Holten: Everyone plays an important role

KEYNOTE: Can Emotions, Experiences and Creativity Be Directed?
Kasper Holten, Artistic Director, Royal Danish Opera

The EL 2011 culminated in the inspiring keynote speech by Artistic Director Kasper Holten, who spotted connections between the world of arts and present-day working life. Just like in the arts, today’s working life has to do with talents, people, brain power, and creativity, rather than technology, like before. Even the challenges of leadership are new and the old learnings don’t seem to work anymore. Can creativity be directed? How can we make everybody work for a common goal?

“In a new kind of organization we expect people to be creative, to challenge our routines and dogmas. But they will challenge us too: they want to know the reason why they should do this. In the Royal Opera some of the biggest prima donnas don’t work on stage, they work in administration, technology...”

Inspiration needs to be fostered

Unlike the results of traditional nine-to-five work on a conveyor belt, the results of creative work are hard to measure objectively. People can never be quite sure about how they have done. Insecurity creates pressure. As a director, Mr Holten’s task is to take care of the people and foster their inspiration. A director has to succeed in leading people, making them throw their inspiration and energy into the concept that is being done.

“There are many ways to inspire. It is my job to find a soft spot where I can plant my idea. If someone has to go northeast on stage, I have to make it so inspiring that they want to go there. There are many ways to get there and the inspiration is needed to find the right way.”

Mr Holten also pointed out that in a successful production everyone’s role and inspiration count. It is not enough that one of the stars on the stage is motivated, if singer number 16 in the choir feels he is useless. If someone notices he is only staring at the walls, the illusion of the opera is shattered. One person’s frustration can also be transmitted to other members of the choir or the people responsible for the technology. Mr Holten said he had “bumped into” a party one night that had been organized to honour an opera dresser’s 40-year long career. This particular dresser had been working with all the great stars of the opera; he knew their ways and how to handle them when they grew nervous.

“He knows that one particular star always wants lemon juice before the performance, since it guarantees a successful performance. If I as a director didn’t treat him well, he would say ‘fuck that lemon water’. No matter how much work we had done before, the whole production could be at risk without his inspiration to bring that lemon juice. That’s why I as a producer must remember to thank him for his good work.”

The Opera is where you train your emotional muscles

Can the success of an opera be measured through viewer statistics or critics’ ratings? What is the most important parameter in the end?

“Opera is an emotional fitness center. In an opera, you can feel every emotion you could face in a lifetime in two hours. In the opera you can train your love, hate, and fear muscles so that you are in good fit when you face those feelings in real life.”

The purpose of the opera is to make people cry. Mr Holten never stops reminding his staff that it is their most important objective.

“A director cannot make a successful production on his own. A production will succeed because of a great staff. And the most important reason for success is that everyone knows our objectives and is inspired about them.”

Mr Holten will be taking over the Royal Opera House in London after the season 2010/2011.