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In 1996, the Pocket Opera Company (Nuremberg), the Sinfonietta Nova (Arnstadt), the Theater Kontra-Punkt (Düsseldorf) and others founded the Europäische Vereinigung für Kammeroper und Musiktheater. Our aim is to attract a wider audience to the "mini-opera form". From the very beginning we have had numerous comrades in arms such as Pauline and Arno Dieteren from the Ensemble Contraint (The Netherlands), James Conway from the music theatre (Dublin, Ireland) and Peter Jonkheer and Jan Verstraeten from the Opera Mobile (Antwerpen, Belgium) who all helped to make the first 6 Tage Oper festival in 1998 a success.
The name of the festival was borrowed from the 6 Tage Oper from Nuremberg, Fürth and Erlangen, organised by the Pocket Opera and other theatres. We wanted to turn a regional festival international and that is just what happened.
From the beginning, the European Union financed a great part of the festival, followed by the foundation Kunst und Kultur NRW. But it was not only German institutions who sponsored us, the British and Irish Council, the Polish cultural institute and others also contributed.
Word went round Europe and during the first six days of the festival we had guests from Finland, Greece, Great Britain and other countries.
Now, we are moving into the second phase of the organisation's activities. Theatres and artists associated with the organisation will be networked more closely. This will start with the creation of an artists' database, followed by a European performance calendar for chamber opera and music theatre. Co-productions have already started which resulted from the first festival; the organisation will work towards promoting more such co-productions in future.
We want the fourth festival in 2004 to take place in several European countries simultaneously. This is our aim for the next two years.
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