Co-creating a Virtual Reality Opera Camille Donegan – 30th September 2021 A participant playing a VR experience with a VR headset and controllers. In-person co-creation workshops began on 19th August 2021. It was remarkable after 18 months of not being able to be face-to-face with people, to feel the energy of a collective again. A key part of these workshops with the community was to bring the participants through the possibilities of virtual reality and the unique storytelling attributes inherent with the medium. On that first [...]

Opera co-creation for a social transformation. TRACTION, the new concept to revolutionize Opera September 16th 2021 Combining the efforts of nine participants from five different European countries with collective expertise in research, business, art and social perspectives, TRACTION was launched in January 2020. With such a bold new project on the horizon, it was a shock to all when shortly after its launch, the COVID pandemic gripped the globe, causing disruption to people and industries all over the world. In such uneasy times and with [...]

Learning by doing François Matarasso - Thursday July 22nd 2021 Photograph by Joaquim Dâmaso - SAMP Opera and digital technology both begin as code, lines of complicated figures that seem alien to non-professionals, like Egyptian hieroglyphs. But the arcane languages used by composers and software engineers to develop their ideas are not the point of their work. They are only the means by which these professionals work towards their goals—goals that remain lifeless until they can be tested in human experience. The work is validated only when [...]

Sinia Occupational Centre and Massana Design School create artwork for “The Lost Cat” 31st of May 2021 Poster for "The Lost Cat", co-created by Sínia and Massana Between October 2020 and May 2021 Liceu Opera Barcelona have been working to initiate an artistic collaboration between students form the Massana Design School Barcelona and creatives from the Sinia Occupational centre to co-design artwork for the poster campaign of the Traction community opera “The Lost Cat”, based on the Raval neighbourhood of Barcelona. In the central avenue of [...]

OPERA IN A PRISON – with TRACTION technology May 26th 2021 Mozart Pavilion Project - Performance “Só Zerlina ou Cosi fan Tutte?”.  Grand Auditorium of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, July 2018. Integrating former inmates back into society is one of the most significant challenges faced in the entirety of the prison system, especially when it comes to young offenders. Leiria has two prisons, one of which is the only one of its kind in Portugal, as it houses young people aged between 16 and 25. The circumstances [...]

Science, technology and humanities or science and digital humanities? TRACTION at Faberllull Mar Brescia Zapata, 13th May 2021 Faberllull is a network of residences located in the cities of Olot (Catalonia) and La Massana (Andorra) which focus on the Arts, Sciences and Humanities. Faberllull is managed by the Ramon Llull Institute, in collaboration with the City Council of Olot and the Government of Andorra. Faberllull offers thematic residences programmed throughout the year. Professionals from the fields of Arts, Science and Humanities can schedule a stay to share work-related experiences with other [...]

Inauguration of the Mozart Pavilion using the Co-creation Stage 26th April 2021 On January 8th 2021, the doors to the Mozart Pavilion – Centre for Performing Arts, opened for the first time in the Estabelecimento Prisional de Leiria - Jovens (EPL-J). The event marked a momentous occasion for our partners SAMP, who have who have been working throughout the pandemic to bring music to the lives of the inmates through the co-creation of a Traction Community Opera. Transforming lives through Art combined with Technology, the centre [...]

The Event-packed annals of the Gran Teatre del LiceuJaume Tribó – El Liceu – April 12thThe pointer maestro Jaume Tribó in his shell during a performance of Il burbero di buon cuore, Barcelona 2012All the world's leading opera houses have shown an interest in rediscovering their past. Nearly all the larger ones compiled annals methodically and many published them in the 1930s. The Liceu did not. Even today any researcher or opera-lover looking for a particular date or list of performers or titles is in for a hard [...]

Producing a community opera in shifting sands James Bingham – Irish National Opera 22nd March, 2021 Session 3 of the writing workshops with Dave Lordan and the rural school students “If I wanted to do this I wouldn’t have started from here.” Irish National Opera’s Artistic Director, Fergus Sheil told the Irish Times, ahead of the launch of the company’s 20 Shots of Opera back in December 2020. The collection of new commissions for film received great reviews and reached an international audience that never [...]

Traction pilot activities Testing the mediavault and performance engine Authors: Alina Striner, Thomas Rӧggla, Stefano Masneri, Mikel Zorrilla, Irene Calvis, Paulo Lameiro, Pedro Almeida and Pablo Cesar 5th March 2021 A main goal of the TRACTION project is to use technology to support co-creation and consumption of opera content by diverse communities across the European Union. After a lengthy design and development process, we evaluated the Mediavault and Performance engine through a series of usability tests paired with in-depth interviews. Usability Study: A research technique to [...]