OPERA FANDOM
Opera Fandom
in the Digital Age
[OPANDA]
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action funded by the European Union
(Horizon Europe Framework Programme, grant agreement no. 101063989).
THE PLACE FOR OPERA IN A DIGITAL WORLD
Has the way fans look at opera changed?
Today, interactions between audiences and theatres occur to a significant extent via online platforms and digital media. The COVID-19 pandemic has made the divide between stage and screen even more blurred. By focusing on contemporary opera fandom, the EU-funded OPANDA project reconsiders past audience practices while it envisions possible future ones.
The study is based on a comparative and qualitative analysis of representative case studies, combining digital ethnography on web communities and fanzines, participant observation at opera companies (such as the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Opéra national de Paris and the Metropolitan Opera in New York), and interviews with opera fans and professionals.