[woman] During the first months of the pandemic,
our lives drastically changed.
Under lockdown, each and every day began to look alike.
I remember trying to keep busy, while feeling the strangeness
of not being allowed to leave my house.
One day, I heard a voice coming from the outside.
I had never heard opera so nearby before.
I don't think my neighbours had either,
but we all went out to the balcony every time we heard the singing.
It brought us together somehow.
[woman singing an aria]
[Mozart's "Turkish March" playing]
[car wheels braking]
Opera tells stories through musical theatre.
Using all the arts, it moves all our senses.
[camera shutter]
It spread throughout Europe, becoming a great cultural phenomenon.
It has inspired many generations
and contributed to social and artistic revolutions.
But for many people, opera has lost sight
of its popular roots and radical edge.
They see opera as a distant experience,
insensitive to inequality
and today's social crises.
It doesn't speak to them,
perhaps it's just elitist,
a symbol of what is wrong in Europe today.
Opera now cannot be what it was in the past.
[soprano singing]
Europe is a cultural space,
and opera is one of its foundation stones.
What future will it have unless it can speak to all Europeans?
Opera is in danger of drifting into irrelevance,
sustained, if at all, by a wealthy minority.
But opera has the ability to rewrite that history,
to include those who were left behind.
It's not only my neighbour, suddenly turned into a soprano.
There are many more
who can help opera tell the stories that matter now.
Maybe the time has come to revolutionize opera.
At TRACTION, we're finding new ways, and using innovative technologies,
to co-create and experience opera.
We believe opera can be a place
where we find answers to Europe's challenges.
It could be once again a force for radical transformation.
Let's redefine opera for the 21st century together.