01: Setting the Stage: New beginnings, heightened expectations, the heart of opera, and the Santa Fe of it

What do you think of when you think of opera?

In January of 2016, opera companies from all over the United States started a conversation, trying to figure out how to create new works for smaller stages, alternative spaces, and major opera companies.

Could we develop works that speak to a broader audience and how can we be the leaders in showing that diversity is a huge plus?

What if we fail? What if we succeed? What if we keep imagining? 

These and other questions guide us through the ups and downs of a new initiative called Opera for All Voices (OFAV.) Join us as we explore the commission and creation of new operas and their connection to our industry, our communities, and our future.

In this episode, we meet Andrea Fellows Walters and Brandon Neal, our guides on this journey deep inside the OFAV initiative.

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Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with Opera For All Voices.

Produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios

Hosts: Andrea Fellows Walters and Brandon Neal

Audio Engineer: Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe

Theme music by Rene Orth with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe Becktell, cello.

Cover art by David Tousley

Special thanks to Gina Hays at Opera America and The Relic Room NYC.

OFAV Consortium Members:  Lyric Opera for Kansas City, Minnesota Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, San Francisco Opera, Sarasota Opera and Seattle Opera.

This podcast is made possible due to the generous funding from the Melville Hankins Family Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and an OPERA America Innovation Grant, supported by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.  

To learn more about Opera for all voices, visit us at SantaFeOpera.org