LECTURES

Opera Conference 2011-Presented by Opera America

A Special Offer for the Arts Community from
OPERA America, Boston Lyric Opera and Opera Boston

Join industry leaders from across North America for a series of stimulating conversations about the performing arts during Opera Conference 2011. This special package of key conference sessions highlights the dynamic energy propelling opera and the performing arts both in Boston and around the country.

For just $95, attend the following conference sessions:
1. Opening Session and Keynote Address Monday, May 9 at 9:00 a.m.
The official kick-off to Opera Conference 2011! Opening Keynote speaker Nicholas Negroponte is founder of the MIT Media Lab and general partner in a venture capital firm specializing in digital technologies for information and entertainment. Negroponte will talk about the place of live performance in this highly digitized and disparate media landscape, and the cultural importance of shared artistic experiences.

2. Think Like a Startup Monday, May 9 at 11:00 a.m.
Can startup thinking — lean, flexible, daring — help bring renewed vigor to the opera enterprise? Is the artist-driven model helping to reshape the future of opera? Opera Conference 2011, set in one of the most culturally adventurous American cities, brings together traditional and non-traditional companies and artists to discuss the benefits of risk-taking and entrepreneurial thinking. Join the visionary author and commentator Stan Davis and other panelists as they talk about how the business of performing arts could look in the future.

3. The Audience Knows Best: Answers to Engagement Tuesday, May 10 at 11:00 a.m.
Efforts to attract audience members and create new devotees touch all areas of an opera company’s operations, from development to marketing to education. Rarely though do administrators have the chance to hear from the public about why they do or don’t come to the opera. In this exciting town-hall format, a cross-section of audience members — ranging from opera novices to students to non-attendees — speak openly about their ticket-buying psychology, what they like to see and hear, and what might bring them to the opera more often.

4. Here to Stay: Capitalizing on Digital Transmission Technology Wednesday, May 11 at 9:00 a.m.
Opera companies can use transmissions to beam out their own works, or bring in the artistry of others. Either way, the technology can serve to raise opera’s public profile, broaden the artistic spectrum for audiences and provide a new revenue source to companies of all sizes. Join a discussion among companies already committed to the digital realm, including: Patrick Dewane, Minnesota Opera; Jessica Koplos, San Francisco Opera; Kevin Patterson, Austin Lyric Opera; Barry Rebo, Emerging Pictures and David Starkey, Asheville Lyric Opera.

5. Closing Session Wednesday, May 11 at 3:00 p.m.
The Opera Conference 2011 experience concludes with a final address to attendees and features awards celebrating longtime industry leaders. A special component of this year’s Closing Session is a presentation on the design and construction of the National Opera Center in New York City, opening in 2012.

Plus! Online Learning Course on Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
(Through May 3, 2011)
With its distinct groups of characters and its magical setting, A Midsummer Night’s Dream offered Benjamin Britten an opportunity to speak in many voices: the colorful score is by turns ethereal and direct, playful and transcendent. Presented in partnership with the Britten-Pears Foundation, this multimedia online course will give special insight into Britten’s working methods, from fashioning the libretto to working with world-class artists to produce some of the 20th century’s most important operas in a small village on the North Sea. The course, led by Glimmerglass Opera dramaturg Kelley Rourke, will also include a detailed musical analysis and interviews with contemporary creative and performing artists. View more information and a course sample at www.operaamerica.org/onlinelearning.