Articles

Among those responsible for bringing these new awards, "The Operas", to life were John Allison, editor of the renowned "Opera" magazine and British businessman Harry Hyman, Managing Director of the worldwide Nexus Group. Hyman is also a knowledgeable and passionate opera fan: "Opera hides its light all too often under a bushel, so we hope our awards will help bring the genre to a wider audience." Hyman also works hard helping to support young talented artitsts and encouraging people and companies to sponsor the arts in general. In November John Allison announced in Opera Magazine that he would welcome nominations for the awards. They received more than 1.500 replies from music specialists and opera lovers from 41 countries. Short lists were drawn up in 23 categories by a jury chaired by John Allison. Members of the jury included journalists Hugh Canning, Rupert Christiansen and Andrew Clements, soprano (and Bayreuth Brünnhilde) Dame Anne Evans, intendants Peter Alward (Salzburg Easter Festival), David Gockley (San Francisco Opera), Joan Matabosch (the Liceu in Barcelona) and Guus Mostart (Reisopera Enschede) and the Director of Opera Europa, Nicholas Payne. They were joined in the final round by Kathryn Harries, Director of the National Opera Studio in London, and the writer Barry Millington. 

Vienna, May 16-17

 

Theatre, evolving from the earliest dawn of man as an expression of the inner self, is one of the oldest cultural and social institutions in our human history.  Theatre is a reflection of the society it serves, acting as critic, teacher, compatriot, clown and cohort. Despite the abundance of other media channels, theatre remains the very heart of the human condition. And yet, theatres are also a deeply invested effort from far more people than the performers on stage.  Theatres are the collective effort of personnel, strategies, technology, logistics and plain hard work. The theatre as a business unit is crucial to the theatre as a cultural institution. 

 

As the 21st century begins to unfold, it is ushering in a new era. A new vision of Theatre is emerging and taking shape on the stage, and also behind the curtains, at desks, on computer screens, and in the media. It enjoys an expansion of international collaboration and is affected by, and feeds off the development of global tourism. 

When taking over as artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company (STC), a not-for-profit organisation, in 2008, Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton committed to plan and put into practice large-scale environmental measures for the theatre. Thus, the sustainability approach of the STC, that had comprised social and economic measures, was to be completed.

In 2012/13, the Bavarian State Opera will be the first international opera house to present, with STAATSOPER.TV, a season with live streams online free of charge.

 

Opera and ballet lovers from all over the world will be able to enjoy a total of seven opera performances and two ballet evenings in full and live online from Munich. The first of these will be the audiovisual transmission on 3 November 2012 of Jörg Widmann's new opera Babylon (musical director: K. Nagano, stage production: Carlus Padrissa - La Fura dels Baus; with C. McFadden, A. Prohaska, W. White, G. Schnaut). 



From intimate children's theatre, to abstract dance performed against a bare mountain backdrop - by way of cutting-edge immersive theatre - Made in Scotland is a programme which finds the best Scottish theatre and dance, shows it off at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and then helps it to travel the world.

The Made in Scotland programme is a neat solution to twin problems at the Fringe. It allows international bookers to find quality touring material in the sprawling event, while it gives Scottish theatre and dance companies a place to be seen. Jointly, the Federation of Scottish Theatre, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society and Creative Scotland have successfully developed Made in Scotland as an annual project since 2009. 

A curated strand of the Fringe, supported by the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund, the showcase is put together by a international panel of theatre and dance experts - under the impartial chairmanship of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society's chief executive.



Amsterdam, March 12th. The epic opera, Aida, has been up for sale on eBay since yesterday, including all of its magnificent set pieces, stage props and hundreds of unique costumes, for a cast of 500 performers. Peter Kroone, who has produced countless large scale 360° opera productions and is the owner of Companions Opera Amsterdam, is retiring from the industry. Peter Kroone has produced a considerable number of large-scale operas around the world. A few examples include: Rotterdam (where it all started), Paris, Munich, Shanghai & Zurich. Many of these operas sold out, selling more than 1 million tickets. Peter Kroone was unable to find a successor for his productions within his own network. He is therefore offering all his unique productions for indoor arenas and stadiums for sale. "It pains me greatly to leave the industry, but productions like Aida cannot be produced in a year. Productions at this level require a 3 to 5 year commitment, which I am no longer able to give. The time has come for me to do other things in life. My successor must be an opera lover like I am, or an entertainment entrepreneur who sees this product as an opportunity to expand into new territories and markets. I have not yet found a successor, but the world out there is big and who knows.... Maybe there is someone out there like me, who wants to bring opera to a broader audience. This is why I have chosen to announce my retirement and the sale of my productions on eBay. It would be a shame if the productions disappeared."

"Performing Arts Management Today" is the professional conference open to arts managers, arts administrators, arts management educators and consultants, arts entrepreneurs, fundraisers,  producers, arts agents and talent managers working in various artistic disciplines from all over the world interested in the research of topical questions and processes in contemporary performing arts administration and training.

 

The conference meeting is a great opportunity to  meet potential collaborators and partners - performers from different creative genres and techniques, actors, dancers, directors, choreographers, musicians; casting directors,  artists, authors, theatre managers, festival organizers and arts publishers from different countries.

The main tasks of the conference are to gain important insights into today's best management strategies for arts and cultural organizations of various sizes and scale, to consider relevant questions in contemporary arts management education and training, to establish new contacts, to exchange experiences with colleagues from different countries and to lay the foundation for future networking and collaboration.

The acoustic environment is paramount in any space that houses dramatic performance. Thornton Wilder said, “the unencumbered stage encourages the truth operative in everyone. The less seen, the more heard.” A new book published through the Acoustical Society of America takes an inside look at the acoustical design of 130 drama theatres from around the world.

 

Acoustical Design of Theatres for Drama Performance: 1985 – 2010, edited by Professors David T. Bradley, Erica E. Ryherd, and Michelle C. Vigeant, is a compilation of drama theatres that have been designed during this 25-year period. Top acoustical consulting firms from around the world contributed examples of their work, including images, acoustical data, and descriptions of the theatres.

For the last five years, the number has tripled of the medium-sized theaters (i.e. theaters with 500 – 1,000 seats each) that represent themselves as producing theater , and are operated by government or municipal agencies. Accordingly, their importance has increased as well in the Korean performing arts community. 

 

Representative examples of the theaters are the Main Hall of the Arko Arts Theater (608 seats), the Towol Theater of the Seoul Arts Center (671 seats), the M Theater of the Sejong Center (639 seats), the Theater Yong of the National Museum of Korea (862 seats), the Chongdong Theater (400 seats), the Dongsoong Hall of the Dongsoong Art Center (450 seats), and the Yonkang Hall of the Doosan Art Center (620 seats). 

Jim Volz is one of America’s leading theatre consultants with over three decades of work with theatre, dance, music, museum and arts centre management. Now, Jim Volz brings his expertise to anyone who works in arts management, from novices to middle managers to executive directors. How to Run a Theatre is a unique, dynamic, and savvy guide to building an arts institution that works. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience, here is practical advice on a variety of management skills:

 

• Financial Management

• Personnel Management

• Fundraising Development

• Board of Trustees Communications

• Marketing & Audience Development.