# Is Opera Healthy Today?



## Xavier (Jun 7, 2012)

_"Is opera healthy today, or is it a 400-year-old art form struggling for its life in the face of fractured budgets, aging audiences and an explosion of new media options to occupy our eyes and ears?
_
[.....]

_"We do opera no favors when we try to make it all be high art and rip away those populist roots."_

RTWT here:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivec...lse-a-conversation-about-the-state-of-the-art


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## Xavier (Jun 7, 2012)

Of course these remarks are not encouraging:

*DRISCOLL*: Make it cheaper and make it shorter.

*HUIZENGA*: What do you mean by make it shorter? Writing shorter operas?

*DRISCOLL*: That's part of it, yes. I mean getting it more compressed, the newer operas especially.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

Well I think that's the point. If you're trying to breathe new life in to opera and attract new fans, four hours of "serious" drama is not the way to go. Give them Pagliacci and Die Fledermaus.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Interesting discussion. I just read the whole thing from my e mail. Has opera ever been "healthy"?
People have been longing for the "golden age of opera" for centuries . The grass is always greener in the past, to paraphrase the old saying "The grass is always greener on the other side ".
There are certainly serious problems in the field of opera ; companies struggling to stay alive in tough economic times, some of them going under , perverse productions , dfficulties finding a new audience etc, but opera is still alive and kicking . Very much so .
On the bright side, there are more opera companies than ever before in America . 50 or 60 years ago, there were only a tiny fraction of all the ones existing in America today . The audience is very much there, and more and more younger people have been discovering what a fantastic experience opera can be.
HD opera performances are bringing live opera to more and more people all over America and other countries . Opera companies today,all over the world, present a wider variety of operas than ever before in the history of the art form . Rumors of a "shrinking repertoire" are completely false . Audiences today can attend performances of operas all the way from Monteverdi, Handel,Rameau, Gluck and Mozart tot he latest ones by contemporary composers . 
A considerable number of new operas have been premiered all over the operatic map since the year 2000.
Of course, not all are great and most will be quickly forgotten, but this has been true of opera from the beginning . Only time will tell which ones achieve a lasting place in the operatic repertoire . And even if most do not achieve imediate and lasting popularity, you cna never predict when any of them might be revived in the future , and many,many long neglected operas from th epast have been revived in recent years .


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## dionisio (Jul 30, 2012)

Opera as any other art is to be appreciated by people. Opera as any other entretaiment is for people.

Making a piece of art only for a small group of people never made sense (at least to me). Only thing that should alienate people from opera is the language. But even in a different language we like them.

There is no point in writing an opera (or other art) if not for people.

Now someone might say: But you don't listen to opera as you listen to radio music. This is correct. Opera isn't fast food. One needs some background, one needs some skills. The education system should provide skills for someone to appreciate a work of art or a sportmatch (besides football/soccer).

I'm sorry for this last paragraph but in my country the only thing that matters is money and only wants math to be teached in schools. And this pisses me off.


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

And don't forget the opera in cinema and ballet in cinema, which alongside the Met's Live in HD productions gets OTHER world-class musical theater productions into movie houses around the world ... my vote is: healthier than it's been, and getting stronger.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

I think opera is alive & well.

The Royal Opera House doesn't seem to have a problem selling its tickets & I rarely see empty seats. And regional opera I've attended is also fully booked.

I think it's always going to be a case of the youth of today being the opera lovers of tomorrow so I don't think there's much to worry about.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I posted these facts over on an earlier discussion in which some were suggesting that opera was an outdated and dying art form:

