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What happens when opera audiences arrive to find armed guards, barbed wire, and manila tags instead of their usual pre-show champagne?
They experience something unforgettable.
Sue Elliott, General Director and CEO of Calgary Opera, joins us for the latest CultureTalk episode to share nearly two decades of insights on making opera urgently relevant through documentary-style storytelling. Her work spans from The Refuge – which engaged 234,000 people by collecting stories from hundreds of refugees and migrants – to creating immersive theatrical experiences that begin the moment audiences step through the door.
"We want to make sure that everybody is in this with their hearts from the very beginning till the very end of the opera," Sue explains, introducing the concept she calls "artistic humility," which recognises that opera organisations must listen more than they sing.
Perhaps most striking is Sue's approach to audience development, which abandons traditional demographic segmentation entirely. Her curiosity-based "affinity model" produced remarkable results in Seattle: audiences who first engaged through these programmes became full subscribers 50% faster than through traditional marketing and stayed significantly longer.
When asked about technology's role, Sue's answer is refreshingly pragmatic: "Is it as easy to buy a ticket as it is for me to buy a book on Amazon?" For Sue, technology isn't about fancy features – it's about removing friction from the audience experience.
Despite challenges facing the sector, Sue remains remarkably optimistic: "I believe that our best generations of opera are in front of us."
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