We originally intended to make this shift back to the rainy months with the 20/21 season, based on patron feedback. As season planning became complicated with COVID-19 impacts, our ability to produce live opera was paused, then channeled into digital presentations. We presented our first "ramp out of COVID-19" season in 21/22, during the fall - spring timeline. 

Our 22/23 season is following the traditional cadence of fall to spring; which we will continue to repeat as we ramp out of COVID-19 impacts and right-size our budget. Don't worry though: we'll also stay busy in the summer months too, offering Portland Opera a la Cart, partner performances, balcony concerts, and much more. 

We are currently planning the 23/24 season, and will follow the fall/winter cadence, with some fun surprises for summer events, too!

The strategies surrounding venue mix and scales of production impact our work artistically, as well as our fiscal sustainability.

On the artistic side, we always want to adopt a venue mix that reflects the desire for both grand and intimate opera experiences, and continue to present repertoire that balances classic and contemporary work. We believe that opera can thrive in unexpected places, too, and continue to work with community partners and our arts ecosystem to plan for operatic activations off and on the traditional performance stages. Our production and artistic teams consider various scale of production and venue options/artistic partners as we plan for future seasons, and future community partnerships.

On the financial side, various scales of production impact our costs and our revenue potential, and so finding the right "mix" has been part of our planning for sustainability. Opera is expensive to produce! 

Ramping out of the multi-year COVID-19 financial impacts will take time, and we are working with our board of directors and staff to plan responsibly for audience trends and increasing costs, and to discover a post-COVID fiscally responsible sustainable model for our future. Tickets sales do not cover the costs of producing opera, so we rely on the generosity and support of our donors to make the art of opera come alive on our stage. 

In February of 2021, we held a Board retreat and discussed plans for shifting some of the financial and artistic milestones as outlined in the strategic plan due to the pandemic, in the areas of venue mix and scales of production. The result of these conversations is a ramp that we’ve identified in order to grow back from these closures. In September of 2022, we held another Board retreat, with our partners and friends at the Met Group, to discuss our strategic plan today, and to share key accomplishments while grappling with the challenges that impact our company.

Together, our staff and board is actively engaged in identifying solutions to support our continued progress to achieve our vision for the future of Portland Opera.  

A core piece of our first strategy is to invest in technology and systems to build clearer paths for ticketing and donation operations, and price optimization, as well as systems for company functionality and best practices.

We did that! During the pandemic, our team pivoted to utilize technology in ways that we hadn’t in the past. We modernized our processes and paper usage as we learned to operate remotely. We broadcast live digital performances; captured socially distant and safe recordings of our full chorus and orchestra for editing; and established Portland Opera Onscreen, a digital on-demand channel. We shared remote learning activities and programming through Opera Elements, and held virtual community forums, special events, and panel discussions. 

We've also used this time to modernize and streamline our many of our business practices and policies internally, especially in the area of finance and admin. In June, we completed the implementation phase of a new software that streamlines and modernizes our artistic and production communications and project management. Now that we are firmly into the 22/23 season, we are seeing these new systems impact and streamline our production workflows as we hold rehearsals and performances. 

Yes we did! In March of 2021, we launched a new website designed to share more company information for transparency (like this page!), community information, and artistic insight with visitors. We also successfully transitioned our ticketing and patron services database and systems to Tessitura, a platform that better serves our audiences and patrons, based on their feedback and preferences.

We continue to let data chart our path to success. With quantitative data and trend reporting; combined with social listening, we continue to center our patrons and community members at the core of our company; and as the reason why we do what we do. 

One of our key goals in the strategic plan is to transform and define an artistic point of view that is a reflection of community, through production and ancillary programming choices that celebrate classic and contemporary works.

On July 21, 2021, Portland Opera announced that Priti Gandhi has joined the company as our Artistic Director. Priti then joined the team full time in early September, and is a vital additional leader for our organization.

With Priti’s leadership, and in partnership with general director Sue Dixon, and our artistic advisors Karen Slack and Damien Geter (both of whom joined in 2020) we are transforming the process of artistic planning and leadership at Portland Opera, while expanding our workflows to be more inclusive and community driven. The result of this collaboration will be experienced throughout the 22/23 season, and beyond. 

