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.

Do US-American Opera Houses operate more efficiently than German ones? Mounir Mahmalat, who studied at the Northeastern University in Boston, USA, as well as in Dusseldorf, Germany, investigated on the basis of twelve opera houses in both countries, if German institutions might take an example on US-American performing arts organizations who are said to operate in a more entrepreneurial manner. You can read this case study exclusively in our latest issue of the Arts Management Newsletter, the bi-mohthly magazine for the global perspective on arts and business.

Furthermore we can provide inside views with two totally different interviews. Our correspondent Kira Potowski met Koh Won-seok, an art curator in Seoul, who actually work for the new Arko Art Center in the capitol of South Korea. He takes our attention to a number of smaller Asian countries with art markets, which grow along the economic boom. Nikos Tsouchlos, the artistic adviser of the most important concert hall in Greece, underlines the current situation and role of the arts in a country, which suffer massively from the continuing economic and financial crunch. But Tsouchlos describes in the interview with Sven Scherz-Schade, how new practices can flourish and the roles of sociability and sharing are being re-examined.