6 and 7 June 2015 - Opera

DEVOTED & DISGRUNTLED
WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO
ABOUT OPERA?
6 and 7 June 2015
Paul Hamlyn Hall, Royal Opera House, London, WC2E 9DD
Saturday 10am-3.30pm, Sunday 11am-5pm
Dear lover of opera and the arts,
We are very pleased to invite you to “Devoted and Disgruntled: What are we going to do about
Opera?”
Is opera a big part of your life? Do you love it? Hate it? Like any real lover, does opera bring you both
joy and exasperation? If so, then perhaps you know what it’s like to be devoted and disgruntled.
This is a very challenging time for the arts, and no art-form more than Opera has the ability to
provoke such passion and controversy. When the stakes are high for so many of us in big and small
companies as well as individuals, this is an unique opportunity for your voice to be heard. Would you
like to change things? Or preserve what you love? Would you like to connect with others who share
your passion, talk to them, listen to them, change how opera is for the better, or help secure its future? Come together with a large cross-section of our operatic community; makers, shakers, consumers,
activists, reactionaries, revolutionaries, workers on the factory floor, creators on the edge, at the core,
critics, newcomers, old hands, audiences and supporters across the board.
Air your ideas, inspirations, and frustrations. Share, listen, and contribute to a constellation of
discussions created and determined by you, the operatic community.
Devoted and Disgruntled uses Open Space Technology to allow the group itself to determine the
topics and flow of the discussion, and to take action on the urgent issues. Nothing is censored, and all
participants are free to call sessions, attend whichever are of interest, or meet informally over a coffee.
It will be facilitated and archived by Improbable who now have a ten-year history of running great
events like this; conferences which have helped change the way the arts community communicates
with itself. We look forward to seeing you there to help shape the future of opera.
Bill Bankes-Jones (Chair; Opera & Music Theatre Forum, Artistic Director; Tête à Tête)
John Fulljames (Associate Director of Opera; Royal Opera House)
Henry Little (Chair; National Opera Co-Ordinating Committee)
Phelim McDermott (Artistic Director; Improbable)
Nicholas Payne (Director; Opera Europa)
Tickets £35 / £20
Devoted & Disgruntled event page: www.devotedanddisgruntled.com/events/dd-opera/
Ticket booking: www.roh.org.uk/events/29457/tickets