The opera world is shifting. Innovative small producers are connecting a younger following to opera in exciting ways while simultaneously attracting aficionados. Long-standing companies have experimented for years with inventive ideas for developing audiences, and particularly in the past decade, many have expanded their traditional programming to include more new work, alternative venues and original content.
Glimmerglass is looking at this point in time—from programming trends to human concerns—and asking the question: What social responsibility does an arts organization have beyond its artistic mission?
This artistically vibrant project uses the podcasting medium to connect opera to issues in people’s lives, while raising important questions for the industry. With Co-executive Producer, WFMT Radio Network in Chicago, Season 1 of the Breaking Glass: Hyper-linking Opera & Issues Podcast will be made available starting in August 2018 through iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, Google Play or wherever you download your podcasts.
You can find more information on Breaking Glass on the Glimmerglass Festival website here.
You can read the press release for the first episode of Breaking Glass here.
Breaking Glass Podcast:
Paige Hernandez, host
Tazewell Thompson, regular contributor
Produced by Stacia Brown and edited by Ali Post of Rise of Charm City, LLC
Music and sound design by Elisheba Ittoop
Christopher Powell and Tony Macaluso, executive producers
Glimmerglass Festival:
Francesca Zambello, Artistic & General Director
Sam Forehand, Communications Manager
Cat Syman, Communications Coordinator
Joel Morain, Resident Sound Designer
WFMT Radio Network:
Heather McDougall, project manager
Stacy Gerard, production and distribution manager
Maggie Jensen, distribution assistant
Engineering assistance by Becky Nystedt
Breaking Glass and the development of Stomping Grounds and Blue are funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Glimmerglass’s commissioning fees for Blue are funded in part by an OPERA America Female Composers Grant. Further development of Blueis made possible by a Repertoire Development Grant from the Opera Fund. The Breaking Glass podcast is a co-production of the Glimmerglass Festival and the WFMT Radio Network, a Chicago-based producer and distributor of radio programs and podcasts about the arts. The podcast is made possible by an OPERA America Innovation Grant supported by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.
Special thanks to the Syracuse University Maxwell School of Public Administration’s X-Lab and Julie Dudrick and Emily Wong from the Upstate Institute at Colgate University.