2025 Predictions in Opera – The Digital Renaissance

We explore optimistic predictions for the opera industry in 2025, discussing the importance of digital transformation, operational efficiency, regional engagement, collaboration, and audience education. The conversation emphasizes finding creative solutions to empower artists, connect with communities, and revitalize the art form.

• Digital platforms will enhance audience reach through on-demand content  
• Organizations need to streamline operational costs to support artists better  
• Regional markets will provide new opportunities for community engagement   
• Co-productions and resource sharing are predicted to rise for greater creative output  
• Strategic audience development through outreach and immersive experiences is crucial  

Listen to our call to action for artists and practitioners to engage more deeply with their communities.

Chapters

• 0:11 Predictions for Opera Industry Shift
• 12:51 Collaboration and Growth in Opera
• 23:04 Investing in Technology and Collaboration
• 26:50 Pursuing Excellence in Vocal Training

Transcript

Soula Parassidis: 0:11

Hi everybody and welcome to Behind the Curtain. I'm Soula Parassids.

Christos Makridis: 0:15

I'm Norman Reinhardt. I'm Chris Makridis .

Soula Parassidis: 0:18

And this is our New Year's Eve special content. The whole team is here because I wanted to surprise the guys with predictions for the industry, entertainment sector, opera industry in 2025. And this is based on your most recent research. So you'll probably be like yeah, that's really basic. Thanks for reading my paper Like not original. But, also on some articles that came out about some budget cuts in Berlin's culture funding and then just being somebody in the industry with anecdotal evidence.

Christos Makridis: 0:56

Which I have to say any time. That because in social sciences sometimes people make a big deal about having lots of data, but the data should always be backed up by anecdotes, and so I mean it makes sense, it makes sense I don't even know what you're going to say, but it makes sense You're being so supportive, that's so nice.

Soula Parassidis: 1:14

So yeah, that's why I've got my computer here. Neither of you know what I'm going to say.

Norman Reinhardt : 1:18

I have no idea.

Soula Parassidis: 1:19

And I want to go through all the points and I want your expertise as a social scientist, an economist and academic, and then obviously you as a practitioner and someone in higher ed, and then just me, with all the hats that I wear, to analyze these predictions. And then I guess we'll come back a year from now and see if yeah, we'll have an episode of Did it come to pass?

Norman Reinhardt : 1:42

Did it come to pass? Did it come to pass?

Soula Parassidis: 1:45

Let me take a look at this here, okay.

Christos Makridis: 1:47

And I think one thing, just as you're getting that ready, is that any time that there's a prediction, there's always the opportunity for us as a community to intervene and be a force for good. So we'll see what will happen. That's right, yeah.

Soula Parassidis: 1:59

Well, I mean, I always, whenever I make predictions, I try to point to something good, Exactly.

Christos Makridis: 2:07

Otherwise it's just complaining. Exactly that's one of the themes here is that we're not trying to complain. It's actually about finding solutions.

Soula Parassidis: 2:14

So these are all going to be hopeful and good predictions. Yeah, you don't know yet. You just don't know what I'm going to say, but let me give you the first place.

Norman Reinhardt : 2:20

These may all be, I'm kidding. Okay, let's find out.

Soula Parassidis: 2:24

So, um, keeping with a trend that, um, we've experienced in the last few years uh, particularly with the pandemic and my own experiences with creating digital content I think we're gonna have a greater shift towards digital and hybrid programming and I predict that opera houses will increasingly adopt digital platforms and hybrid models and offer more streamed or on-demand performances to supplement the in-person audiences and I'll even say potentially reducing in-person audiences to grab more of a global audience. So I am basing that on the budget cuts that have happened in Berlin and we can Google that. Maybe in YouTube we can actually put a link to some of the articles that are written about that.

Norman Reinhardt : 3:09

I need to because I actually haven't.

Soula Parassidis: 3:10

Yeah, yeah, no, it's pretty serious, given like the amount of culture in Germany and in Berlin, but also, from your research, the declining box office revenues, and that we just need to scale up solutions for this kind of thing, and my experience with Medici TV, idagio, and seeing that they're having certain revenue streams grow shows a demand. So I think the positive part about this is we have to say this Nothing will ever replace an in-person audience, an-person experience, and that's absolutely true. But I do think that if we shift towards more of these sort of hybrid models, it will give smaller companies an opportunity particularly if they get a great media team, um to broaden their audience, and this is like this is what's coming to me. Actually, I haven't thought about this, but, um, last year you saw a lot of libraries, of all things, with incredible digital content and getting these huge audiences like the Milwaukee Public.

