OperaVision so far

Opera Europa has a new streaming platform, OperaVision. Replacing The Opera Platform, this new site offers enriched content drawn from a more diverse partnership; the number of theatre partners has doubled to 30, and 60% of partners are new. The content aims to be more varied (full-length and short-form), inclusive (musical theatre in many forms) and regular (an average of two new streams per month). After four months of intense work on construction, the Opera Europa team unveiled OperaVision on 12 October in Parma – and some of you are in the photo below witnessing the launch.

So what’s new? The structure of OperaVision reflects our ambitions for the new platform. We have offerings both for the first time visitor, such as New to Opera?, as well as Articles and other items for the opera expert. Our Stories are a unique in-depth look at concepts and narratives in the world of opera. Opera Academy is home to conversations with artists about their careers as well as masterclasses with established artists. And we do not forget Young audiences, a section which will see significant expansion in 2018. 

The launch programme in the period up until the end of 2017 marks the transition between our old and new platforms – a ‘soft launch’, according to the jargon. We have inherited some fine productions streamed live between July and September such as Madama Butterfly from Teatro Real Madrid and Autumn Sonata from Finnish National Opera. New titles include the utterly compelling Pelléas et Mélisande from Komische Oper Berlin and Opera North’s equally gripping saga – none other than Wagner’s Ring, streamed in instalments up until Christmas.

Echoing the initiative of our principal funder the European Union, we will celebrate the European Year of Cultural Heritage in 2018. The programme overleaf gives a foretaste of that; even within the first two months of our online season, we show two operas divided by four centuries of operatic heritage: Claudio Monteverdi’s Orfeo and Donnacha Dennehy’s The Second Violinist.

And the audiences? As our advertising campaign on the back cover stresses, you can follow OperaVision just about anywhere – in your living room at home or even your desk at work. So what do we know about you? The early indications for the first six weeks (12 October to 24 November) indicate simply that you are numerous. The viewing statistics reveal over 9,400 views of Pelléas et Mélisande, 298,895 minutes of content already viewed and 1,045 subscribers to our new YouTube channel.

No log in, no subscription, no payment, no ticket but it’s nice to know you are watching.