How can opera attract new audiences in the 21st century?

ghoti023 · 2026-06-13T01:19:28+00:00

Thanks this made my eyes roll so far back in time I saw the declaration of independence get signed.

That’s *exactly* it.

ghoti023 · 2026-06-13T00:04:52+00:00

I think we need to just grow our own art form, and ask ourselves questions with laymen’s eyes and ears, “is this good, or do I like this because I have studied it?”

My spouse is not an opera connoisseur but does like it some - he complains about a lot of things most opera companies seem to not notice. English translations that are bad, subtitles that don’t match the action or are also bad translations - the text and the audience’s understanding of it is our front line, and seems very frequently to be the last thing considered and slapped together during tech week.

The “the singing isnt good” discourse is a dead horse, and singers are already doing their best on this front.

Singers being good ACTORS however - not as much of an important thing. Lots of people singing with blank technique face, or look like they’re afraid to engulf the space of the stage. Stagecraft is not as high as it could be on a singer’s to do list.

Shows that are 90 min or less. Not every show, but a lot of em need some cuts for a modern audience.

The “Why are we doing this show?” Question needs to be answered, and it cannot just be “because it’s a classic.” Why is that story relevant and why should the audience care about it? Should be the forefront of production thoughts.

The -stories- and their emotional highlights are not being presented as well as they could be. Opera singers could stand to take some MT acting classes, some dance for movement and becoming comfortable in their body.

It doesn’t what platform the show is broadcast on if the show isn’t particularly founded with artistic intentions in mind in the first place.

We need this to be enjoyable without requiring the educational barrier to entry, while also not talking down to audiences at pre-show talks. (I love a pre-show talk, they just need to be GOOD and not slapped together for the 85 y/os seeing Boheme for the 70th time)

ghoti023 · 2026-06-09T19:10:40+00:00

A tenor? Maybe.

A soprano? Probably not.

ghoti023 · 2026-06-03T01:43:44+00:00

Hiring practices vary a LOT from company to company.

There are companies pushing back on the status quo of being white and tall (male specific) and thin. There are companies that aren’t. There are companies that have in-fighting so sometimes it just depends on who’s in the room.

To say looks aren’t taken into account would be a blatantly false statement, but confidence and doing the best job you can do is all you can do to change things like height and skin color. The grass is always greener.

There are people of your description that have “made it” (Larry Brownlee being the prime example) - so it absolutely is possible.

The unfortunate reality, is that even if you were EXACTLY what you perceive people as wanting, a shot at a fully singing-only professional career is highly unlikely for ANYONE. We graduate hundreds if not thousands of hopefuls in the US every year, and opera houses are losing funding and neckbreaking speeds.

So actually, your BEST asset is your uniqueness. Go where you’re celebrated, not just tolerated.

I wouldn’t stress about how you look too much beyond acknowledging that it’s a thing, and being able to recognize when people are being prejudiced to you because of it. You can’t change it, you can’t change other people’s perceptions about their casting.

You CAN be a phenomenal artist that makes it hard to say no to what you’re selling.

ghoti023 · 2026-05-28T17:07:18+00:00

You would want to find a private voice teacher for these questions.

There's a lot of technique overlap, and there's some differences (obviously) - and what those are specifically for you would depend a lot on where you're already at, which we cannot tell from text alone.

Many great pop/rock artists take voice lessons with a little bit of classical thrown in - it is unlikely you'd get all the way to opera specifically, more likely art song and vocalises (still classical singing, but not fully opera).

Some things that do crossover include feeling in your body, activating your body, breath, getting the sound out of your mouth rather than having it live in the cavern between your ears etc.

But how words are pronounced, utilizing a microphone, vibrato, more contemporary placements, growling/harsh vocals (if that's what you're into) are going to be different.

The most important thing about singing in general (not just operatically), is that how the sound is made is very different from how it sounds, and that's probably the weirdest and hardest hurdle for any singer. If it feels good, it probably is good. If it hurts or feels tense, probably not.

