Since Monteverdi's time many things have happened. Opera has seen it's apogee and decline. Today it is considered a niche genre, with a small but enthusiastic public.
The thing is, the majority of operas staged today is by composers from the 19th century and earlier.
Is it possible for opera to make a come back with new composers and new styles, not just a copy of the old ones? What would you suggest for a modern composer to captivate a generation of listeners that listen to music on YouTube and on their phones, are easily bored and have low attention spam, and the reason many even listen to music at all is because of the cultural stereotypes they wish to identify themselves with? Is it even possible?
Disclaimer: performing arts are humanities; therefore this is a humanitites thread.
;) interesting people's lives and there are a few books I have thought would make a great transition to opera.
other than those more personal topics I have been thinking about making opera great (popular) again
there are some YA bestsellers that would be cool as operas, bringing their fans to the opera world...
I know I am being very vague, but I am really planning on doing this and I wouldn't want my ideas stolen before I even start
Connor Johnson
Yeah the opera or bel canto style of singing is very awkward to the modern listener. I notice people have no problem with classical instruments, but when they hear an opera singer singing in that style they laugh and mock/imitate them.
Owen Reyes
Do you say this as a librettist or composer? If librettist, then we can be friends. If composer, then we're mortal enemies...
>there are some YA bestsellers that would be cool as operas, bringing their fans to the opera world... kill yourself fshdam
Colton Wright
librettist
Juan Campbell
you got some better ideas to get young people interested in opera?
Charles Edwards
>there are some YA bestsellers that would be cool as operas, bringing their fans to the opera world... Why would that be desirable?
Distributing gruel would bring gruel fans to the opera world.
Luke Kelly
Nice. I'm an aspiring composer. I'd like to see, hear your ideas.
Levi Perry
Not every fucking example of anything less than old rich white European aristocrats has to be poor modern urban American Africans.
Ryder Jones
Three things have prevented opera from retrieving popularity from the general public.
- They're expensive: You need an orchestra, you need top-tier singers, and you need a big venue to fit all that, along with actual listeners. How could the showrunners break even in the current market?
- They've been overtaken by cheaper, more accessible, more naturalistic forms: That means musical theater. Musical theater isn't exactly popular, but it's still 10 times more popular than opera because of its adherence to human experience, its relative activity (dancing), and the fact that people under 35 are capable of staging it.
- They're actively unhip; what opera sounds like Hamilton? What opera sounds like West Side Story? What opera sounds like Jesus Christ Superstar? It's not like there are a dearth of fascinating subjects in the world of music, but there is clearly a dearth of composers willing to tackle them.
Gavin Rodriguez
it answers OP's question
Oliver Peterson
I'm poor as fuck and very rarely get tickets to the opera house. I wach operas in youtube. Sound quality and stuff is bad, but I love opera.
Aaron Watson
as I said, make it an anime, or to be more serious make it related to popular culture which likely would relate to classical themes, like video games and anime it would bring nerd larpers to opera youtube.com/watch?v=GXkIQcqflfs
Adam Gutierrez
That's nice. Where are you based?
Kevin Wright
You mean making animes with opera as bgm? Anime adaptations of the stories?
Jonathan Perez
On the internet.
Carson Jackson
alot of young people me included got their entry into classical or even medieval music by listening to video game or anime ost, before moving to more serious stuff, it might plebish desu but its probably more relatable than to modernist like steve reich
just describing the scene, might not necessarily be the right action
David Hall
I see. I guess someone could try to poll younger classical fans to try and find out the gateway drug. Do you suggest going to Japan with a bunch of cds and try to get the executives of the anime/vidya studios to use opera? How would that work? Who would pay the promoter? I am genuinely interested in getting more people (esp young ones) interested in classical music and opera. at what point in time do you figure you could tackle comosing an opera?
Liam Brooks
>at what point in time do you figure you could tackle comosing an opera? Possibly now, but slowly and on weekends. I can fathom an aria, maybe a scene per week or two.
Me, I dream of setting one of Plato's dialogues to music (specifically Phaedo). It would need some heavy editing and adapting to make it lighter, more agile and dramatic, but I'm afraid I'm not up to the task, literarily speaking.
Zachary Brooks
A Dune opera would be great. Jonas Kaufmann for Paul
Ryan Bennett
>How could the showrunners break even in the current market? Rich benefactors (and/or taxpayers) have always been a part of the arts. Wagner's operas (and Bayreuth) would never have been possible without donors and King Ludwig of Bavaria. Todays the rich donors prefer post-modern garbage
Cameron Gomez
You can rent operas on video from iTunes and the Met website. Also DVDs (including from the library)
Adam Walker
I'm a total noob to classical music, and I mostly listen to Verdi/Wagner/etc. because its closest to film scores
Jayden Hill
Try Schubert, Bruchner, and maybe some of the lavic composers like Stravinsky and Mussorgsky.
Opera is heavily connected to classical music, which has gone out of fashion if we are talking about romanticism and earlier styles or became 2deep4 normal people (modernism). A mix of theater and music is still relatively popular - see musicals. Mamma Mia premiered at a local theater a year ago and the tickets are still getting sold out. If we consider Mamma Mia and stuff like The Wall operas (story+music), opera hasn't declined that badly. If we don't, though, we should simply try to spark more interest in classical music in general, and an opera renaissance should happen consequently. And classical music really needs that, I was at a Beethoven concert two weeks ago and at least 90% of the audience were pensioners.
Elijah Williams
Thank you for the information. > I was at a Beethoven concert two weeks ago and at least 90% of the audience were pensioners. Yes, it is very sad to see that. There was this opera course at my university, consisted of a lecture about an opera, followed by a live screening of the opera. There were snacks free of additional charge during the intermezzo too. I was the only student there. The others were all retired locals.
Wyatt Parker
>So user you like opera? I have a girl friend that likes opera too, you should hang out! >Sure. >The girl friend is a used up, divorced single mom in her 40s >tfw no qt young opera gf Feels bad man.
Wyatt Bell
Non-opera & classical music fans, I'm really interested in what you have to say about this.
Would you be more interested if there were operas based on contemporary themes, YA books, sci-fy books, animes, popular music singing techniques?
Speak up.
Evan Sullivan
>I'm listening Monteverdi's masterpiece, and what is considered by many the first opera ever written, l'Orfeo: What? That's not right at all. The earliest written opera that we know of is Peri's Dafne: >Opera in a prologue and six scenes by Jacopo Peri, with assistance from Jacopo Corsi, to a libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini after Ovid’s Metamorphoses (book 1); Florence, Corsi’s palace, pre-Lenten Carnival season, 1598 (1597 old Florentine style), 1599, 1600.
>This experimental musico-dramatic work, for which the music survives only partially in manuscript, and which its creators called a favola in musica (musical tale), is generally considered the first opera. Oxford Music
The oldest surviving opera is Peri's Euridice. >(1) Opera in a prologue and six scenes by Peri, with some arias and choruses by Caccini, to a libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini (Florence, 1600). It is the first opera of which the music is extant. Oxford Music
Ryder Reyes
I'm not crazy about opera (I will see it if someone else pays for my ticket) but the operas I've enjoyed the most have been contemporary... both were WWII related, oddly enough.
Wished I could have see The Shining opera.
I wouldn't see an anime opera. The musicals I can stand but opera? Ehhh.
Asher Thomas
You know opera is fucked when even Gilbert and Sullivan seems to be dead these days :(
Bentley Bailey
Just don't throw your damned ashes into the orchestra pit, OK?