In August of 2021, we announced that Maestro George Manahan was stepping down as Music Director of Portland Opera, after 9 wonderful seasons. We celebrated Maestro Manahan with a special concert in his honor in May, 2022, and we are so grateful for his legacy of excellence at Portland Opera.

In late September, artistic advisor Damien Geter was named interim Music Director for Portland Opera, as we prepared to launch our 21/22 season. Maestro Geter's contributions continue to shine at Portland Opera in a new way—one that directly impacts our artistic goals for continued excellence as an ensemble. 

As our artistic ensemble continues their collaborative planning, we remain committed to a Portland Opera that expands the repertoire of opera: balancing cultural touchstones and anchor operas with new work, lesser known work, or company debuts. We are committed to creating and presenting works of art that actively dismantle the operatic norms, while reimagining the traditional canon through an equity lens. We challenge our audiences and the industry by creating opportunities for authentic storytelling which inspire and lift the human spirit, while celebrating the human voice.

During the pandemic, our Community Engagement Working Group, led by Portland Opera Board Member Hugh Harris, helped transform the way we work, building connections and stronger communities as our region reopens from COVID-19 closures. The working group included Jenny Stadler of PHAME Academy, Jonathan Garcia of Portland Public Schools, and Dr. Leroy Bynum of Portland State University, as well as members of the Portland Opera Board of Directors, and Portland Opera staff. Today, as we head into 2023, the staff of Portland Opera continues to build upon these foundational changes and insights brought forward from the community working group. 

The board and staff of Portland Opera has also been in conversations about strategic goals for ongoing programs, how best to measure engagement over time, and how to work with stakeholders and community members to develop a meaningful civic, social, and artistic practice for Portland Opera’s future.

In summer of 2022, we toured the region with our award-winning Opera a la Cart pop-up performance venue, sharing more than 40 community performances at street fairs, parks, partner locations, and festivals. This year Opera a la Cart joined the return of Sunday Parkways in Portland neighborhoods, added to the celebration at the Oregon City Festival of the Arts, sang at Pioneer Courthouse Square, Cartlandia, the Vancouver Arts Walk, La Strada Chalk Festival in Hillsboro, and much more! In addition to the cart performances, we also partnered with Portland Parks Lunch & Play program once again to bring Opera Elements to children and families in select city parks. In addition, we joined more than 10,000 people at Pioneer Courthouse Square in celebrating India Day, and began planning for the season ahead: laying the groundwork for new collaborations with Lincoln High Schools Cardinal Choir, Portland State University masterclasses, and more.

In fall of 2022, we were delighted to relaunch our in-person Portland Opera Resident Artist program, and welcomed the 22/23 Portland Opera Resident Artists, in an adapted program that focused on their work with Carmen. Our 22/23 Portland Opera Resident Artists included soprano Judy Yannini, mezzo-soprano Cloe SanAntonio, tenor Matthew Cerillo, and bass-baritone Keanon Kyles.

During their residency, this ensemble made community connections that resulted in artistic and professional opportunities such as baritone Keanon Kyles being interviewed on KGW8's new morning show, "Hello! Rose City" with host Lacey Evans. Also, soprano Judy Yannini and POGO's Beatrice pianist Astrid Morales joined forces for a performance at the La Casita Art Gallery & Cultural Center for a First Friday artwalk event in Vancouver, WA in early October.

The 22/23 Portland Opera Resident Artists residency culminated in a free public performance at The Old Church in November, 2022. Learn about these amazing artists here.

We also connected with two organizations to collaborate on engagement events free to the community inspired by our production of Carmen. We shared the Opera a la Cart stage in Pioneer Courthouse Square with Experience Flamenco Portland in August and in early October we collaborated with Flamenco Pacifico on a series of free events titled "Dance, Music, and Archetype" to create context around Carmen.

