From 17th to 20th November 2024, the 17th Annual Ópera Latinoamérica Conference will take place, hosted by the Municipal Theatre of Santiago, Chile. The gathering will bring together over 100 leaders in the performing arts from 25 countries, who will meet to discuss articulation, innovation, and leadership for the sustainable development of theatres. The event will be inaugurated with a free, public lecture by Spanish academic and philosopher José María Lassalle, who will speak on artificial intelligence and the performing arts.

In November, Chile will become the epicentre of the performing arts, new creation, and cultural management in Ibero-America. Opera Latin America (OLA), the largest network of theatres, companies, and opera festivals in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula, will hold its 17th Annual Conference from 17th to 20th November, hosted by the Municipal Theatre of Santiago. This event coincides with the first edition of the NóM Festival – New Opera and Music, which will feature new opera and music programming in 15 national venues, as well as the seminar “Dialogues between Academia and Industry on Music and Performance in Ibero-America,” to be held at the Campus Oriente of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (UC).

“Chile has been the headquarters of Opera Latin America since its foundation in 2007, and since the Annual Conference is taking place here this year, we aim to provide a panoramic view of the sector: during the meeting, we will focus on the management challenges facing our institutions with an eye towards contributing to sustainable development through articulation, innovation, and leadership. Moreover, OLA’s mission is to internationalise Latin American culture, and in that line, we are promoting the NóM Festival so that our meeting’s guests can get to know Chile’s artistic offerings and infrastructure. Finally, this ecosystem perspective also led us to organise, together with the UC Music Institute, a seminar to bridge management with the training and research work of universities,” comments Alejandra Martí, Executive Director of Opera Latinoamérica.

16th Annual Ópera Latinoamérica Conference in Manaos, Brazil (2023).

The OLA Annual Conference, organised in collaboration with the Municipal Theatre of Santiago – National Opera of Chile, will gather over 100 leaders and professionals from the performing arts and music. Directors and representatives from major Ibero-American theatres, such as the Teatro Colón, Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo, Theatro Municipal de São Paulo, the Opera de Bellas Artes, Teatro Real, and Gran Teatre del Liceu, among others, will attend, along with professionals from the Paris National Opera, the National Opera and Ballet of Finland, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), CAF · Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, the Irish company Dumbworld, the IMZ Academy International Music + Media Centre, Corfo, Puerto de Ideas, and Fundación Teatro a Mil.

“Since its inception, Opera Latin America has given a voice to Ibero-American theatres in the world of opera and the performing arts. That’s why the importance of its Annual Conference is to preserve this space for reflection, analysis, and networking that facilitates collaboration between institutions and also with theatres in Europe and the United States, and we hope soon also with Asia,” comments Carmen Gloria Larenas, General Director of the Municipal Theatre of Santiago, regarding the OLA Annual Conference, which this year will for the first time include representatives from China and Japan.

Titled “Theatres and Sustainable Development: Articulation, Innovation, and Leadership,” the Conference will have an opening ceremony – free and open to the public – on Monday, 19th November, at 12:10 PM in the Main Hall of the Municipal Theatre of Santiago, where Spanish academic and philosopher José María Lassalle will deliver a talk focused on artificial intelligence and the performing arts in a post-pandemic world. The programme will delve into three main themes: articulation and circulation, creativity and innovation, and adaptive leadership in times of change.

Titulada Teatros y desarrollo sostenible: articulación, innovación y liderazgo, la Conferencia tendrá una ceremonia de inauguración –gratuita y abierta al público– el lunes 19 de noviembre, a las 12:10 horas, en la Sala Principal del Teatro Municipal de Santiago, en la que el académico y filósofo español José María Lassalle dictará una charla enfocada en la inteligencia artificial y las artes escénicas en un mundo postpandemia. En cuanto a temáticas, el programa abordará en profundidad tres ejes: la articulación y circulación, la creatividad e innovación y el liderazgo adaptativo en tiempos de cambio.

In parallel to these themes, the conference will also host the second edition of the Co-Production Market. This will allow OLA member institutions to share artistic projects that could be subjects for co-production or circulation, and will include an opportunity for other theatres and independent companies to present proposals to programmers, journalists, and representatives from over 65 institutions from the Americas, the United States, Europe, and Asia that will be part of the meeting.