Opera and Performing Arts to foster cultural change for a circular economy.
To accelerate and mainstream the transition towards a circular economy, a key piece of the puzzle is represented by the adoption of a circular culture: a mindset conducive towards the design of a regenerative and distributive society. Even before changing the way we produce, consume and distribute goods, we must learn to think differently and interpret our relations with fellow humans and our supportive natural ecology from a fundamentally new perspective. How to do so—in practice—is one of the most underdeveloped topics in the field. It is therefore with great enthusiasm that we welcome the recent announcement of a new partnership between Opera for Peace and OCCE (Organisation for Climate & Circular Economy) with the aim of leveraging the power of opera and performing arts to contribute towards circular cultural change. To explore how these two apparently disconnected worlds can come together and add value to each other, we sat down with Julia Lagahuzère, Co-Founder and General Director of Opera for Peace—named Femme de Culture 2020—who told us more about the mission and future activities of this pioneering initiative.
Opera for Peace: a new cultural movement for the lyric art form.
Opera for Peace - Leading Young Voices of the World is an innovative and ambitious organisation that currently represents the largest worldwide organisation of its kind, working across six continents to support, connect and promote young singers thanks to a global network of partners, advisors, ambassadors, and emerging and established artists. As revealed by Julia, this initiative aspires to represent “a new cultural movement for the lyric art form reflecting the reality of today’s globalised and diverse world, building an inclusive and creative future together through passion, determination and collaboration”. A core pillar of the project focuses on offering support and guidance to artists from disadvantaged backgrounds, to increase their career development and provide them with advancement opportunities, in a quest to make the opera world more accessible, inclusive and better able to create value out of cultural diversity.
Opera for Peace is the result of a long process of open conversations to exchange ideas, experiences and visions among the three main co-founders: Julia Lagahuzère (currently Artistic Advisor of the Queen Sonja Music Competition in Oslo, and previously Deputy Casting Director of Opera National de Paris), Dmitry Vdodin (Founder and Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Young Artist program), and Paolo Petrocelli (Cultural and Music Diplomacy Officer for the Permanent Secretariat of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, and Co-founder and Honorary President of the Italian Youth Association for Unesco).
Since the initial discussions among the founding trio on how to innovate the opera world to create more positive impact alongside artistic excellence, the project has been in continuous development thanks to conversations with a multitude of industry players—from artists to opera houses, festivals, orchestras and teachers. Its inaugural event took place in November 2019 with the Dallas Opera Orchestra at The Dallas Opera, Texas, USA, in collaboration with The Hart Institute of Women Conductors, with subsequent events taking place at the 10th Anniversary of the Bolshoi Young Artist Program, Moscow, Russia; Winter International Arts Festival, Sochi, Russia; the Lerici Music Festival; and the “World Opera Day Online Celebration”.
“Believing in the strength of connecting nations and transcending differences through the unifying communication of Opera”, Julia and her team “strongly aspire for the advancement of this lyric art form and the promotion of positive universal values—most importantly, mutual respect—drawing upon the diversity of all cultural heritages while working towards a common goal of artistic excellence”. As one of a kind, the organisation provides—together with an incredibly rich program and support system for personal artistic development—a platform for artists and industry partners to speak about the essential social issues facing our world and society today. All the activities are driven by the organisation’s core values of inclusion, diversity, equity, social justice, artistic excellence, and affordable education & accessible opportunities.
A new partnership to make opera a force for circular change.