Contrary to the misconceptions, opera is quite healthy. 6.6 million adults in the US alone have attended a live opera. Within the most recent year on record, 37.6 million adults have experienced an opera on TV, video, radio, in audio recordings, or via the Internet. The U.S. opera audience grew by 35% between 1982 and 1992. This trend continued through 2002, when the opera audience grew by an additional 8.2%, representing the largest increase of all performing arts disciplines. According to the most recent numbers from the US National Endowment for the Arts, 25.3% of the U.S. opera audience was under the age of 35 years old. According to Opera America, opera is a multi-billion dollar industry employing some 20,000 people on a full-time and part-time basis in 2005-2006. Approximately 36% of all costs were covered by box office income. Another 51% comes from private donation. Of the remaining 13% far less than 1% comes from public dollars in the forms of grants from the National Endowment of the Arts. The remaining money is raised through royalties from recordings and broadcasts, licensing fees, corporate donations, etc... In the United States, Opera America counts 114 professional companies in 43 states. In 2005-2006, North America’s professional opera companies presented 2,217 performances of 485 fully-staged main season and festival productions. In 2006-2007, North American opera companies produced 10 world premieres. Since 1990, almost 200 new operatic works have been produced by professional opera companies in North America.


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Of course next to the good news it's also true that in the Barclays Center which is destined to hold the Brooklyn Nets, they're also opening what they describe as a "micro theater" - which holds about 2,000 more seats than the Met! I guess that would make the Met a "nano theater" ...


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

It may be dying, but everyone takes ages to die in opera.


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

People were worried about this 30 years ago when I was a member of a young adults' group organized by our local opera company. There was a fear then that opera wouldn't survive because of an aging audience. Well, guess what: many of those young adults are now the people "60 and over" without whom one of the interview subjects claims there would be no audience. That makes me suspect that the young adults I'm now seeing at performances by this same opera company will be part of a big "aging" audience 3-4 decades from now. (And folks will still be fretting about whether or not opera can survive . . . )


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

I was encouraged by the fact that two recent concert performance of operas (Die Walküre and Nabucco) in Auckland were both sold out. The first was to be expected, the second was a pleasant surprise.


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

I think that a big problem with opera is public perception. As a male in his 20's, I cannot admit to pretty much anyone I know that I listen to opera. I have in the past, and it took me ages to live down the jokes that arose from it lol. Popular culture typically makes opera out to be effeminate and pompous, and listening to it is certainly not considered a masculine thing to do. There was recently a video posted here with Glenn Beck's review of an opera he went to. As crazy as he may be, most of what he said encompasses how the average person today feels about opera as an art form, and that fact troubles me to no end.


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## Glissando (Nov 25, 2011)

Stargazer said:


> I think that a big problem with opera is public perception. As a male in his 20's, I cannot admit to pretty much anyone I know that I listen to opera. I have in the past, and it took me ages to live down the jokes that arose from it lol. Popular culture typically makes opera out to be effeminate and pompous, and listening to it is certainly not considered a masculine thing to do. There was recently a video posted here with Glenn Beck's review of an opera he went to. As crazy as he may be, most of what he said encompasses how the average person today feels about opera as an art form, and that fact troubles me to no end.


I once had a female friend who thought I was less-than-masculine because I told her I had been listening to a lot of symphonies. Some people are just so ignorant of culture and history that one wouldn't know where to begin...


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## Dongiovanni (Jul 30, 2012)

Stargazer said:


> I think that a big problem with opera is public perception. As a male in his 20's, I cannot admit to pretty much anyone I know that I listen to opera. I have in the past, and it took me ages to live down the jokes that arose from it lol. Popular culture typically makes opera out to be effeminate and pompous, and listening to it is certainly not considered a masculine thing to do. There was recently a video posted here with Glenn Beck's review of an opera he went to. As crazy as he may be, most of what he said encompasses how the average person today feels about opera as an art form, and that fact troubles me to no end.


I know what you are talking about ! When I was 20 I never spoke about my love for classical music.. let alone opera.... But now (at 38) I can talk about it, people find it interesting to hear, but most simply don't appreciate opera. I notice that when people get older, they start to be more interested and open to classical music.


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## Dongiovanni (Jul 30, 2012)

I love the technical age we live in. I enjoy listening to music in my house, in my car. Internet is so great to see all the different productions, to check out some singers I never heard of. But nothing beats a live performance. No matter how great the quality of a recording or broadcast is.

