Fans develop distinctive patterns of interpretation, social interaction, and cultural production based on their community’s shared passion. The internet has reinforced fan communities, enabling networked fandom to promote various subcultures.
First, OPANDA has pioneered the study of the digital practices of opera fans – specifically, the actions involving digital, social, and streaming media. Through these platforms, fans express their identities and relationships based on their shared passion.
Second, OPANDA has made significant contributions to fan studies. Nineteenth-century operagoers can be considered the first modern fans, shaped by a shared enthusiasm, emerging urban culture, and new technologies. By investigating today’s opera fandom, the project has examined the latest developments in this prototypical fandom.
Third, OPANDA has addressed key debates regarding the future of the performing arts after the COVID-19 pandemic. It has explored how ‘cyber-spectatorship’ is reshaping the experience of performing arts, demonstrating how opera cyber-fans are promoting horizontal participation and challenge traditional depictions of opera as a highbrow art form.
Fourth, OPANDA has de-centered the digital as the sole focus of research, instead connecting it to other material, physical, and experiential elements. Central to this approach is the concept of ‘digital connectivity,’ reflecting a transition from a relatively one-way broadcast culture to a communicative ecology of networked devices, spaces, and temporalities.
Fifth, OPANDA has supported a broadened focus in music studies, shifting from an emphasis on the creators of musical works (i.e. composers) to the exploration of complex networks involving institutions, media, and audiences.
By launching a new research strand, the project has also fostered an understanding of the networks linking creative institutions, audiences and digital media, with impacts extending beyond academia. On an economic level, digital companies in the performing arts can utilise OPANDA’s findings as scholarly resources. Through interactions with stakeholders and non-academic institutions (e.g. opera companies) across different continents, OPANDA has built bridges between scholars, theaters and audiences, enhancing the social relevance of EU research initiatives. In the long term, the project will contribute to strengthening the future of the performing arts by enhancing our understanding of the social impacts of cyber-consumption and the diffusion of opera, a celebrated site of Europe’s cultural heritage.
