Florida Atlanta University (FAU) has announced that it will be partnering with two international opera projects.

The new collaboration will bring together such institutions as Fondazione Accademia d’Arti e Mestieri dello Spettacolo Teatro alla Scala (often referred to as “La Scala”), the Accademia Nazionale d’Arte Drammatica “Silvio d’Amico,” and the Università degli Studi di Padova. The projects are funded by Italy’s Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (Ministry of University and Research) and the European Union and include $7.5 million in funding.

The two projects include “Casta Diva: Women in Opera” and “MTNT- Music Theatre and New Techologies: A New Paradigm in Opera Studies.” The first took place between Feb. 5-7, 2025 at the FAU’s Baton Raton campus and explored the cultural contributions of women in Italian Opera. It also established a multilingual digital platform that featured collaborative research and artistic productions.

Meanwhile, the latter program will incorporate emerging technologies, including AI and virtual reality, into opera. To facilitate this, there will be the create of four research doctorates focused on digital transformation in opera studies.

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