We are nearing the end of our Kickstarter campaign!  If this is news to you, take a minute to watch this movie:

Or, head over to our Kickstarter campaign page.  Read on to learn more about this project and we think it is important.

Opera on Tap Berlin turns one year old in February and to celebrate we are producing a fully-staged version of “The Tales of Hoffmann”.  We have drawn our inspiration for our one year anniversary show directly from the Opera on Tap (OOT) organization’s mission statement in many ways.  For this post, I would like to focus on the following point in particular (taken verbatim from the “about OOT” page here):

• “Expose new audiences to opera and classical music by taking opera and classical music out of the concert hall and performing it in alternative venues.”

The OOT organization was formed principally for educational purposes and aims to expose audiences to opera in a new and different way. It always delights us when we hear somebody has experienced opera for the first time through attending one of our events. Even in a city home to three fabulous opera houses, we have met plenty of people in the past year who didn’t think opera was for them, until they saw Opera on Tap. We believe our outreach helps to build and increase opera audiences.

With this project, we are striving to build an unforgettable experience for our audience, a large part of which will be because of our partnership with the Delphi Theatre, a former silent movie theatre from the 1920’s. The layout of the Delphi allows the audience to become immersed into the show – to bring them closer to the performers. This is critical, because OOT audiences often tell me that one of their favorite parts of our shows is their proximity to the singers. For example, sometimes a performer will be singing an aria at “full power” a mere 5-feet (1.5 meters) from the crowd. Normally at the theater, you might hear that same aria from the balcony, or at best, the orchestra pit will be between you and the performers.

As you can see in the photo below, even the stage will not be very far away from the first tables.  There is a bar in the back, which will serve as a major focal point of this story about an alcoholic suffering from writer’s block.  There will be little to no barrier between the audience and the singers, with the singers roaming in and amongst the audience as Hoffmann’s story comes to life.

At the time of this post, we still need about €2,500 with 54 hours to go.  Any contribution helps make this dream a reality!  As is the case with Kickstarter, if we do not reach our goal by 6 a.m. CET/12 a.m. EST on December 24th, we will not receive any of the pledged donations.

Click here to back our project.  Thanks for supporting independent opera!

Prost,

Anne & Sarah, Berlin Co-managing Divas