It’s the fifth edition of World Opera Day, an annual international celebration meant to raise awareness of the medium’s influence on music and culture.
Oct. 25 was chosen because it’s “the birthday of Georges Bizet and Johann Strauss II, composers of possibly the world’s most famous opera and operetta,” according to the World Opera Day organization, which partners with Opera Europa, OPERA America, and Opera Latinoamerica.
In a study promoted by the World Opera Day organization, Opera Europa found that in 2022, the European opera market sold 13 million opera tickets across 20,000 performances, generating over $14.5 billion (€10 billion). The industry employed around 200,000 people, with half on “permanent contracts”. The Association for Opera in Canada also found, in a survey of 400 Canadian opera attendees, that the opera experience brings joy for 95 percent of people! It also found that 90 percent of people thought it brought the community together, 73 percent said it had a positive impact on their well-beings and mental health, and 32 said it changed their world views.
Various record labels, ensembles, and opera companies are celebrating with social media posts. Canadian Opera Company is taking the opportunity to celebrate the diversity of its performances in a post on Facebook.
OperaVision, meanwhile, hosted an 8-hour watch party of three operas: Il viaggio a Reims, Il signor Bruschino, and Il barbiere di Siviglia (Garsington Opera).
And Opera Canada has produced an exhaustive list of shows premiering or taking place near World Opera Day.
Opera de Paris is inviting opera lovers to experience Wagner’s 4-hour romantic tale Lohengrin, in which Elsa, the Duchy of Brabant, calls on a knight she met in her dreams to defend her from false accusations that she killed her brother. The knight has just one condition: Elsa can’t ask for his name. The opera, directed by Kirill Serebrennikov, is available to subscribers until Oct. 31. Opera de Paris has also released a behind-the-scenes video of the production on X, formerly Twitter.
#WorldOperaDay
3, 2, 1… action ! 🎬 À l’occasion du @WorldOperaDay, l’Opéra de Paris vous emmène dans les coulisses de la captation en direct de #Lohengrin de Richard Wagner sur notre plateforme de streaming #POP, Paris Opera Play. 🎥https://t.co/pAOgUqqK21 pic.twitter.com/W3RoC8g7bg— Opéra de Paris (@operadeparis) October 25, 2023
Hamburg State Opera also released an Instagram post where they discuss the rehearsals for its upcoming premiere of Salome, as well as other productions in the works: “It’s World Opera Day! Or as we say at the State Opera: Wednesday,” the post says. The premiere of Handel’s Factory is around the corner, the post continues, and the re-enactment of Verdi’s Don Carlos is “already being rehearsed”.
Deutsche Grammophon released a video premiere of their World Opera Day 2023 concert, which includes Verdi’s “Libiamo, ne’ lieti calici” from La Traviata, Mozart’s “Voi che sapete” from Le nozze di Figaro, and Wagner’s “Allmächt’ge Jungfrau” from Tannhäuser.
Warner Classics shared a video of legendary opera singer Maria Callas performing Don Carlo‘s “Tu che le vanità” in Hamburg in 1959. The 100th anniversary biopic about Callas, also known as ‘La Divina’, will star Angelina Jolie.
The Dutch National Opera & Ballet released the first episode of a new video series, “Inside the Opera Studio: Becoming an artist“, on their YouTube channel. This episode explores how musicians find their focus!