Norman Reinhardt : 4:13

Library, if y'all have never seen their reels.

Soula Parassidis: 4:16

I was dying laughing. I mean it's just I'm pretty sure it was Milwaukee, yeah, yeah and and so I think this is a huge opportunity, given that everybody has their own media system in their hand now. So it takes some creativity, so I like both of your reactions to that prediction.

Christos Makridis: 4:36

Well, I'll make two points on this.

Christos Makridis: 4:37

Number one was, I mean, going back to your performance in Boston and Boston Baroque and seeing the tremendous reaction that the people had in the audience there, but then as well, all the people that were able to view it stream-wise, that under Jennifer's leadership, and seeing just the ripple effects that that had, is certainly a testament, and they saw a lot of growth not only during the pandemic but to this day as a result of their actions.

Christos Makridis: 5:04

So I think that was certainly an early indicator of a business plan that is going to continue on. I don't know if every organization will necessarily read the writing on the wall and take that advice, but they would be wise to do so, because by going digital, that's not saying we're going to forsake in person. It's just saying we're now opening ourselves up to use more tools at our disposal. Point number two is around just how you go. Digital really matters, and just by putting stuff up online doesn't mean that you're going to have a winning strategy. As you said, you need to have also a funny, thoughtful, sophisticated social media team, and so how you express yourselves, how you combine digital advertising together with the multimedia and doing it high quality that's going to be critical I would push back on.

Soula Parassidis: 5:53

it doesn't necessarily need to be funny, but it does need to be thought out and high quality.

Christos Makridis: 5:57

Yeah, I only mention the humor because that is a way of bringing new people to the table, but every, of course, every theater will need to figure out what's the right tone that is authentic to them, and so some maybe just don't pursue humor. That was on my mind because of the Wisconsin.

Soula Parassidis: 6:12

Well, yeah, that, and also I mean how I approach social media too, so it's fair. Well, what do you think about that prediction?

Norman Reinhardt : 6:18

I agree with it.

Norman Reinhardt : 6:19

Nice I mean they're not. I mean you kind of hit it. I mean it is theaters are going to. I mean that it is. It doesn't mean that they're going to forsake in-person things, it's not. It's that companies and theaters and I think theaters are trying to do this, Organizations are trying to figure out how to do this, but it is creating that and again again, it is using it, looking at these things as tools and not threats. That's one of the that's one of the biggest things right there is that they have to we really have to change our perspective on what technology is providing, uh, and really kind of just, kind of just go with it. It's not, it's not about it chipping away at the tradition of what we do. It won't replace live events, but it can. I mean because of just the global scale of it. You have access to things. We have access now to things that we never had access to, and so we really have to engage with that and actually see that as a really, really good thing.

Christos Makridis: 7:25

Yeah, and so we really have to engage with that and actually see that as a really really good thing. Yeah, there's one data point that I wanted to make and I know you want to move on to the next one.

Norman Reinhardt : 7:32

Yeah, I do.

Christos Makridis: 7:32

But I'll be quick. So a lot of times creatives think that okay, like generative AI is going to come for our jobs.

Soula Parassidis: 7:40

We don't think that we don't think about generative AI.

Norman Reinhardt : 7:42

Okay, wait a minute, here you go. I think that I'll be the one that thinks that I'm talking. Artists in general, for example.

Christos Makridis: 7:47

Hollywood with the class action lawsuit etc.

Norman Reinhardt : 7:49

Etc. Okay, fair enough, yes.

Christos Makridis: 7:50

And so, number one, there are very fundamental issues that do need to be confronted around intellectual property. Let me put that on hold. So one new paper that I have is looking at how different occupations are heterogeneously exposed to large language models, and one of the key results is that occupations that require more communication, more coordination, are actually less exposed to displacement by large language models, and so a lot of the creative economy is actually jobs that require a lot of communication. I mean, even just in our setup of today, we have to communicate and figure out like where is the lighting going to be optimal, and so on. But anyway, so I don't want to belabor that point, but it's just one piece of optimistic evidence that large language models generative AI, as we look into the future are actually not necessarily going to eat away at some of these jobs.

