Opera Unplugged

Practice, Performance & Workshops

Learning from the Past & Planning for the Future

An International Conference

Tyne Theatre & Opera House, Newcastle

2nd – 6th September 2025

In partnership with Opera North

Invitation for Proposals

The Tyne Theatre & Opera House will be hosting its 3rd conference on 19th century theatre in September 2025. ‘Opera Unplugged’ will be an opportunity to speak, meet and perform – to talk about technique, acoustics, traditional crafts, staging – bringing the past back to the future, and making opera relevant in today’s society.

Their beautiful 1,200 seat Grade I listed theatre will host a number of different activities over a 5 day period from Tuesday 2nd – Saturday 6th September 2025. They are now looking for proposals from opera companies, theatre historians, academics, musicians, musicologist and traditional opera craftspeople. There will be papers, performances, workshops, demonstrations and provocative discussion in both their main auditorium, and their new Black Box studio which seats 80.

To bring all this together they now invite you to send them the following proposals for consideration:

1. 30 minute papers on your chosen relevant topic (Proposals should include a paper title, an abstract of no more than 350 words and a short biography).
2. Performance extracts from a chosen work – with discussion and interpretation
3. Small scale performances for their new Black Box studio
4. Collaborative mini-workshops on a chosen topic

People or companies interested in submitting to options 2, 3 or 4, please contact conference@ttoh.uk for further discussion.

Conference topics include; acoustic performance, staging opera in the 19th century, the stage – the pit and the audience, historic stage machinery in performance, lighting technique in the nineteenth century, touring opera companies of the period… but there may be others that you might wish to suggest. Above all we are very keen to see practical demonstrations – show and tell, not just talk!

Please send proposals by email to conference@ttoh.uk no later than 5pm on Friday 31 January 2025.

To register to receive delegate information, email conference@ttoh.uk and add DELEGATE INFO to the email header.

www.tynetheatreandoperahouse.uk