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[woman] During the first months
of the pandemic,

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our lives drastically changed.

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Under lockdown, each and every day
began to look alike.

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I remember trying to keep busy,
while feeling the strangeness

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of not being allowed
to leave my house.

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One day, I heard a voice
coming from the outside.

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I had never heard opera
so nearby before.

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I don't think
my neighbours had either,

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but we all went out to the balcony
every time we heard the singing.

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It brought us together somehow.

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[woman singing an aria]

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[Mozart's "Turkish March" playing]

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[car wheels braking]

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Opera tells stories
through musical theatre.

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Using all the arts,
it moves all our senses.

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[camera shutter]

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It spread throughout Europe,
becoming a great cultural phenomenon.

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It has inspired many generations

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and contributed to social
and artistic revolutions.

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But for many people,
opera has lost sight

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of its popular roots
and radical edge.

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They see opera
as a distant experience,

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insensitive to inequality

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and today's social crises.

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It doesn't speak to them,

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perhaps it's just elitist,

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a symbol of what is wrong
in Europe today.

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Opera now cannot be
what it was in the past.

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[soprano singing]

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Europe is a cultural space,

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and opera is
one of its foundation stones.

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What future will it have
unless it can speak to all Europeans?

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Opera is in danger
of drifting into irrelevance,

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sustained, if at all,
by a wealthy minority.

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But opera has the ability
to rewrite that history,

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to include those
who were left behind.

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It's not only my neighbour,
suddenly turned into a soprano.

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There are many more

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who can help opera
tell the stories that matter now.

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Maybe the time has come
to revolutionize opera.

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At TRACTION, we're finding new ways,
and using innovative technologies,

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to co-create and experience opera.

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We believe opera can be a place

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where we find answers
to Europe's challenges.

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It could be once again
a force for radical transformation.

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Let's redefine opera
for the 21st century together.