Christos Makridis: 8:42

I'm not sure how we got into generative AI.

Soula Parassidis: 8:44

You brought it up because you can't help yourself. I take responsibility and we might cut you out of this episode.

Christos Makridis: 8:47

I take responsibility. Next question. All right, that's good.

Soula Parassidis: 8:51

So, again, this is inspired and this will be a blog post on Living Opera for anybody who wants to read through the predictions, so you can get that at wwwlivingopera. Okay, this again going with your recent research, that will also. It's on our website now, but we'll link it in the YouTube channel. We need increased, like operational efficiency, and I think a lot of companies will work towards that as they see a need to overhaul their governance structures. So this is what I wrote Institutions will face pressure to streamline their costs, like I mean on the admin side, and prioritize more accountability within organizations, and I'm basing this on the fact that in your research it says administrative costs have doubled since 2005.

Christos Makridis: 9:42

That's right. Yeah, yeah, basically.

Soula Parassidis: 9:45

And then, coupled with these funding cuts in Berlin, to me this says we just need leaner operational methods, and then there will also be boards with more entrepreneurial members. I predict that can bring in more people from other sectors and I believe that companies will adapt to attract a more private public funding model rather than just relying on public, which is a lot of what happens.

Soula Parassidis: 10:17

I mean, it's not just public, but in Europe, for example, there's just a ton of public funding, and that just makes sense for me financially that, like we can understand that the more various sources that we have to draw on, the healthier the organizations will be. So, yeah, that's my second prediction that we're going to get. They're going to have to tighten up.

Christos Makridis: 10:40

They're going to. Yeah. Well, I'll be quicker on this one, but I'll just say two things as well. Number one is that expense, and so in this paper about financial headwinds, I was looking at expenses as a share of total expenses expenses devoted to admin as a share of total. The fact that they've doubled so much is worrisome, because there are valid expenses around production and around the set, design, etc. Budgets do need to become leader. I think that it's not so much that the controversy around public funding isn't really a controversy, it's just that there is desire to have oversight around how is this money being used, and if it is being used for this and that that there's this debate about, yeah, and if you use the word controversy, I'd say for us as artists, we find it incredibly controversial that admin costs like, literally, the CEOs of opera companies' wages would potentially double over the last 20 years, and yet we're seeing a massive decline in negative wage growth as artists.

Soula Parassidis: 11:44

So yeah it's not reciprocal, it's not healthy and it's something that I'm not even sure boards are necessarily aware of, and it's something that I'm not even sure boards are necessarily aware of, and certain rising costs that are passed on to artists, like housing once you get to a certain threshold. But actually it used to be when you got to a certain wage threshold and you were a top earner in the industry, the housing costs would be passed on to you, but now it seems to be nearly across the board that whatever you're earning, it's being passed on to you and it's simply untenable for working artists, artists. I want to move on to this next one. I want you to answer this one, norman, because I was also thinking about you. Um, I'm nervous. No, I don't know. I predict my third.

Soula Parassidis: 12:22

My third prediction is more regional expansion so uh smaller cities and regional markets will see more opportunities as opera has to shift away from the traditional metropolitan hubs, and that will be led up by smaller creative teams. And, um, yeah, I want your reaction to that because I know this is something that you actually want to spearhead eventually in your career. So do you think that that can happen in 2025, or do you think it's going to take more time than that?

Norman Reinhardt : 12:56

I think it's going to take more time than that, because there's going to have to be. It can start happening now because there are people who realize it already. But it is this idea of community engagement and small companies, regional companies, I think there's going to be when it comes to the communities, there's going to be a collaborative effort around it, so it won't just be opera, it will be the arts, so it will be opera, musical theater, straight theater. It will be a combining of all of them, which is why I think collaborative is so important in it, in this, because also, too, I mean we think about if you look at education just in, you know, as singers. So right now, education system puts out 30 000 singers plus a year. Okay, this is a huge amount. The people, the percentage of those who are actually good enough to do it, are obviously much smaller, right? No offense to the 30000 a year who are doing that.

