Do you and your friends enjoy activities like going to the theater, the ballet, art museums, and other “cultured” activities, but don’t go to the opera? Then that does seem a little strange, but maybe the opera locally isn’t as big a deal as it is other places.
Or do your friends spend more time going to the movies and sports games and the only ballet they’ve seen is The Nutcracker? If that’s the case, then it’s not terribly surprising that none of them are big opera watchers.
I hope that doesn’t sound snooty. There’s nothing wrong with having no interest in the opera, or prefering sports and movies to higher-brow activities. Opera isn’t a dying art form, but it’s also not hugely popular, so it’s not totally surprising if you don’t know a lot of huge opera buffs.
This survey is from 2002, but I’m guessing it’s not radically different from now. It shows that 3.2% of Americans went to an opera in the past year. That percentage might be up now, with things like the opera simulcasts bringing in more people, but it’s still not going to be a huge percentage. I tried to look for more current data, but was having trouble.
Opera hooligans? That’s interesting. What all does that mean? Is there chanting and fights during the operas or do they wait until after?
Personally, I don’t think we’re likely to see any major art forms die ever again. Some art forms may wane in popularity until only a very small percentage of the population appreciates them… But the world population is very large, and with modern technology, art can be preserved indefinitely and spread worldwide to its fans, no matter how scarce they are.
Hard to say although I’m guessing it probably will since it’s lasted this long. Not with much help from me, though - I’ve decided that opera isn’t one of my favorite art forms.
In the US, opera will continue, but will consist of old works being revived ad infinitum. New operas will be few and far between, and few innovative works will be produced.
It’s all about the money. Opera is expensive to stage, and the people who are willing to support it usually want to hear old favorites. It’s a common problem in all arts across the board: as the price of admission rise, people are willing to take fewer chances.
Now the art form may still continue strongly in other places, like Italy.
Pace that, I found an article from last week on San Diego’s stern attitude to sponsoring formalist, bourgeois, cosmopolitan, degenerate, elitist arts, beloved by enemies of the people: On March 19, San Diego Opera suddenly announced it wanted to go out of business at the end of this season. The matter is still up in the air. Mayor Kevin Faulconer stated, “Spending taxpayer funds to save the opera won’t be an option because they will be spent on my priorities, which are street repairs and neighborhood services.” Faulconer said he would help the philanthropic community raise the funds.
*The part about street repairs and neighborhoods is bunk. Within a few weeks, Faulconer’s aides were sitting down with the San Diego Chargers to talk turkey — that is, a massively taxpayer-subsidized stadium for the team, which would be a real turkey. U-T San Diego said taxpayers would chip in $400 million to $600 million of the roughly $900 million to $1 billion or more total cost. That would be on a par with the percentage taxpayers shell out in other stadium deals, quoth the U-T. *
*So, it’s clear why a politician like Mayor Faulconer will toss gobs of public money at sports teams owned by billionaires and offer nothing to an opera company on the brink. (The opera is slated to get $389,357 from the city’s Special Promotional Programs this year. The symphony will get $411,870 and the Old Globe $421,074.) * San Diego Reader — 23 April
There will still be companies performing old operas, but more modern operas will never make a comeback.
Even now, there’s virtually no audience for any new opera. Opera companies have to do 3 or 4 chestnuts every season, and then try to sneak a newer one in and force season ticket subscribers to pay for that one, too.
But almost no one willingly shells out money for new operas now, and that won’t change in the next 50 years.
Okay, suppose you take a strict definition of opera, that rules out things like Les Miserables—then is astorian’s claim that modern opera will never make a comeback or find an audience accurate? I’d like to think that all it would take would be for someone to write one or two really good, popular operas, and generate popular interest in them by releasing an audio recording or posting clips on YouTube or something like that.
The formerly major sport of bear baiting might die out again. Though illegal, it apparently still exists in Pakistan. Similarly, other animal bloodsports such as cockfighting could conceivably die out worldwide.
I wonder whether the art of record scratching might die out. Though if 3D printers can routinely crank out vinyl records, I would think not. Or maybe the effect would be done via mixer, in which case the original (performance) art could be said to have disappeared.
George Benjamin’s Written on Skin was a huge overnight success when it premiered in 2012. Less than 2 years later, it’s available on CD and DVD. And it looks like people are willing to pay to see it live:
Othere recent operas that have garnered critical and public acclaim include:
Adams - The Death of Klinghoffer (1991) and Doctor Atomic (2005) Rihm - *Die Eroberung von Mexico * (1991) Previn - A Streetcar Named Desire (1998) Boesmans - Wintermärchen (1999) and Au Monde (2014)
**Adès ** - The Tempest (2004) Dusapin - Perelà, Uomo di Fumo (2003) and Faustus, The Last Night (2006) Turnage - Anna Nicole (2010)
Almost all of these are available on DVD (and probably on CD, too).