open and then cancel the shows. That’s not what we want to do, nor do we want to be dark for a year, so somewhere in the middle between those two extremes.

Editor:

Originally from Latvia, spent 20 years in the UK. MBA graduate, obtained her Master in Arts Management at SDA Bocconi. Left the corporate world to follow her passion for Opera and the Arts, keen to share it with people of all ages through education.

Dina Ivanova

What makes Festival Verdi so unique and special and how has the festival been different this year? How can the opera theatre attract children through educational initiatives? What innovations are needed in theatre management today? How can the theatre work with local businesses? Netflix inspired opera series and video games – myth or reality? Barbara Minghetti, the Curator of Festival Verdi OFF and the Artistic Director of Macerata Opera Festival, Programming and Special Projects Director at Teatro Sociale di Como shares her thoughts.

Barbara Minghetti is a big believer in innovative approaches to make the opera more accessible and appealing for a wider audience. Her award winning educational and outreach projects e.g. Verdi OFF, Opera Domani, Opera Education, Opera Kids, Pocket Opera, 200.com are aimed at bringing people of all ages to opera through participation and education. Ms Minghetti was awarded the State knighthood by Italian President while working for As.Li.Co. (Associazione Lirica Concertistica Italiana) as a President. Barbara Minghetti is teaching at the University of Parma and is a board member of Opera Europa, International association of opera professionals, featuring members from 43 countries.

Ms Minghetti, you have been involved with Festival Verdi for a long time. In your view, what makes this festival so unique and special?

First, it is the idea of maintaining a very high quality. The festival wants to be known all over the world, so we need to have a very high artistic quality to attract people from very far away. The festival is very lucky as it has a good name being based in the country of Verdi. We have Villa Verdi in Sant’Agata, and Busseto, where we also take the festival. People want to come here to feel this atmosphere, understand where Verdi lived and worked, and what was his world. Parma is also well known for its food. People can come to spend a good time here, travel around and see something of very high quality in the evening.

In the last years the festival has a different perception. One is to do something on a good scientific level with a philological idea, ‘studi Verdiani’, and critic edition. Then there is also something about tradition and innovation, to make you surprised, which happens both inside and outside the theatre.

We did “Stifelio” in Farnese, which was a big shock, because on one hand, it was an opera that was not well known and not produced very often, and on the other hand, we did it in a very strange way in a space that was not a theatre anymore, and we explored that space differently. People were walking around; it was a very immersive experience. We would like to keep these two elements.

There is also integration of different arts. We will have a famous actor who will be speaking about letters of Verdi, with music. We are also doing some things for children.

Then we integrated the little festival called Verdi OFF. The idea of the festival is linked to the complexity of our world. We need to do something beautiful on a high level, for people who represent loyal opera audience, but we can also do something less scientific, easier to attend for people who want to be inside the festival but with something light, for example, concerts, or a mix with prose. We also have something that is free. Some people may hear about the opera and maybe later would like to come inside the theatre. We are also going to the prisons, hospitals, and old people. We think our duty as a festival is also to talk about all these things.

There is something for the city with the economic idea of the festival. All the money that you spend, you can give back to the city’s economy. Parma has grown a lot in the last 6 years. We had a lot of tourists. People from every part of the world were coming here for the festival. They stay 3-4 days, eat, sleep, go around, and buy presents. This is also important. It is a duty of the theatre to be inside the city and to find economic equilibrium to work together. For example, this year we are working with restaurants, because we need something from each other. Our public needs to eat, and the restaurants need clients. As a festival, we have to meet various needs.

This year it is the 20^th Festival, so the festival has been going on for 20 years. How has Covid crisis affected the festival and how is this year’s festival different to previous years?

We can see a big difference. The plan was to have 4 opera productions and a lot of other activities, but instead we have 2 operas in a concert form, not full productions (“Macbeth” and “Ernani”). We changed completely and had to take productions outside to Parco Ducale. We have two other concerts, so this changed the numbers a lot.

Since it is not a full opera production, but opera in a concert form, it’s really different. We also changed the dates, because normally we start later. This year in fact we decided to go outdoors to overcome the capacity limits imposed by the governmental decrees. We then came back inside the Teatro Regio for “Ernani” (on Sept. 25th) because weather conditions had changed in the meantime. By that time, the Teatro Regio was equipped with special transparent polycarbonate separators, in order to prevent the transmission of the viruses contained in the aerosol particles. Thanks to them, our internal capacity was enhanced from 200 seats to 600 seats, and consequently so was our security.

This changes the idea of the festival and it also changes the public. Our audience consists only of local people nowadays. In summer I did Macerata Opera Festival and we also had mainly local people.