Soula Parassidis: 13:53

Right right.

Norman Reinhardt : 13:54

But the actual point is that if you look at I mean, if you look at I remember having this discussion with the guy who played the guitar for us. He's this brilliant guitarist who came out of Juilliard and moved to Lentz.

Soula Parassidis: 14:04

Yeah, yeah.

Norman Reinhardt : 14:05

And he was talking about all the amazing jazz musicians and musical theater musicians, all these unbelievable musicians who are coming out of these institutions and there's no work for them. Yeah, yeah. And they're all these creatives. But so you have all these creatives, these masterful people, gifted people coming out. It's not just singers these tremendous volumes of amazing musicians and nowhere for them to go. Yeah, yeah. And so there's one thing about education, but there's also we really have to focus on market share. We really have to focus on market.

Norman Reinhardt : 14:40

Increase in market, but that is increase in market, but that will be through collaboration. It's not somebody going and going. We're an opera and we're going to set up a little small opera company. No, it's about opera's a piece of it. So there's opera, there's jazz, there's musical theater, there's straight theater, because if you do that, you're going to empower creatives, you're going to empower communities, because communities care about this stuff. They care about this stuff and communities want that. They want places to, even if it's just a little small thing, they want places to go, they want to go see something in a theater. They want to do that. And so I think there's a tremendous opportunity and I think if that happens, you can grow this sector.

Christos Makridis: 15:20

You can absolutely grow it. Yeah, I mean the fact that you've done such a phenomenal job just growing the community in Living Opera yourself. I mean like what do you think in terms of, like the combination of digital physical communities? I mean like what?

Soula Parassidis: 15:32

do you think in terms of like the combination of digital physical communities?

Soula Parassidis: 15:36

So when Norman was talking, I was immediately thinking of like our next big project Echoes of Empires right, and this is one that's still like staying very much in the lane of classical music. But the collaborators that we're looking to bring in are outside of opera. They're still in classical music and I think what's amazing about that is you can borrow the audience within a sector, so I can borrow the audience of a pianist or a cellist or an orchestra, and in this case we're pulling in these various artists.

Soula Parassidis: 16:14

We're also pulling in people from the fashion community, with a designer that we want to work with, and I think that that's important because, as you're talking about collaboration, why is collaboration so important? It's important on a human level because you influence one another to create new things and also to broaden your own perspective. But from an audience standpoint, a lot of people get upset when artists are hired, for example, based on social media count. That's not happening so much. In opera it's happening a little bit, but not so much. And I'd like to just go on the record saying, even as somebody who has like a pretty big channel and is considered whatever an influencer is in our business, they don't really know what that means in our business. I don't make money from that. I have never been hired to sing off of my social media channel. I do it because it's fun and I like it.

Soula Parassidis: 17:02

And to grow the community and to grow the community, but the initial purpose of doing it was never around. Oh, I think this is going to help me get hired for singing, and in fact, sometimes being successful in that media world makes people within our sector, which tends to be more rigid, suspicious about your own abilities to do the job. So I'll just put that out there. You guys can do what you want with it. That's my experience.

Norman Reinhardt : 17:28

I think that I also think that the generation of people who think that way are having to shift their mindsets.

Soula Parassidis: 17:38

Yeah, they need to get on their way out, or basically okay, you just said it basically. They need to get on their way out. They need to be on their way out. No, I mean sorry.

Norman Reinhardt : 17:45

And it isn't that you can't, you have to, but you have to. You know, when people have a successful media profile, then you have to at least go and say like we need to find out about this person.

Christos Makridis: 17:57

Yeah, let's learn more. We need to learn more.

Norman Reinhardt : 17:59

If it's a question of singing.

Soula Parassidis: 18:00

But this is something that we do. Sorry, we crucified Pavarotti for doing Pavarotti and Friends. We always do that, and the thing is, we can't afford to do that again If we miss this window that we have right now. So uh we're gonna be. We're gonna be fighting a much harder battle, but I don't think that's gonna happen.

Norman Reinhardt : 18:17

Let me move on. I don't know. Yeah, we gotta go all right, but I'd get real passionate about that. That's no, we can. We can all get real passionate about that one, okay.

