Co-creating opera: presenting the learning of the Traction project

We’re glad to inform you that next Monday, 27 February at 15:00 (CET), the presentation of 'Co-creating Opera', will take place at the Gran Teatre del Liceu. Attendees will be able to connect to this event online to follow the presentation. The book and accompanying website (www.co-art.eu), which have just been published mark the end of the Traction project, and aim to share learnings from three exploratory operas co-created with communities in Barcelona, Portugal, and Ireland.
This guide is not intended to be a dogma of what to do, but to suggest, propose, or make known, based on our experience, what we consider important when starting a project with a community spirit.
The session will last one hour and will consists of the following:
· Introduction by Valentí Oviedo, General Director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu
· Intervention by Mikel Zorrilla, Traction Project Leader and representative of the technological partner Vicomtech.
· Online intervention by François Matarasso, world expert in community artistic processes and Social and Artistic Coordinator of the Traction project.
· Intervention by Irene Calvís, representative of the Liceu within the Traction project and Head of the LiceuApropa social programme.
· Intervention of Quimsaina Powers-Fernández, singer from the La gata perduda choir.
· Question and answer session with the connected attendees.
· Performance by 6 members of the La gata perduda choir.
Traction (2020-23) was an EU funded research project that focused on how opera can become more socially inclusive and connected to diverse communities. Co-creation-which we define as the result of professional and non-professional artists working together on an equal basis-was at the heart of the project. Innovative digital technology was also used both to support that process and in the performances.
The results-completely new operas staged in Barcelona, Leiria and Lisbon, as well as the world’s first VR community opera in Ireland-have exceeded our expectations, socially and artistically. The book and website offer pathways for others to explore, not only in opera but across the performing arts and more widely. Opera is an extraordinary art that has thrived through constant renewal. We see co-creation as another step in that process.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to know more about the project, the co-creation process, or the operas themselves.