When Opera for Peace’s founders sat down with Christophe Debien, President of OCCE, ideas started to flow on how the two worlds could meet each other to co-create cultural and societal value. These conversations served as the basis for the recent announcement of a new partnership to link the works of Opera For Peace and OCCE more closely. While for many the association between circular economy and opera might not be the most straightforward, Julia thinks it differently, paving the way for the exploration of new conceptual, economic and artistic avenues:
“The links between culture—more specifically opera and the performing arts—and the circular economy have rarely, if ever, been explored. However, in an increasingly connected world facing unprecedented crises, everything is related through the exchange of energies and an increasing sense of humankind and solidarity. How can we use this fact then to create synergies to enrich both sectors and in turn the world, through shared values? The circular economy endorses endless loops and models of natural regeneration. The performing arts is arguably the most powerful expression of life and the human condition in all its different facets through expression and story-telling. Both therefore inspire an understanding of life and search for a better future through hope and renewal”
Based upon these similarities and elements of association, Opera For Peace—through this partnership—aims “to inspire people to support positive global actions through the power of cultural expression and story-telling, and to see the world differently. Through our network and initiatives, we aim to inspire an increasing percentage of these artists, their public and a wider circle of people to become more aware of the Circular Economy values: sustainability, solidarity, renewal, connection, and innovation”.
From a practical standpoint, the partnership will further develop these synergies by setting up initiatives around 5 key areas:
Renewal, Renovation, Circularity & Nature: Classical music and opera is made up of a large but structured catalogue that continually gets reinvented in different ways by the artists that interpret and communicate its message. Let’s call it renewable energy! Music can therefore inspire cyclic thought processes and bypass consciousness to penetrate inspiration and innovation through creativity.
Harmony & Balance through Inclusion: A fair society can only be a balanced society: economically, socially and environmentally. The concept of “Eco-design” also needs to be applied to social equity where people will be able to develop their skills, knowledge, and education.
Humanity & Creative Communication: The circular economy model faces many challenges and a certain amount of resistance. Creative innovation is the key to problem solving. With new ways of thinking and going into unexplored sectors, like the performing arts, we can redesign the system and make the message clearer and more appealing to a wider number of people.
Cultural Education & Support of our Youth: Healthy human, societal and global development—essential for a true circular economy idea—starts and ends with education. Education empowers and levels the playing field. Teaching and transmission are important values for both culture and for the circular economy.
Connection & Partnerships: At the very heart of humanity is the basic need to connect. Connect with oneself, with others, and with nature. Connection gives us a sense of completion and fulfilment. The performing arts allow us to connect through emotion. Emotion is essential to persuade humans to engage in worthwhile causes and missions.
Each focus area comes together with a series of initiatives that will be carried out in the coming months and years, including i) a global calendar of events, concerts and recitals with musical and thematic links to circular economy and environmental values, ii) a platform to inspire new artistic projects and create creative collaborations among young people across the globe, iii) a Think-Tank and “Environmental Charter” for artists by artists for the design of measures for the Performing Arts sector to contribute to the fight against climate change, iv) local educational activities to cultivate a vibrant artistic scene, and v) a program of conferences by young, emerging and established artists and industry partners to speak about the essential social issues facing our world and society today from a unique perspective.
Cross-boundary collaboration in the quest for positive, systemic solutions.
To create widely accepted societal change towards a regenerative and distributive economy, culture must play a fundamental role. By destroying sectorial silos and overcoming prima facie differences, this initiative has the potential to show how societal and cultural value creation can happen once we recognise the value of diversity and embed it in everything we do, from arts to the design of new economic processes. As Circular Conversations, we strongly embrace this pioneering initiative, and celebrate the open-mindedness and courage of its initiators both on the sides of Opera for Peace and OCCE. In the future, we look forward to documenting more of the activities and value that this new partnership between opera, performing arts and circular economy will be able to give birth to.
“The circular economy model faces many challenges and a certain amount of resistance. Creative innovation is the key to problem solving. Creativity, a key engineer for facilitating social harmony, sustainable human development, technological invention and scientific revolution, is manifested in human activities at different levels from everyday life to advanced technological industries. To date, there is no consensus-based definition of creativity; however, according to a standard definition, creativity is often perceived as the ability to produce something new, novel, appropriate and useful. Culture and creativity are inseparable. With new ways of thinking and going into unexplored sectors, like the performing arts, we can redesign the system and make the message clearer and more appealing to a wider number of people”
February 2021
Emanuele Di Francesco (Circular Conversations) & Julia Lagahuzère (Opera for Peace)