So is opera healthy nowadays ? Healthy in what way ? Financially ? Smaller less known companies struggle nowadays to stay alive. There is also the question of government subsidy. How much should a taxpayer contribute to the opera venues and companies of his/her country ? I don't have any numbers, but I'm sure the larger houses can't do without the government also. You can argue this is unhealthy. But how long has it been this way ?

Then there is the commercial side to it all. It is not easy to market opera. The record companies have their stars and market the hell out of them. But does this lead to more people wanting to see live opera ? I hope so. As long as they keep doing this in good taste I'm ok with it. I really hope this will remain the same.

There are some changes already happening and many more will come in the way we can get and experience recorded perfomances. I don't think this will change much about the need for live performances. As long as we have human performers we want to see them in real life.


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## andre (Aug 18, 2012)

*opera*

Hello,

Naturally live opera, but not for a lot of people!
I was 16 started to sing in the opera.

I think ,you must grow in this kind of music and start when you are a child.

Greetings Andre.


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## tyroneslothrop (Sep 5, 2012)

Opera cannot be healthy in America when 90+% of the audience is > 50yr. I was at a matinee today at OperaDelaware in Wilmington, DE, and during intermission, I stood up in front of the orchestra pit and intentionally looked back at the orchestra and balconies, scanned all the seats and tried really hard to find someone as "young" as me (48yo). I think I saw one man who might have been the same age, a woman who could have been younger, and 100+ others who all looked much older.

The issue is not one of price--this was not an expensive show. My 2nd-row orchestra ticket was only $65. It is also not an issue of length. The operas being performed today were Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, two of the shortest in the repertoire. When I attend the opera, I find I often get asked by my neighboring (older) seatmates, if I sing or play an instrument--the presumption being that for someone so "young" (LOL) to be interested in opera must be due to a deeper motivation.

It is growing on me that opera and the American opera companies have been failing to attract the attention of young people in America. If we can not interest the younger generation in opera, what happens to opera in America when we all pass?


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

tyroneslothrop said:


> Opera cannot be healthy in America when 90+% of the audience is > 50yr. I was at a matinee today at OperaDelaware in Wilmington, DE, and during intermission, I stood up in front of the orchestra pit and intentionally looked back at the orchestra and balconies, scanned all the seats and tried really hard to find someone as "young" as me (48yo). I think I saw one man who might have been the same age, a woman who could have been younger, and 100+ others who all looked much older.
> 
> The issue is not one of price--this was not an expensive show. My 2nd-row orchestra ticket was only $65. It is also not an issue of length. The operas being performed today were Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, two of the shortest in the repertoire. When I attend the opera, I find I often get asked by my neighboring (older) seatmates, if I sing or play an instrument--the presumption being that for someone so "young" (LOL) to be interested in opera must be due to a deeper motivation.
> 
> It is growing on me that opera and the American opera companies have been failing to attract the attention of young people in America. If we can not interest the younger generation in opera, what happens to opera in America when we all pass?





> ... what happens to opera in America when we all pass?


You will be replaced by the current 30 - 50 year olds.

An interesting interview with Wigmore Hall Director John Gilhooly. He's not too concerned about the lack of young people in the audience.


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## Dongiovanni (Jul 30, 2012)

During my last visit at La Scala I noticed (doing not at all scientifically solid statistics...) that about half of the audience was < 50.

Maybe it's a different story in Europe. There is a Traviata in December in Brussels that I wanted to go to, ticket sales started on a Saturday, when I checked the next Wednessday, all 12 (!) evenings (except December 31) were sold out. Who says opera is not popular ?


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## tyroneslothrop (Sep 5, 2012)

Opera is enormously popular in Europe and I noticed the same things concerning demographic there. My wife is European and in the course of growing up there, had seen many of the major operas although she isn't even a fan. And of course, it is hard to get tickets at Covent Garden, for example. I was really only talking about opera in America in my remarks above.


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