In fall of 2022, we also announced that Jasmine Johnson, Portland Opera's first Ensemble Leadership Fellow, will continue the fellowship for the 2022/23 season. This new program aims to move the art form forward by providing career advancement opportunities for individuals who have been historically underrepresented in the world of opera, in both administrative and artistic roles. You can learn more about Jasmine and her work with the company here.

Strategic Goal: curate collaborations or commissions that harness the creativity and spirit that is unique to this place.

• • We're thrilled to share that we're involved in two new co-productions and collaborations: The Shining and The Factotum. While we aren't ready to share full details quite yet, we are currently planning timing and information: so look for additional announcements in the coming months!
    
    
  • Our path to commissioning new work has been unfolding, and has been a deliberate process. With both When the Sun Comes Out and The Central Park Five in the 21/22 season, we presented the second professional production of both of these new operas. Doing so allowed us to stretch the artistic muscles that help us tackle new work, new work development, and ultimately pave the way for our next step: creating new work. 
    
    
  • In fall of 2022, we shared the world premiere of Beatrice, a new opera for the Portland Opera To Go 22/23 educational tour. Composed by Dave Ragland with a libretto by Mary McCallum, our new youth opera Beatrice is a 50-minute piece inspired by the life and story of Beatrice Morrow Cannady, a prominent leader in Oregon's cultural community and civil rights movement of the early 1900s. In April of 2022, we held a workshop with members of the community to share, listen, and sing the first iteration of Beatrice's story. Beatrice toured throughout the region this fall, and we were honored to share this music and story with the community. 
    
    
  • On June 1, 2022, we announced the commission of a new opera, Jubilee, by composer Damien Geter (who is also Portland Opera's interim Music Director and co-Artistic Advisor) and Librettist Lorene Cary. Connecting the heroic story of the original Fisk University Jubilee Singers with their current Grammy-winning descendants, Jubilee investigates Black legacy, love, death, trauma, and joy. Jubilee will be written for 8 operatic soloists and a 15-piece orchestra. It will be workshopped in the springs of 2024 and 2025 and have its world premiere at the Newmark Theatre in March 2026. You can learn more about the project here.

One of our strategic goals is to explore different opera experiences that may serve new and existing audiences in new ways, while continuing to honor the traditional repertoire that our art form is built upon.

Throughout last season, we continued to partner artistically and strategically with community and peer organizations. You can read about our artistic collaboration with Shaun Keylock Company during When the Sun Comes Out; and in addition to this type of local collaboration, we've forged ahead with national partners as we continue to share best practices for inclusion in our field.

In April of 2021, we announced a collaboration with Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Omaha, Opera Columbus, and the producing team of Up Until Now Collective to bring a short video series titled, "Soul (Signs): An Opera Playlist" to Boston Lyric Opera's digital streaming channel operabox.tv. This video series is a collaboration between deaf and hearing artists combining vivid cinematography, American Sign Language, captions, and singing to create a rich opera experience. 

In March of 2022, we partnered with The American Opera Projects and The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center of NYC to commemorate International Transgender Day of Visibility as part of an ensemble of opera companies who have presented the opera As One. The one-day concert and panel discussion, titled "AS ONE: THE WORK CONTINUES..." featured cast members from Portland Opera's 2018 production, and was livestreamed for free (taped in front of a live audience) around the world. 

Outside of these formal partnerships, we continue to partner with area universities and colleges to increase the frequency of artist connections through master class work, onsite internships, and mentorship. In February and March of 2022, the External Affairs team welcomed an intern from University of Portland to join the company and front of house team for When the Sun Comes Out and The Central Park Five.

And we continue to build on the lessons we learned during the pandemic. In 2021, we held over 50 public events and performances; and none of these were in a traditional “operatic setting” on stage. We joined in activating downtown Portland with Pioneer Courthouse Square's Polka Dot Downtown concerts at numerous locations. We brought our Opera a la Cart to Hoyt Arboretum, Shute Park, Cartlandia, the SE waterfront, and all around the region. We partnered with Oregon Symphony to celebrate the return of the Waterfront Concert, with featured singers from Portland Opera. We created a venue for our outdoor production of Frida; and shared Songs for the Summer at Old Moody Stages. We teamed up with the Rose City Rollers to create unique live opera roller-skating events with Skatemobile. We created a special Opera a la Cart Lunch & Play event at city parks around town, in partnership with the Portland Parks Lunch and Play program to build Opera Elements to children and families.

