The Opera and Music Theatre Forum held its 2009 conference at English National Opera on Thursday 26 November. Director of Hatstand Opera and OMTF board member Kirsty Young reports.
Just in case you haven't heard of us, the Opera and Music Theatre Forum (OMTF) is the representative body for opera and music theatre in the UK. Our members form a network of companies working to create an environment in which opera and music theatre can flourish. Membership of OMTF is open to professional opera and music theatre companies, educational organisations, promoters, festivals and individuals.
Our 2009 conference explored topics arising from the first stage of our research into small to mid-scale opera and music theatre, the most comprehensive survey of its type even undertaken. Over seventy members and guests joined us in the ENO Sky Bar for a day that was informative, enlightening, and considering the current economic climate, encouragingly upbeat.
After a welcome enriched with some sharp insights into the current state of opera by Vernon Ellis, chairman of ENO, Graham Devlin gave members a briefing on the preliminary findings of the research. (The full research report is due for public release in February 2010.) Rest assured, there are eye-popping discoveries amongst this research, so if you want to read it before it goes public, join OMTF now!
Nicholas Payne, director of Opera Europa, then spoke on 'Responsibilities of Scale'. He noted that big companies had massive infrastructures to support from staff to buildings, and often cutbacks seemed to affect the artistic staffing heavily while the admin staffing seemed to increase! He saw a huge advantage for smaller opera companies, being able to remain 'light on your feet' to take advantage of new opportunities.
One of the great problems of running an opera company is that it's tricky to see yourself as others might. So, the chair of our Sales Talk forum, Jean Nicholson of Birmingham Opera Company, posed the question "How do you see us?" to five 'customers':
Michelle Dixon, Director of Oxford Playhouse
Andrew Greenwood, Artistic Director of Buxton Festival
David Hall, Chief Executive of the Foyle Foundation
Karen Howard, The National Association of Local Government Officers
Sarah Playfair, freelance opera casting director.
Michelle focused on the contrast between the following for contemporary dance and for new opera, noting how Dance String enabled audience development and retention currently not available for opera companies.
Andrew explained how he builds a successful 19 day festival, trying to produce a balanced programme that is sellable to the audience, has excellent quality in terms of both sound and look, and makes money!
David surprised the conference by noting that, as a funding body, applications for funding to the Foyle Foundation were actually down this year, encouraging delegates to apply with realistic, achievable projects.
Karen is one of the few rural arts development officers in the country, and her success in gaining funding by forming partnerships with other authorities across the UK was inspirational.
Sarah took the viewpoint of a consumer, and I suspect her list of frustrations with opera websites sent most delegates straight back to their webmasters with an urgent list of updates!
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After lunch, our focus turned towards the future of opera.
Freelance journalist and consultant John Newbigin sent our minds into overdrive with insights into future trends and changes in the arts scene. In just eighteen minutes he covered topics as diverse as shifts in arts policy after the election, the move from stage to online content, 'out of the box' collaborations with commercial companies, choosing performance indicators with care, and trading your assets.
Our final panel of the day were "Imagining the Future":
Clare Cooper, Director of Mission Models Money
Felix Cross, Artistic Director of Nitro
Louise de Winter, Director of National Campaign for the Arts
and chairman Bill Bankes-Jones, Artistic Director of Tête à Tête.
Clare propelled delegates into 21st century future thinking, citing how many thinkers were viewing the current situation as "The Great Turning". She observed that arts companies would need to be more resilient in preserving the integrity of their original work through times of massive change.
Felix advocated the need for opera composers and creators to work in their own styles, to propel new opera into the future. As he said, "Opera is about singing the words and letting the music drive the narrative."
Louise also pointed out the importance of the General Election as an opportunity to not just discover what the arts policy of each party was, but to possibly influence it too. She encouraged people to 'make the noise to keep the grant' but noted that companies should also be prepared for pain to come.
For the final session of the day, delegates formed five breakout groups focusing on various issues suggested during the course of the day.
The Commissioning and Repertoire group noted how opera composers had to have real theatre experience of working with singers in order to write better music for singings, but how difficult this was in practice.
The Audience as Cult group saw challenges in selling anything with the words opera and new (!), but that a cult following for opera and music theatre was actually a good thing.
The Administration for Opera group called for a better support mechanism for administrators, following the model set by modern dance in the UK, and for more cooperation between large and small companies in terms of mentoring and sharing personnel.
The New Media group explored both the challenges and rewards of using new media, including the "eye-watering" costs of broadcast quality video, creating viral communities, effective production microsites, efficient use of e-flyers, and the rise of mobile phone apps.
OMTF conferences are also a chance for opera professional to meet and talk informally, and it was great to see so many chatting at the end of a long day, enthused and encouraged by what they had heard.
To join OMTF or discover more about our members, visit the website at www.omtf.org.uk.
Kirsty Young
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