“A dying art.” “No longer relevant.” “Collapsing and bankrupt.” In the past few years, the media has lamented the death of opera. While financial troubles and dwindling live audiences have plagued opera recently, there’s still hope: classical-obsessed millennials...and you.
This article is especially for those of you who have never listened to opera or only know “Figaro, figaro, fiiiiigaaaaroooooo… .” Here’s a secret: Opera is fun. It’s silly, it’s gorgeous, it’s old and new; opera is experimental, sexy, bizarre, hilarious.
1. It's entertaining and gut-busting.
There he is. The man of sex and murder.
Who doesn't love dressing up and going out? Just the act of going to the opera is half the fun! You get to experiment with makeup, wear an elegant dress, and go out with friends.
Okay, what about the actual opera? A lot of those unfamiliar with the art believe that opera is serious, boring, and unforgiving. That could not be further from the truth. In reality, even the most tragic operas have comic or facetious elements to them: Mozart's epic story of morality "Don Giovanni," which ends with the title character descending into actual Hell, has a lot of comedy as well. Don Giovanni's servant Leporello sings an entire aria about how much he hates "slaving away" while DG has sex with literally 2,065 women. (Yes, 2,065. It's all in Don Giovanni's little black book.)
2. In case you didn't notice, there's a lot of sex. Like, a ton of it. Everywhere.
#FlirtingTipsFromMusetta
Puccini's famous opera "La Bohéme" is one of the greatest tragic love stories of all time; there's sickness, poverty, death, betrayal – and sex. The aria "Quando
It was definitely ahead of its time in terms of being sex positive.
3. It's catchy.
Hella party.
There's a reason the most famous
4. Opera is versatile and timeless.
While the majority of performed operas are from the Classical and Romantic periods, productions are often set in different eras. The last production of The Magic Flute at LA Opera capitalized on the popularity of The Great Gatsby, setting Mozart's opera in the 20's. To bring the opera into the 20th century, LA Opera used silent film motifs through projected displays and styled their performers as flappers.
If you like Shakespeare or pretty things, then The Tempest is for you. Premiered in 2004, the opera has already taken off – a feat in the long-term world of operatic success.
Remember A Streetcar Named Desire from high school English class? There's an opera of that, too. See opera rockstar Renée Fleming (a Rochester, NY native) dazzle in a more recent production.
Another modern opera is Dead Man Walking. It starts with innocent teens, and also murder. And that's just the first act.
5. The artistry.
Costuming, staging, lighting, set pieces, props, and of course the music. Whether you love fashion design or contemporary art, everyone can find something in opera that piques their interest.
6. It's relatable
Same.
La Boheme centers around a group of dirt-poor hipsters (Bohemians) living in Paris as starving artists. One is a poet, one is a musician, another a seamstress, another always looking for a sugar daddy.
Mozart's Cosí Fan Tutti can be summarized with this one Yik-Yak:
Honestly?
7. It's highly accessible.
Broadway and pop have extremely expensive tickets and restrictive copyright law. Meanwhile, operas are widely available online, are broadcasted to movie theaters nationwide from The Met, and are cheaper for live shows. One of my favorite master posts of opera links is here on Tumblr.
Time to watch some operas all night.