A core outcome of our strategic plan, and one which impacts all of our work as a company in the community, was to update Portland Opera’s mission, vision, values and brand identity to better reflect the work of the entire organization.

In 2020, we embarked on an exciting process to update our vision, mission, values and brand identity with our partners at Karma Agency. This included an audit of our current brand platform, a review of insights identified by Metropolitan Group, and more. We held more working sessions, Town Hall conversations, surveys, and key stakeholder interviews. Led by our consultants, the process involved the full Portland Opera Board of Directors, all staff, members of our chorus and orchestra, artists, partners in the community, and peers. After further brand equity review and community feedback, the staff voted to adopt our reenergized mission, vision, and values in December of 2020. You can learn more about them here.

We are energized by our new mission, vision, and values; and are beginning to navigate our work with these articulations as our North Star. 

Activate an organizational commitment to equity, diversity & inclusion to transform our company:

• Beginning in 2019, we activated an organizational-wide commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and the transformation of our company. You can learn more about our journey thus far here.
• Key highlights since our most recent strategic planning progress report include:
  • The application and use of our Equity, Financial and Strategic lens through which the Board of Directors and staff of Portland Opera make decisions regarding policy and program decisions. Today, the EFS lens has informed changes to our company in HR and hiring practices, our bylaws, our gift acceptance policy, our public programming, our commissions and future, and departmental activity across the organization.
  • In July of 2022, our staff created a working accountability group to chart, promote, and adjust the 85 commitments and recommendations for transformation put forward by the Cultural Equity Planning Taskforce (comprised on staff and board members) for key areas of cultural equity impact across all departments and segments of the organization.
    
    • Their highlights to date as a working group include creating audience support pathways, fostering open forum discussions for all staff members to share reflections, challenges, and honest feedback, and more. 
  • As of December, 2022, we continue to work with our partners at Equity Quotient to plan for ongoing professional development for equity, diversity, and inclusion as key competencies for everyone at Portland Opera. This includes upcoming workshops with our chorus and orchestra in the New Year, as well a scheduled 2-day all-staff learning lab and retreat in January, 2023. 

In the research that led to our strategic plan, we heard loud and clear that there are many opportunities for Portland Opera to strengthen our connection to the community. We do, of course, have community engagement and education programming (like Opera a la Cart and Portland Opera to Go) but in addition to those programs, we've reflected on ways that we can make a bigger impact in our shared civic life.  Here are some of the ways we are starting to refocus our energy towards that goal:

• Showing up for other organizations and conversations. Our team is stepping up our volunteerism and civic engagement. Sue Dixon is a member of the Board of Directors and Governance Chair for the Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon, as well as the PDX Recovery & Action Committee for the Mayor's Office. Andrea Tichy (Marketing) joined the Portland Business Alliance's 2023 Cohort for the Leadership Portland program, and serves as the Chair of the Cultural Coalition for Washington County Board of Directors (the regranting arm of the Oregon Cultural Trust in Washington County), Chris Kim in Patron Services is also a board member. April Bridges (Development) has joined the board of directors of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and Richard Seals (CFO) has joined Sue Dixon in the OMSI Redevelopment Committee. Christine Richardson (Costume Director) is a member of the City of Vancouver's Culture, Art & Heritage Commission. Staff members are increasing their volunteerism for the Junior League, Blanchett House, and many other organizations around town, which is one way that we are changing company culture to make community engagement a part of all departments. 
• Bringing opera experiences deeper into the community. Our digital access and programs have allowed us to reach schools, educators, groups, and community members in new and changing ways.  As we continue to develop our community engagement activities for physical live performances, we continue to discuss the possibilities for access that digital programs will permit. This, working in tandem with community ticketing partner expansions for our mainstage productions, all represent our first steps in cultivating deeper community audience engagement.