Project Butterfly's Strategic Collaborations in the Opera World

Project Butterfly is an international initiative with the goal of fostering a new attitude towards sustainability in theatre and opera houses. It aims to achieve them through a complex process of co-creating and co-producing sustainable opera while focusing on engaging young audiences.

Our initiative aims to achieve this through collaboration with its three Opera House partners (Teatro Comunale di Modena, Opera Baltycka, and Opera Box) and three High Schools (High School Francesco Selmi– Modena, High School no.6, and Otaniemi High School) located respectively in Italy, Poland, and Finland. These partnerships are fundamental for the success of Project Butterfly, which aims to have students from these high schools learn about Opera from our partners and write a story for our opera, whose working title is “Elements for the Future,” consisting of three acts of approximately 30 minutes each. The subject of each act will focus on a particular element: water for Gdansk, air for Helsinki, and earth for Modena.

The work done by the students, with the support of our partners, will then be combined with the work done by the composers chosen among those who have participated in our Open Call. The call closed on the 30th of September. To ensure the smooth progress of all this work, cooperation is essential, and we, at Project Butterfly, are working hard to improve our partnerships and produce the best sustainable opera possible. To achieve our goals, several meetings among partners have taken place. The main reason behind these meetings is to enhance collaboration and ensure coordination among Project Butterfly’s partners from all over Europe. This is fundamental to a smooth culmination of our agenda with no problems.

During these strategic gatherings, it was possible to further organize our list of activities to clarify our objectives. We not only harmonized the creative energies of the three opera partners but we also included non-opera partners, such as Heimspiel and AESS, to create a sense of unity, ensuring that all these organizations’ efforts were in unison.

Among these meetings, those held on the 13th and 30th of October have proven useful in improving our collaboration and sharing all partners’ visions for the future of this project. New insights and considerations about Project Butterfly’s current status and future have been shared, leading to fruitful conversations and new conclusions. These meetings have helped refine our approach to achieving our aims. During the gathering on the 30th of October, we also had the chance to interact with more than 20 Opera Houses, including The Royal Danish Theater, Opéra National de Lyon, Teatro Sociale Como (AsLiCo), and the Royal Opera House, to gather additional feedback about our mission and the opera situation in Europe. This huge international collaboration has been made possible thanks to the support received from Opera Europa. It has been a valuable experience for Project Butterfly, providing not only a more comprehensive understanding of the opera world but also the opportunity to engage with other prominent Opera houses.

Thanks to these meetings, we have updated our plan of action and are prepared to present the results of these gatherings in the near future. As Project Butterfly continues to promote innovation, sustainability, and inclusivity in opera, these meetings are crucial to the fulfillment of our goals and are proof of our international dedication to the creation and production of a sustainable opera.