I have just returned from a special week in Bucharest, invited to attend the Opera Europa conference, 18 – 21st November. Our meeting rooms were in the magnificent opera house in the city and our hosts welcoming as you would expect from this deeply cultured country.

There were 246 people from 32 countries, many of the major opera houses and arts festivals from around the world and it has given me much to reflect on, not least the place of opera in our lives and also its reputation and lack of diversity. It was good to acknowledge the innovation and inventiveness of small scale companies and how we lead in many areas of education, facilitation, use of digital technology and diversity, out of necessity if not a much greater freedom and flexibility…I don’t include the struggle for funding in this statement!

People in general were very open and interested and we have made a couple of excellent contacts for future collaboration.

Thanks to Nicholas Payne for this inspiring visit.