Het Geluid Maastricht (co)produces opera and music theatre performances, educational programs and socially engaged arts projects. Their work is characterized by bringing together the ancient power of opera and (music) theatre with new techniques and social developments. They create music theatre as a bridge between the ‘new’ and the ‘old’, and in doing so Het Geluid investigates the world around us. A question that continues to occupy the makers: how can music theatre contribute to an inclusive and critical society? Within their work Het Geluid Maastricht always searches for the primal power of (new) communities. By means of new connections and surprising combinations, we try to convert pressing issues into high-quality social-artistic music theatre in an innovative way. Their committed way of working leads to productions or concepts with a strong social drive, aimed at socio-cultural and artistic innovation including individuals and communities with distance to the cultural sector. We want to pull the ‘great’ arts such as opera out of their isolation that is experienced as elitist and place them in the middle of society. 

The Amsterdam Training offered a perfect opportunity to share best practices from their recent activities, connected to Module 3 of the TCZ training curriculum:  𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐲. 

The diverse group of Amsterdam pilot participants were introduced to a different kind of Contact Zone — opera and musical theatre as spaces where postcolonial narratives, community participation, and artistic excellence meet, challenging the boundaries between “elite art” and lived social realities.