THE BEGINNING OF THE PROJECT “OPERA: PAST, PRESENT, PERFECT! “
The international project “Opera: Past, Present, Perfect!” has started within the Creati ve Europe-Culture: European cooperati on projects 2020. The realization of the project will last from September 1, 2020, to February 1, 2023. In addition to the MOTO - Music, Opera and Theater Organization, which is the project leader, the project partners are Nieuw Geneco from Amsterdam (Netherlands), Young Musician Internati onal Association of Georgia from Tbilisi (Georgia), University of Donja Gorica in Podgorica (Montenegro) and Madlenianum in Belgrade (Serbia). The main scope of this action is to connect and educate young professionals with a view to establish a cross-sectoral, cross-nati onal and intergenerational dialogue (between young professionals - mentors), collaboration and expertise exchange to (re)position opera as interdisciplinary and authentic European art form
.More specifically, the aim is Re/thinking the context of the Opera and its relevance within the contemporary world, with the activiti es directed at the capacity building - training, education and improving the competency of end-users and beneficiaries, using the advantages of up-to-date technologies in advertising and production (social networking, applications, and digital scenography) and synergy of intergeneration dialogue. One of the facts about Opera position today is that formal educational centers very often do not consider the fact that Opera is truly interdisciplinary art, where each and every segment is equally important. Boundaries between art forms have blurred even more, and with the use of new technologies, including the incorporation of film or real-time video and digital electronics into the work, with the vision of young artist of new generation a new sense of opera can be found. The project will be implemented not only in capital cities and culture centers of participati ng countries, but also in smaller municipalities and rural areas, with an attempt to demystify opera and classical music as “elitist”.
Such an approach is based on previous experiences and will be built on lessons learned from numerous projects implemented by all participati ng organizations on local, regional, and national level. The specific goals are: to create a strong network of young professionals involved in the process of creating opera productions - vocal artists, instrumentalists - orchestra members, accompanists, visual art students, theater directors, composers, and scenarists - within two summer schools, in Serbia and Georgia, giving them the opportunity to study with leading authorities from different art fields (vocal pedagogues, conductors, composers, directors, visual artists..), and to help them in their search for a new, contemporary context of Opera as such. The project will announce open calls for artists, to participate in the creation of new productions, then an open call for new opera pieces, as well as an open-source platform, to help further networking of cultural actors.