The Traction Legacy Social and cultural diversity is manifest in all our lives, our food, our media, our literature, ever more in each generation. The world is changed. Enriched. At this time of renaissance, opera, our art form that has a claim to be universal, has its greatest opportunity to demonstrate such capacity to those on its doorstep. Traction was a three-year European research project which aimed to contribute to opera’s renewal as a territory of cultural and social inclusion. It did so through three exploratory [...]

Co-creating Opera 22 February 2023 Next Monday, 27 February at 15:00 (CET), the presentation of  'Co-creating Opera: presenting the learning of the Traction project', will take place at the Gran Teatre del Liceu. Attendees will be able to connect to this event online to follow the presentation. The book and accompanying website (www.co-art.eu), which have just been published mark the end of the Traction project, and aim to share learnings from three exploratory operas co-created with communities in Barcelona, Portugal, and Ireland. This guide is not intended [...]

There is another way Richard Willacy – Birmingham Opera Company I’m arriving at a foyer buzzing with excitement; youth, experience, love, pride, selfies, chat, insta, a full house. Hundreds thrill thousands. I’m placing my mobile phone in a small locker in a ranchlike entrance before I walk through a metal detector flanked by guards ahead of 150 guests. I’m standing sock footed on a round mat in an upstairs room wearing a virtual reality headset alongside another 10 or so people. Where am I? It’s [...]

Digital and artistic tools to combat social exclusion: presentation of results of the SO-CLOSE and TRACTION co-creation projects The research and innovation projects SO-CLOSE (coordinated by the Autonomous University of Barcelona -UAB) and TRACTION (led by the Catalan company Vicomtech and with the participation of the UAB) will present their main results on Wednesday 30 November at 10:00 am at the headquarters of the European Commission in Barcelona Over the last three years, the research teams of the European projects SO-CLOSE and TRACTION have been working on [...]

The Final Embrace Friday 25 November, 2022 On Saturday, November 26, 2022, Ópera na Prisão (Opera in Prison) and TRACTION will be sharing its final embrace at the José Lúcio da Silva theatre, at 16:00 (GMT). This final event celebrates the intense work developed throughout the past two years by the young inmates and professional artists on co-creation, drama rehearsals, singing, score reading and technology, that led to the public performance of the opera O TEMPO (SOMOS NÓS)/Time (As we are). Everyone attending the theatre [...]

The TRACTION Toolset Wiki: Making the Technology Toolkit Available to the Community Tuesday 22 November, 2022 The TRACTION project aims to contribute to opera’s renewal as a territory of cultural and social inclusion through three community opera trials in Barcelona, Portugal, and Ireland. These trials have been supported and facilitated by the new technology tools developed during the project: The Co-Creation Space and the Co-Creation Stage. The development of the new technologies followed a user-centric design methodology, where end-users were involved in all stages of the process. This [...]

An Out of the Ordinary Experience Tania Banotti – Creative Ireland – 14 October 2022 Out of the Ordinary @ Dublin Fringe Festival © Simon Lazewski I visited Out of the Ordinary /As an nGnach this September in Dublin as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival. I deliberately didn’t read too much about how the project had evolved over COVID before I went with a friend to experience it. Like the Dr Spock quote: “It’s life Jim, but not as you know it”. “It’s opera [...]

The Odd Couple François Matarasso – 5 October 2022 In Neil Simon’s Broadway play, The Odd Couple, two divorced men agree to share an apartment. They are, of course, wildly unsuited to living together. Uptight, neurotic Felix and carefree, untidy Oscar find each other intolerable. It’s a simple dramatic device, made memorable by great performances from Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau who starred in the 1968 film. And, like many simple stories, The Odd Couple has a gentle lesson, as Oscar and Felix both learn from [...]

The Art of VR Facilitation Camille Donegan (Virtual Reality Ireland) – 20 September 2022 Virtual Reality facilitators, or hosts as we prefer to call them, are paramount to audience members having a positive virtual reality experience. The user journey is everything, particularly when it is their first time trying the medium. The comfort of the user in the headset is imperative and the new list of considerations vary from the audience members wondering “where's my stuff going to be when I'm in the headset” to “will [...]

A prison opera and digital transformation boost diversity of artistic voices A special opera performance in Lisbon improves inclusivity for the marginalised while digital literacy will create new artistic opportunities. Written by Emanuela Barbiroglio Pictured above, 'O Tempo (Somos Nós)', performance June 17th 2022, Lisboa, Portugal © Joaquim Dâmaso/SAMP Research projects are exploring the capacity of artists to reduce inequality in the digital age. A special opera performance in Lisbon improves inclusivity for the marginalised while digital literacy will create new artistic opportunities. Four professional Portuguese [...]