Sometimes I think it is not so bad to care again about your public, but of course, this changes a lot of things. The tickets at high prices are included in a package for international visitors. To sell those separately is harder. With Covid people are worried to stay inside. There is still a lot of fear in Parma. On 25^th September was the first time when people went inside the theatre to see “Ernani”, all the other events were done outside. This was the first time we came back inside the theatre after 7 months of closure. It is a different production because we have to adhere to the social distancing rules. After a while you find the way, but there is something inside you that tells you that what is going on is not the same as before. Life is different.

It was very important for us to do the festival, for the people who work in the theatre and in the arts, and for the public and the town, to say that the life needs to go ahead, of course, in line with the regulations. People who work in the theatre need to understand that we are not on the island but are living in the world that is really changing and therefore, the approach needs to be changed. The needs of the people are different. They need art and some experience of art to be together with other people.

Now we need to ask – what is the real objective of our theatre and perhaps we can speak about different kind of artistic programming. In the last years we were focusing too much on the idea of a fixed season. I feel that culture is something wider. It needs a different perspective and approach. Perhaps you can do “Turandot” very well but then there is something before and after, that makes sense to see “Turandot”. I think that the theatre needs to think in a different and more open way to understand that this is a house that you can open, it needs to be open, but you also need to go outside and think of something different.

It should not be only old opera, we need some contemporary art, and more mix. I think Covid now has given us this opportunity. You cannot do “La Boheme” (it has so many people on the stage, etc). I hope that people will not decide to produce “La Boheme” with a little orchestra and a reduced cast, but perhaps show a story of a little girl, in a different way and format, possibly with a different timing. Maybe you would have to go to the theatre at midnight? I want to talk about this.

Speaking about Verdi Festival, what do you think are the biggest challenges for the festival now, considering all the situation the industry is in with the crisis?

One is the idea of the theatre and the work that is done all over the year, that we have just spoken about. The festival is something closed, shorter, so we need to find this idea. We need to bring more people inside the theatre, otherwise there is no economic sense to do it. With the festival we need to come back to less restrictions because we need to have full staging and scenography. We need the opera, and we need people coming from the outside.

What is the impact of travel restrictions?

It is a very big impact. The city wants to have people from outside for the economic value, but also for the production. For example, this year we had two singers who could not come, so we had to change the artists. With travel restrictions we have an issue both with the audience coming in, and the artists.

The opera world is very international. Artists are international, and it has always been this way from the times of Mozart and Verdi. You cannot stop this, as otherwise you will be very weak. For this we need to have the world to be open to travel. If this is still going to be like this for a long time, we will have to think about other ideas. 

How do you think opera can be made more accessible to a wider audience in general?

Everyone in the opera sector really needs to think and open the mind. I hope that artists can be the driving force behind the change. I hope that government and people who make decisions, will listen to the artists, because we really need to change the idea of our theatre for the opera.

Art in Italy is still so much fixed on the past not speaking about the future and contemporary. This is a big pity. Maybe now is the situation when we can really speak about the contemporary. With Covid we understand that it is probably better to have something shorter. You cannot stay for a long time in the same place, have the intermission, so perhaps you really need to think about something different.

I really would like to produce an opera which is like Netflix, you go to the theatre once a week to see the episode, and then you want to come back because you would like to see what is going on, a bit like opera series but inside the theatre. We could mix different genres (opera, ballet, drama). We need to change the format and be in touch with younger and wider audience. We need the artists to help with this, it should not only come from management and artistic direction. The artists need to understand how to live this moment and how to change. I am sure this is an opportunity.

I know you are very passionate about educational projects. From your experience, what educational projects work best to attract new audiences across different age groups?

In the last 20 years what has worked well to attract new people is this idea of inclusion and people taking part. For example, in one project that I did, people had to sing and do something together. We did “Opera Crime” experience based on “Rigoletto” at Teatro Sociale di Como. It focused on the idea of experiencing something together using gaming elements. People want to be involved. Sometimes theatres always program “La Boheme” because they know the box office will have the result. With the “Opera Crime” you don’t know how people will react. You have to take a risk. This is a problem. We need to take more risks to try something new that will work well or maybe not.

For educational projects the problem is that now you cannot go in the class and the class can’t go out. During lockdown we worked a lot with streaming and tutorials for teachers. With Covid now digital world is also creating opportunities, you can invite somebody from Switzerland, for example, and have many teachers attending the event remotely. Before I had to take one person and bring him to Como for a small audience. I want to keep the digital projects going. You can have more quality and reach more people.

Then we did the video that was inside the house – “Rigoletto Opera Domani Home”. The last day after “Opera Crime” we did one performance of “Rigoletto” for children in the theatre that was already closed and made a film out of this, in a participative way. There are some drawings and instructions for kids inside the film. You can see this at home, preparing some objects, and props beforehand.

