OPERA America 2011
Conference to Meet in Boston May 7 to 11
By: David Bonetti - Apr 30, 2011
The Boston Lyric Opera and Opera Boston will co-host OPERA America’s 2011 Conference in Boston from May 7 to May 11. The self-described “National Service Organization for Opera” was founded in 1970 and is based in New York City. It is dedicated to the “creation, presentation and enjoyment of opera.” Its annual conference takes place in different cities and is billed as the largest gathering of opera professionals in the United States.
The organizing title of this year’s conference is “Opera Entrepreneurship: Building on Tradition.” Some 400 opera professionals are expected to attend a schedule of lectures, seminars and performances.
Highlights include a keynote address by Nicholas Negroponte, founder of MIT’s Media Lab, and a tour of the lab by composer Tod Machover, whose opera “Death and the Powers: the Robots’ Opera, was presented by the American Repertory Theatre (ART) earlier this season at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston. In addition, ART director Diane Paulus will introduce a “New Work Sampler” from ART’s Underground Cabaret at Oberon.
Professional sessions will be devoted to topics such as “Think Like a Startup,” “The Audience Knows Best” and “Here to Stay: Capitalizing on Digital Transmission Technology.”
The conference’s epicenter is the Hyatt Regency Boston in the downtown Theater District, close to theaters presenting opera during the conference.
The conference will allow the local co-hosting companies the opportunity to show colleagues from around the country what they’re capable of. During the conference Boston Lyric Opera will present Benjamin Britten’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Shubert Theatre and Opera Boston will present the Donizetti rarity “Maria Padilla” at the Cutler Majestic. Boston Baroque will participate with its own semi-staged production of Rameau’s opera/ballet hybrid “Les Indes Galantes,” another rarity.
The recent Pulitzer Prize for music given to Zhou Long’s “Madame White Snake,” an Opera Boston commission, is sure to add luster to the local scene.
For more information: www.operaamerica.org/conference .