Learning when to breathe : performance as art and commodity in Opera Breve’s first season

This thesis documents the growth of Opera Breve, a new performing arts organization in Vancouver, over the course of the 1997-98 season. The time frame begins with the company's conception in a basement cafeteria, and ends with a meeting a week following the season's final curtain. This chronicle of a new performing arts company, a self-initiated project by artists and arts managers to provide themselves artistic and managerial opportunities, is an example of how individuals with a shared ideal try to organize themselves into a productive entity. The thesis critically examines the main elements of the producing organization: artistic direction, management, marketing, etc. It examines how the current artistic, social and economic atmosphere affords and prevents cultural development. Finally, the thesis draws conclusions and makes recommendations for Opera Breve and, by extension, other new arts organizations.Arts, Faculty ofTheatre and Film, Department ofGraduat