MARIE CURIE 2021 – Project OPANDA. Opera Fandom in the Digital Age. Researcher
Title: Opera Fandom in the Digital Age
Acronym: OPANDA
Researcher: Dr Nicolò Palazzetti
Start date: 1 November 2022
End date: 31 October 2024
Call: HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01
Project Number: 101063989
EU Funding: € 188 590,08
Partner institutions/supervisors
Hosting Institution: Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, Department of History, Anthropology, Religions, Art History, and Performing Arts; Prof. Emanuele Senici (Supervisor), Prof. Romana Andò (Co-Supervisor)
Associated Partners for Secondments: Digital Ethnography Research Centre (DERC), Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia (Prof. Tania Lewis); Yale University, USA, Music Department (Prof. Gundula Kreuzer)
Project website:
https://nicolopalazzetti.wixsite.com/operafandom/
Project summary:
Today, interactions between audiences and theatres occur to a significant extent via online platforms and digital media. OPANDA studies the impact of these transformative technologies on opera fandom. Although recent research has addressed the digital dissemination of opera, the phenomenon of cyber-fandom remains under-researched. Situated at the intersection of musicology, sociology and media studies, the project asks how opera fans perform their passion digitally. This entails the investigation of their interactions on the web, but the project also considers how cyber-fandom intersects with traditional fan behaviour. In a post-pandemic and hyper-mediatised society in which the divide between stage and screen is constantly blurred, the project reconsiders past audience practices and envisions possible future ones.
OPANDA aims at providing a pioneering study of today’s opera fans (i.e. the most active operagoers), including their digital practices and communities. To reach this goal, OPANDA is based on a comparative and qualitative analysis of representative case studies, combining digital ethnography on web communities and fanzines, participant observation at opera companies (La Scala, Paris Opera, the New York Metropolitan Opera), and interviews with fans.