Soula Parassidis: 18:23

So this um really ties in well to the next thing that I believe will happen and, by the way, I'm partly basing that based on some of the conversations that we're having within Living Opera so the rise of co-productions and resource sharing. So I predict we're not only going to see more regional co-productions, like what we were just talking about, but we're going to see many more international ones. I mean, of course that happens. That happens with an opera the show that I just did was a co-production with the National and it might have gone to Paris.

Soula Parassidis: 18:54

I'm not going to Paris now, I'm not supposed to say that, but whatever, bye. But this is not just going to be for the financial reasons that this is often done, but it's also going to be for this greater creative output, in my opinion.

Christos Makridis: 19:10

And reaching the audiences.

Soula Parassidis: 19:12

Yeah, yeah, I think usually when this happens it's more to do with the financial burden that's on companies. That is a great desire to have, but I think usually it's not.

Soula Parassidis: 19:26

But I think we're going to see a rise of that out of necessity, but out of increased boldness, because as more practitioners become multifaceted and we're seeing that so much, especially in the United States, a lot of practitioners are taking administrative roles or creative consultant roles and they are embracing kind of the artist profile that we need to take on today, that you can't just sit and wait for a contract to come into your inbox, that you have to actively be going out and creating these bridges to even within your own sector, let alone other ones. So that's my fourth prediction rise of co-productions and resource sharing, and I believe this is what I wrote. The audience will benefit from enhanced production quality but access to globally curated programming and that will increase the audience.

Christos Makridis: 20:12

Okay, guys tell me. Well, I'll just say, that goes back to your first prediction around digital and the move towards digital, so global productions will be easier in the future, where we have access to more digital technologies.

Soula Parassidis: 20:24

We have access to the plug-in those elements. Yeah, yeah.

Christos Makridis: 20:27

And I mean being able to have, I mean whether it's goggles or whether it's projectors, whether it's it just makes things easier to tap in across the world, and I mean I think transportation, infrastructure, all that will continue to grow better, yeah, yeah.

Soula Parassidis: 20:41

Okay, should.

Norman Reinhardt : 20:42

I just give us the last one. Yeah, yeah's it. You don't need my input on that, that's it, okay, okay.

Soula Parassidis: 20:51

I by the way, these are my predictions slash also. Just I suggest you do this.

Christos Makridis: 20:55

Yeah, we as a community thoughtfully suggest this Listen, engage with these things and be creative.

Soula Parassidis: 21:01

But it's like it's more palatable to say these are my predictions. Yeah right. We all do this, okay, well, yeah, right, we don't do this Okay.

Christos Makridis: 21:06

Well, if somebody disagrees, I mean debate it, Argue about it or just don't do it.

Soula Parassidis: 21:11

I'm too tired to argue about it.

Norman Reinhardt : 21:12

I don't want to argue about it. I'm going to try and lead by example. I don't want to argue about it. You can do it or not. Do it, it's fine.

Soula Parassidis: 21:17

Okay and again I'm not saying these things aren't happening to see an increase and we need an increase. And the last point is strategic audience development and education. So I believe that opera companies will invest heavily in audience engagement through educational outreach, immersive experiences, which is something that we're um getting really focused on. Um, how do you develop that? And then partnerships with schools and universities. Again, these things are happening, yeah, but I think we're going to see an increase of it.

Soula Parassidis: 21:52

All I was going to say is I think immersion is going to be a huge thing with that.

Norman Reinhardt : 21:56

Because they are already. You know they're reaching out for education.

Soula Parassidis: 21:58

This is where you can talk about generative AI, if you want. Yeah, this is totally a generative AI thing.

Norman Reinhardt : 22:02

But immersive experiences are going to be a big, especially, at least for the bigger companies that will have the budget to invest in something like that if they have the vision for it.

Christos Makridis: 22:15

Well, just coming back to what Sula just said at the beginning, was around. I mean, we need to look inward. We can't just keep saying the same talking points. This is one thing that happens all the time is that by saying the same talking points, there we go. That jogged your memory by saying the same talking points. This is one thing that happens all the time is that by saying the same talking points, there we go. That jogged your memory.

