Singer Spotlight: OSSIA!
Today, we’ll hear about an amazing new project — OSSIA!
Tell us a little about the company! How and why did it start?
OSSIA is the byproduct of four artists who have spent the last 10 years fostering their love of opera and culture via the internet. It is founded by Joseph Lattanzi, Alyssa Martin, Marcus Shields, and Patricia Westley, and, in the language of corporate America, OSSIA is a new media company providing an alternate way to enjoy opera. Which is true. That is what we are.
As members of this industry working throughout the US, we have noticed the challenges major opera companies face attracting and sustaining new audiences. This is a huge and complex issue that can be thought about from many different angles, but one possible way forward is to translate opera/operatic culture into a digital form* that resembles other forms of media in the average human’s digital diet. Opera itself doesn’t need to change in order to reestablish cultural relevance. The form maybe does.
What is one thing you wish you had known when you started and why?
The exact end date of the pandemic. Can anyone help us with that? But really, we didn’t know much starting out. We have learned most skills from scratch over the past few months, which is both fun and exhausting. The thing we have going for us is an uncompromising idea of what we think of as “high quality” in terms of tone, production, and execution. Even if we don’t yet have all the skills to create our vision exactly, we have a shared “North Star.”
Tell us about an obstacle you have faced and how you overcame it.
Oh gosh, I think most of our obstacles are still ahead of us...so maybe this is an ongoing obstacle. In our opinion, opera has yet to successfully crack into the idiom of the internet. Operatic culture is diverse, obsessive, and detailed, and, like all other cultural forms, is in a state of constant change. The way our generation (we are just about 30 years old, i.e, middle-millennial) loves and experiences opera is radically different from how past generations have experienced it. Even within our generational cohort, personal perspective differs significantly based on context, community, and access point, which adds to the richness of the culture. So the challenge is figuring out how to take this mosaic of perspectives, which feels so vivid from within the community, and express it outwardly so that audiences have multiple points of entry into the art form. Doing that within the language of the internet requires a willingness to treat capital O Opera with less sacredness, to make fun of it, to celebrate its weirdness, to critique its obtuseness, and share it without snobbiness. That’s idealistic in the extreme, but it is what we want to tackle with this project. Not so the formal, traditional gorgeousness washes away, but so that more people have the access, ability, and desire to participate.
How are you navigating launching projects during COVID?
Well, starting is actually the easy part. With literally every other project cancelled, the four of us had plenty of time to quarantine together and figure out the first steps of creation and distribution. Now that we’re up and running, we are possessed by an intense desire to collaborate and create content with other artists across the country which OF COURSE, presents a challenge in a pandemic. Safety is a major concern, both in regards to ourselves and others, and this kind of content doesn’t work as well over Zoom. So, that is for us to figure out. Add that to the list of obstacles!
What piece of advice would you give to someone wanting to start a similar company or project?
You can learn (almost) anything on YouTube! YouTube has been an invaluable resource for OSSIA as we’ve navigated the ins and outs of starting a business and learning new tech from scratch. The internet can be terrifying but it can also be incredibly empowering. Use it for good and get out with your sanity intact.
Where can we catch some upcoming performances?
We make all our content available on OSSIA's YouTube channel and website. We release new videos weekly. You can also stay up to date with our daily content by following us on Facebook and Instagram.
youtube.com/OSSIAOPCULTURE
ossiapresents.com
@__ossia__