Opera Europa put it on their platform and more than 30 000 people saw this “Rigoletto” in 5 languages. It was very exciting. I would like to continue working with such projects. I do not like streaming, but this is something different, because for example if we produce opera for children, we cannot go everywhere. If there is a little town with no theatre and no opportunity, it is better to do streaming than nothing. We are not doing an opera on TV. We are doing a specific project filmed in a different way. We are working on this to prepare the children for streaming, then see this video, using the platform ‘Opera education on demand’. The idea is that if you are a teacher from Naples or Sardinia, you go on this platform, and like on Amazon, buy libretto, music, teaching materials for “Rigoletto” and work at school with this.

I know that you had programs for babies and mothers. Would you like to continue that initiative once the restrictions are lifted? Yes, we also did one session online with expecting mothers over Zoom. It was very emotional. From next month we are doing again these programs with people inside the theatre for pregnant women, babies and little children. With a few people it is easier – we can manage 20 people with babies. The problem is the big projects. For example, the Rigoletto project involves 40 people. We need to have the public, otherwise, there is no economic balance.

What do you think needs to be changed in opera theatre management to remain financially sustainable on one side and on the other side, relevant to the audience?

People need to believe that culture is an essential part of our lives and this is what brings people together. After this period you can see the trauma that Covid has had on people, life has really changed. Culture is needed now more than ever. I hope people will understand that it is really a need, and not something for fun, it is very important for our community. You can see in Italy a big ignorance and aggression now. This is because there is no more culture, no more sensibility.

Theatre management is not only about good economy, management and sustainability, we need the heart and human feeling too. We cannot forget the art which should be at the very heart of the theatre. In the last 20 years we see that all the theatres are run in the same way, with the same idea of the season. Then there is no more art and no more change.

You have to keep the balance, keeping the numbers right, but also the heart and soul of art. Sometimes you need to fight for this. Now in Italy the Sovritendente is responsible for both the managerial and the artistic side. If you are just focusing on the numbers, you will do only the things that are useful. You will do a lot of “Traviata” because there’s no risk. You do not change the form and the idea of the theatre.

What skills and competences are already missing in the theatres and will be in demand?

The theatre needs more people who want to be more experimental, to try something different and to change. The theatre needs the table where you can have an open dialogue and share a lot of different views to try to change. It is important to involve people from educational, marketing, artistic, managerial sides and a full team to speak about this so that people can all share their ideas from different angles.

Recently in Rome we spoke about the table of thought, a round table on what could be the theatre of the future. We only did “Traviata” in the past, for example. Now the theatre cannot do it anymore in the same way. We have to find something else. Now everyone will have to listen to various ideas. Before there was very little budget for this. We also talked about children. Children will be the driving force of the society. I hope that more money will be invested in these initiatives.

The topic of finding alternative revenue streams has become more relevant than ever. Could you please share some more details about the co-operation with the industry that Teatro Regio is doing?

We propose a lot of courses for the industry, for example, training workshops in leadership, motivation, teamwork. They can come here to have their meetings, or we can go to them to do some training.

Together with the Region we also started the educational course in Costume Design for the professionals in the creative industries. It is an important opportunity to give work and teach about costume design. This area is very specific. Opera costume, for example, needs to be strong, suitable for different sites, respond in a different way to the light, to be cleaned. All these factors have to be considered.

This is something we are losing because it is something very artisanal. The idea to do this course for the Region was very important. In Parma there is a very big tradition of costume making for the theatre. We have a big laboratory where we realise the scenography. It is our expertise and heritage. We need to maintain it and share with other people.

Teatro Regio has made a video game about Verdi called “A life in music”. What was the idea behind it?

This was linked to the international dimension of the festival. The idea was to play with the history of Verdi for people from outside to learn more about him and his life. The game was produced with a high quality and was translated into different languages. It was released more than a year ago and is free to download. The game mentions Teatro Regio so it gives us the opportunity to speak about the theatre, to share the feeling and the sound of opera, and to engage people from other countries. It is not easy to be commercial and have a good content. It is very well done, it could not become something viral, because it is a bit too difficult. The game is for people who know Verdi and are already a little bit involved.

If you had to choose one, what opera would you choose and why?

At this moment I would say “Macbeth”. I worked on it in the last year in Macerata and Parma. I find this music incredible and I can really feel the beauty. This is very strange, but I was not always a fan of Verdi. I preferred Puccini or perhaps Strauss. I became more involved with Verdi when I stayed here. Now I can say that I converted. I love “Macbeth”, and then of course, “Traviata”. I still listen to it very often.

Editor:

Originally from Latvia, spent 20 years in the UK. MBA graduate, obtained her Master in Arts Management at SDA Bocconi. Left the corporate world to follow her passion for Opera and the Arts, keen to share it with people of all ages through education.