Operarepubliken was founded in 2011 by singer and director Håkan Starkenberg, opera singer Peter Kajlinger and mime artist Malin Öhrn. The goal was to create performing arts and opera productions that challeged tradition, and to engage with a political context that the founders felt had been lost.

Håkan Starkenberg studied at the Theatre and Opera Academy in Gothenburg from 1995 to 1998. Since then, he has worked with renowned institutions including the Gothenburg Opera, Folkoperan, Malmö Music Theatre, Royal Swedish Opera, Norrlandsoperan, and at international festivals.

”As opera artists we need to ask ourselves how and why we need to relate to a tradition. When we created ‘TOSCA or The Fascist” it felt as if we kidnapped the opera, there was a sort of Stockholm syndrome between us and the piece. A deconstructed but loyal approach, where we rediscovered the work itself. Our hope is that performing arts can have an influence on society. The artists and the audience meet in a concentrated room where the artwork is created in real time, and we are affected together. For this purpose the piece is the springboard. The dramatic language is music and the musical language is theatre. Our goal is always to get all the artists desires and their passion to breathe with the music, the dramatic expression, and with each other. Then we can create the art machine that really can conquer our minds.”