Oslo Opera Festival was founded in 2006 under the motto - Opera to the people! - The festival from the start had the ambition to bring opera to a young and broad audience. The festival also strives to provide younger, professional singers a professional break and opportunity to perform, get inspired and grow artistically working alongside established performers and artists before they become household names.

It all started with the Opera Ballet and subsequently developed and mutated into Oslo Opera Festival. "Now we are working to promote opera to a broad audience in and around Oslo and its region throughout the year. We work with several major cultural organisations and institutions in Oslo and as an entity we are becoming more active and bigger year on year. The Norwegian Opera & Ballet supports our work as they see that our activities are an important part of recruiting new audience to them", says the head Gjøril Songvoll

The City of Oslo participates with grants and without our sponsor, the Bergesen Foundation, it would not be possible to promote Norway's biggest opera festival.

Opera to the people have the following main activities throughout the year:

•      Saturday opera performances every Saturday during the season in our own house, Musiskk & Scenehuset, Nedre Slottsgate 1, Oslo.
•      We engage opera singers to  perform during five Sunday concerts in the summer in BAKgården, Sandvika each year.
•      We engage singers to perform under the annual River walk of Sandvika City Festival every year.
•      We organise and produce Oslo Opera Festival every autumn - the first edition was in 2006.
•      We engages opera singers to various events organized by major companies and public institutions such as Orkla, Menu, The Municipality of Oslo, The Norwegian Directorate of Health, the construction industry and ROM eiendom to name a few.
•      We partner and colloborate on the production of an opera concert in the borough of Stovner, Oslo, every year.
•      We organise performances of the "Mini Magic Flute" and other mini-operas in kindergartens in Oslo.
•      We invite and facilitate access to opera concerts and performances for school classes during the Opera Festival.