Les Arts is a proud member of enoa.
enoa is a European network of opera academies which supports and accompanies artists from the operatic sector – creators and performers – in developing their professional careers. Today it gathers 12 partners and 13 associate partners including Europe’s most important operatic institutions. The creation of enoa in 2009 and its first few years of activity (2011-2015) enabled its partners to initiate together and promote artistic training and development workshops. The launch and implementation of its Young Opera Makers (2016-2020) programme was the perfect springboard for partners to test innovative professional integration pathways and creative processes on a pan-European scale. Over its 10 years of existence, enoa has accompanied more than 1,500 artists, has developed and initiated European tours for 17 operatic productions, 12 of which are world premieres.
Its new programme, entitled EMPOWERING OPERA: BREAKING BOUNDARIES FOR INSTITUTIONS AND ARTISTS, aims to foster, support and share innovative opera projects, conveying new narratives that are engaged with contemporary societies.
These ten years of European cooperation experience have also brought to the fore the existence of structural barriers which curb the plurality and diversity of artistic expression in the sector and which, as such, directly affect its creativity, its competitiveness and its legitimacy. In practical terms, enoa network members note that:
– Certain individuals may be under-represented1 within a particular profession or artistic discipline on for historical, cultural or social reasons (composition, writing libretto, musical direction, stage direction, etc.);
– European artists lack certain non-artistic skills (entrepreneurial, social, human) for securing engagements in a highly-competitive, internationalized sector;
– The narratives, characters and forms of the operatic repertoire and contemporary creations partially reflect the diversity of today’s societies;
– Operatic institutions may be reluctant to programme contemporary works, which are innovative in form and/or content, for artistic and financial reasons and are not willing to take risks.
Consequently, obstacles and curbs are to be found at every level of the European operatic-sector value chain: from training for young artists to the production system itself and the programming of operatic creations. In short, today, sector players, artists and institutions lack the empowerment required for maximizing their creative potential.
The new Empowering Opera programme, initiated by the enoa European network, aims to empower the operatic sector so that it can ensure the conditions for its vitality, its renewal and its contribution to evermore multifaceted, open and egalitarian living European societies. It pursues four objectives in particular:
– empower the sector to be open and to represent society
– proposing narratives that reflect the issues of today’s society
– opening opera houses to inclusive professional practices
– sharing enoa’s know-how beyond the network
The new programme embraces four complementary, interdependent pillars:
– a European training and integration programme
– a European incubator for innovative operatic projects
– a new operatic production and ordering model
– a training programme on equality and diversity issues in the operatic sector
enoa members firmly believe that the future of opera in Europe is based on repertoire and player enrichment and diversification.
As such, the Empowering Opera programme aspires to experiment a structuring pilot programme to stimulate the diversity and plurality of European artistic expression in the world of opera and to profoundly transform its practices and ways of working.
New video of presentation for the 2020-2024 programme – Empowering Opera
Moving Opera, a workshop for choreographers
In collaboration with Festival ENSEMS (Festival for Contemporary Music), Les Arts will host a workshop for choreographers from different fields of the (dance) industry.