The Royal Opera House Celebrates International Women's Day 2021

Royal Opera House celebrates International Women's Day this month with several events. Check out the lineup below!

Royal Opera House Insights: Influence, challenge, and change: What is next for women in the creative industries? | Monday 8 March at 7pm GMT on the Royal Opera House YouTube channel | FREE

Arifa Akbar, chief theatre critic of The Guardian, chairs a panel of arts industry leaders including curator, writer and Director of Tate Modern, Frances Morris, lighting designer and Associate Director of The National Theatre Paule Constable, Indhu Rubasingham, Artistic Director of Kiln Theatre and trustee of the Royal Opera House, and South African soprano Pretty Yende who made her Royal Opera debut in 2017 as Adina in Laurent Pelly's production of L'elisir d'amore.

As gender disparity has become even more pronounced over the course of the pandemic, discussion will focus on what steps the arts can take to call out inequality, actively support and represent women in the arts, and redress the balance and pervasive inequality in our industry. We ask our panel what is next for women in the creative industries?

Monday 8 March at 7pm GMT on the Royal Opera House YouTube channel | FREE

Find out more here. | Images available here.

Conversation between choreographer Pam Tanowitz and Royal Ballet First Soloist Beatriz Stix-Brunell | Monday 8 March at 6pm GMT on the Royal Opera House's IGTV | FREE

Head to the Royal Opera House's Instagram channel to watch a unique conversation between American choreographer Pam Tanowitz with Royal Ballet First Soloist Beatriz Stix-Brunell exploring the process of creating Tanowitz's critically acclaimed 2019 work Everyone Keeps Me, her first work for The Royal Ballet. This unmissable conversation will explore female choreography in the 21st century and female role models in the dance world.

Monday 8 March at 6pm GMT on the Royal Opera House Instagram channel | FREE

Find out more here. | Images of Pam Tanowitz's Everyone Keeps Me with Beatriz Stix-Brunell available here.

Spotlight on The Engender Network | w/c Monday 8 March on the Royal Opera House social channels | FREE

Throughout the week, the Royal Opera House will place a spotlight on the work of The Engender Network. Established by The Royal Opera two years ago, The Engender Network aims to highlight and grow the wealth of female talent both onstage and behind the scenes. It provides space and opportunity for personal development, peer support and creation of new work as well as conversations about gender in opera and exploring the barriers to equality. The network is open to all women and non-binary people in opera. Membership has grown from 80 to 180 during the pandemic has become a vital resource for creative relationships and the cultivation of new ideas.

W/c Monday 8 March on Royal Opera House social channels: Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Instagram | TikTok | FREE

Facebook premieres of Kind Regards Monday 8 March at 1pm GMT and I am not yours - Mother Nature Thursday 11 March at 1pm GMT on the Royal Opera House Facebook channel | FREE

On Facebook we will premiere two filmed songs, created following an Engender/Jette Parker Young Artist (JPYA) event which paired composers with librettists.

On Monday 8 March at 1pm GMT we premiere Kind Regards. Composed by Lillie Harris with words by Laura Attridge, the song is performed by soprano April Koyejo-Audiger and is directed by TD. Moyo, a graduate of JPYA's 2020 opera director training programme.

Later in the week, on Thursday 11 March at 1pm GMT we will premiere a recital of I am not yours - Mother Nature - a piece composed by Anna Semple. Written by Susannah Pearse who also participated in the JPYA Women's Empowerment workshop for opera makers led by Katie Mitchell in December 2020, the work is performed by JPYA mezzo-soprano Stephanie Wake-Edwards accompanied by Caroline Dowdle.

Kind Regards Monday 8 March at 1pm GMT and I am not yours - Mother Nature Thursday 11 March at 1pm on the Royal Opera House Facebook channel | FREE

Images of April Koyejo-Audiger (Kind Regards) and Stephanie Wake-Edwards (I am not yours - Mother Nature).

Publication of Women in Technical Theatre, Let's Change Our Future by the Royal Opera House's Technical Renewal Director Emma Wilson | Tuesday 9 March

Royal Opera House Technical Renewal Director, Emma Wilson examines Women in Technical Theatre, Let's Change Our Future in a piece that goes behind the scenes of the industry's technical workforce, highlighting areas of positive change in attitudes and approach, whilst signalling how much more there is to do.

Tuesday 9 March on Royal Opera House website.

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