About

A Laboratory for New Opera

Founded in 2021 by director-librettist Max Hoehn, Opera21’s mission is to commission a series of new operas-in-progress and showcase them online through an exciting offering of musical extracts, downloadable libretti and behind-the-scenes interviews. 

"Unless you are feeding the new you have no right to live off the old."

Sir David Pountney
on the future of opera

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Led by the artists

Composers and librettists only exist on the margins of today’s opera industry. In a post-pandemic world, we urgently need new stories and new commissioning models.

In steps Opera21, a small, artist-led outfit that aims to collaborate with some of the most exciting and imaginative composers working today. We concentrate on the crucial phases of libretto-writing, commissioning and showcasing musical extracts before working towards finding partners to produce a fully-staged world premiere.

Current supporters

RVW Trust
The Marchus Trust
Kate Olver
Toni Staub
Anne & Kitty Vagi
Laszlo Kiralyfi
Doris Fanconi & Jurg Lehmann
Conrado Noetzli
Ros Shelley
Keturah Stickann
Peter Hoehn
Miguel Morin
Esther Schoellkopf Steiger
& three anonymous donors