Several opera companies are adopting codes of conduct intended to stop offensive behaviors in their tracks.

After a dress rehearsal for Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex at Opera Philadelphia, several bystanders told staff that they’d heard an attendee confront a Black audience member to ask why he was sitting in a donors-only section. At an On Site Opera event in New York City, an externally contracted security guard attempted to stop a trans-identifying audience member from using the restroom that corresponded with their gender. At Minnesota Opera, a woman reported feeling uncomfortable because other attendees were commenting on her hair and style of dress.

“We needed to do something so that Black women are not coming to the theater and having their hair touched by strangers — that’s crazy!” says Rocky Jones, Minnesota Opera’s equity, diversity, and inclusion director.

In recent years, all three of these companies as well as others around the coun­try have been experimenting with ways to prevent these sorts of negative encoun­ters. All have implemented company codes of conduct for attendees that pro­hibit things like verbal and physical harassment, dis­crimination, and any disruption that harms anoth­er’s sense of belonging.

The goal is to make opera a more inclusive space where all feel welcome. Plus, they provide the company explicit grounds for address­ing or removing individuals for breaking the codes.

Code Language

These codes address a wide range of potential discrimi­natory behaviors. Minnesota Opera’s “Shared Values of Par­ticipation,” which appears on the company’s website, states that the Minnesota Opera respects “the dignity, boundaries, and identities of all our patrons.” The com­pany implemented its code in 2016 but continues to revise and refine the language.

Opera Philadelphia has posted its code online and inside Verizon Hall for patrons to read on their way into the theater. The code reads in part: “Behav­ior that is harmful to others or disruptive to our com­munal sense of belonging for all will not be tolerated... [including] all forms of dis­crimination, harassment, and microaggressions.”

Derrell Acon, a former diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant who has worked with 35 opera companies, joined Opera Philadelphia as its vice president of peo­ple operations and inclusion at the beginning of 2022. “I’d heard others talk about [codes], but when I got to Opera Philadelphia and was put in a position where I had the authority to get some­thing like this on its feet, I took that opportunity.”

Code Breaks

On Site Opera implemented its code in 2018 as a part of its ongoing response to the #MeToo movement, which exposed numerous inci­dences of sexual impropriety in the arts as well as the world at large. “[Our pol­icy] was in reaction to what was happening very visi­bly in the industry,” says Piper Gunnarson, executive director at On Site Opera.

The company’s code was initially about protecting artists in rehearsal rooms and at private events — places where higher-ups and donors might be more care­free with their language and an artist’s personal space.

Now, partly for liability rea­sons, the code applies more broadly. It appears online as a part of the company’s ticket-buying process as well as on its own Values and Commit­ments webpage. All artists, staff, patrons, volunteers, audiences, and external affil­iates are expected to comply. “Like most organizations, we have some lawyers on our board, and because it’s their job, they’re going to approach [conduct codes] from that perspective,” Gun­narson says. After On Site Opera’s aforementioned bathroom incident, the com­pany reached an agreement with its contracted secu­rity company not to have the guard in question work at any additional events.

It’s tough to measure whether the policies are hav­ing a tangible effect. “A code is not the end-all-be-all,” Acon says, though he also notes that Opera Philadel­phia has indeed received fewer complaints since imple­menting its conduct code. Then again, that’s not their only aim. These policies are also a way to show attend­ees that the companies are at least trying to be proac­tive and protect patrons from offensive behaviors and to make attending an opera a comfortable experience for everyone, regardless of their backgrounds. They’re another tool in the toolbox.