North American opera companies have excelled at attracting new audiences, especially in recent years. The opportunity now is to get these audience members to return as loyal operagoers for the future.

OPERA America’s 2024 national research study Understanding Opera’s New Audiences offers insights into the motivations, experiences, and barriers faced by these first-timers. Among those findings:

• Newcomers are looking for a “new experience”: They want an engaging spectacle of music and theater, coupled with offstage attractions and amenities.
• Repertoire matters to newcomers: Works that are “famous or well-known” — namely, those with title recognition, including both new works and inherited repertoire — are most likely to inspire attendance. Whether new audiences choose to return after their first visit depends on how opera companies fulfill the promise of an enjoyable experience with repertoire that feels compelling and relevant.

This resource guide, Producing for Opera’s New Audiences, looks specifically at how opera companies are most creatively approaching works of the inherited repertoire to deliver on the experiences new audiences demand.

It includes: 

• Strategies for Producing Inherited Repertoire
• Case Studies
• Practical Considerations

Engaging Opera's New Audiences: Turning Research into Action was developed with support from the Dr. M. Lee Pearce Foundation.

Download the Full Guide

Download the full guide for free by completing the form below. Once submitted, you will receive an email with a direct download link.

For questions about the report, contact us at Marketing@operaamerica.org.