The Traction research project -which ran for three years between January 2020 and December 2022- aimed to contribute to opera’s renewal as a territory of cultural and social inclusion, with the support of innovative technology. We set about to find new ways for people at risk of social exclusion to co-create opera performances with professional artists, telling stories that are important to them, and reconnecting the form with its socially progressive potential.

Traction researched how this could be done through three exploratory operas in Barcelona, Portugal, and Ireland that offer a range of scale, social context, approaches and artistic values, within an overarching principle of artistic co-creation.

This Project received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 870610.