Playbill: Topics

Welcome to the Operaneum — where every project is a production.

Projects, programmes and portfolios aren't just numbers, plans and status reports. They're stagings — with grand visions, precarious plot twists, commanding entrances, and that very particular drama that always unfolds behind the scenes. The tenor loses his voice, and it's called risk management. The set jams mid-scene, warm regards from the critical path. And somewhere a prima donna is out-arguing the director so ferociously that every stakeholder workshop sounds like polite chamber music by comparison. Opera, after all, isn't chaos — it's the high art of arranging chaos until, by the final curtain, it sounds like a triumph. Over this season we'll take our seats in the box and watch it all: which pieces make the programme, who's needed when, and what happens the moment the production starts to falter. So let's direct the drama — before the drama directs us.

Curtain up.