Christos Makridis: 22:30

By saying the same talking points, we might feel better about ourselves, but that doesn't solve the problem. So by saying like we need to bring new people in, you have to go back to the deeper issue, which is that, well, the sector is sort of imploding in many ways. How are we going to bring life to it? And if you truly ask the question, how do you bring life to it? Then you arrive at solutions, which is make the expenses leaner, so don't have admin expenses, keep going up to utilize digital technologies, think about blockchain for inventory, for cost management, etc. Three, four, five. You go through the laundry list of solutions and and you get away from just the talking points.

Norman Reinhardt : 23:04

Yeah, no, I'm, what were you? Oh, no, I was gonna say about that. You know, you know the administrative costs when it comes to the admin, then you have to go. Whatever your budget is for admin, you go. Okay, who am what am I, administratively, what am I going to invest in? Yeah, and right now, administratively, what I'm going to invest in is technology.

Soula Parassidis: 23:22

Yeah, I'm going to invest in technology.

Norman Reinhardt : 23:24

Somebody in a team and in a team who can help me do that. That doesn't mean you're getting rid of the people who know how to practically do the job, like casting directors, and you find good directors who are in no voices. It's not that you get rid of that, no, you streamline that. But where you invest your money in administratively is in the technology.

Christos Makridis: 23:48

Yeah.

Norman Reinhardt : 23:48

And developing the creativity around around that using those mediums.

Soula Parassidis: 23:53

We're obviously passionate about this and we're about to close out 2024. And I think what I'm really excited about is how certain people that are a force for good are being positioned within the industry.

Soula Parassidis: 24:07

I mean, I'm sitting with a couple of them right now, and I mean, Norman, you're there, for example, at Northwestern, to try and bring about some of these positive changes.

Soula Parassidis: 24:18

I think the only thing that any of us can do and this is, I guess, my call to action for this coming year is, when you're creating and when you're doing research even when I'm singing it's so hard For example, I go into my practice room and of course I'm thinking about I want to do something technically wonderful. I want to be able to express what's in my heart, and the thing that helps me to get out of my own head and at least have peace within myself is knowing that I am truly trying to create something, you know, with my voice because that's my medium that I hope will bring joy to other people. Not everybody has to create that way, and I know that they don't. Not everybody has to create that way, and I know that they don't. And we're in this absolutely insane moment where I don't know if you can go to any video on the Internet of a top singer with top visibility right now and not see the most horrendous things written about that person.

Norman Reinhardt : 25:23

Oh man. And that is exhausting because at the end of the day, they're just stewarding a gift that they have.

Soula Parassidis: 25:29

They're trying to cultivate it, they're trying to express it, and I wish that we could just be a bit more disciplined when we're engaging. Yeah, because, at the end of the day, what do you want? Do you just want this art form to die completely? I mean, it's, it's. Yeah. If you're somebody who loves music and loves opera, yeah, try to be that force for good. And I know, I know it's challenging because, um, you know, we're all in it and and we're all in this digital world now too, and we're even, as we said, using it to try and increase the audience. But I think that in 2025, it could be really great if we would try to take all of that passion and think about how then we could make things better.

Norman Reinhardt : 26:18

And I know that, generally speaking, that's what people want to do and that sounds like a very general thing to say and a very sort of well, no, but I I think that's true, I know at least I can say, you know, being at Northwestern and with these, they're really wonderful people and they really do care and they're trying to everybody. There are many good people who are just trying to, but it's just a hard, but that's why we have to have conversations like this.

Christos Makridis: 26:46

And you have to be intentional and disciplined, like what you say.

Soula Parassidis: 26:50

I think because I'm always going to come at it from the perspective Get into a place in your life where, first of all, you even know what questions to ask, because you can't achieve and execute at a high level until you know what you're missing and lacking in knowledge. So now, for example, when I go into a voice lesson, it's totally different than when I was a student, because I'm going in saying, oh, my goodness, you know I'm hearing. On this note, there's something that I don't like. I don't understand this concept fully. I'm coming in with plenty of questions to solve the issue that I see in my own execution, because I want to execute at a high level, and that's the other thing. I think it's like a matter of a desire for personal excellence where you aren't demanding of yourself in a way that you are being unreasonable, but just knowing that there's more, are being unreasonable, but just knowing that there's more. No-transcript.