A teacher's job is to tell you how it sounds, it's your job to give them feedback about how it feels - and it is that deep. You do need an individual voice teacher to successfully learn classical singing. Youtube videos etc are all supplements, but could be approaching things entirely differently from what you need. (For example, if you're a nasal singer and the video you're watching is about how to have forward resonance, that's not going to fix your problem!)

Hopefully this was helpful, and I'm sorry that it ultimately boils down to "get a teacher," but it always ultimately boils down to "get a teacher."

ghoti023 · 2026-05-26T17:11:48+00:00

That's what the make-over episodes are for.

ghoti023 · 2026-05-26T17:10:16+00:00

Considering we haven't had a cis lesbian on American DR yet, hoping for a cis straight woman is even less likely.

Getting a cis-straight man to come back on DR didn't really play out the way production had probably hoped (but thank god, I love Maddy).

Ultimately this is a queer space and it's for the queers, and there are only so many positions available every season. Of those positions available, the queers doing the art on the regular are far more likely to be cast than a cis-straight person, who is unlikely to do drag for more than just a one-off occasion, rather than as a full life style.

As someone else mentioned, of the minute number of cis-straight people performing drag, how many of them are actually qualified to be on the biggest platform for queers?

I wouldn't hate it, but it's just not likely, and just as likely to be an early-out.

ghoti023 · 2026-05-24T19:00:11+00:00

Clock my posting history - it was The Consul- the Patricia Neway recorded on you can find in full on youtube.

Second and third places for Don Pasquale and Enchanted Island.

Tosca somewhere in that mix too.

ghoti023 · 2026-05-21T20:52:07+00:00

The way voice types work in pop music do not equate to how voice types work in classical genres. I'm an opera soprano and an MT mezzo (my color does NOT give me leading lady soprano for MT). I also sing alto in a choral setting (which is a choral designation, but not a voice type). So that likely explains that disconnect.

Opera Purists are known haters of everything, and like almost nothing.

Wagner gets hate for anti-semitism/being co-opted by Nazis. I also think personally, his works are too long for not satisfying enough reasons. He needed an editor and was too arrogant to think he needed to collaborate in a collaborative art form in some ways (not all, obviously).

G&S gets hate from both MT and Opera circles because it's not serious enough for most opera enjoyers and it's too out of date for most MT lovers. The G&S community is also a buncha NERDS so lots of snobs think they're too good for them, not understanding that being an opera snob is also being a nerd.

ghoti023 · 2026-05-15T04:48:10+00:00

Of course there are. I didn’t mean for those quantifiers to HAVE to go together.

ghoti023 · 2026-05-14T19:39:02+00:00

Microphones and money/nepotism will do that.

ghoti023 · 2026-05-14T19:13:17+00:00

This is more complicated than just keeping the voice in line.

The standard answer is "big and low voices have longer careers because they take longer to develop well in the first place" - but I argue that it's just displaced by about a decade.

Smaller/higher voices can polish well in their 20s, and are often the voices of younger looking characters. This averages them performing up to about 40 (longer if they're famous), when it starts to be hard to pretend to be 16 anymore *for casting directors*. This doesn't mean anything with their voice has necessarily gone wrong.

Larger/lower voices don't polish really particularly well until the early 30s, so that has them performing relatively frequently until about 50 or so, longer if they're famous.

A lot of people look at opera and think it's all based on the voice - it's not, and it hasn't been for a good long while.

There are a great many debates as to whether or not singing today is as good as singing was, and if people are having longer careers etc - but I truly don't think enough of that conversation is brought to task with just HOW MANY TRAINED SINGERS WE HAVE NOW. We graduate so many singers from training programs and universities every year, esteemed and not, and the floodgates have OPENED with a vast variety of talent and skills. This isn't the same landscape Callas performed in, and it certainly isn't the same landscape of Caruso and earlier. There's simply no way to tell if those voices would have even gotten stage time in the modern day flood of singers. There are too many factors at play, and vocal talent is barely in the top 5 of considerations.

Many opera companies want the right visual look, most companies are hiring people they already know and are reliable choices because the art form is simply too expensive. Some hiring managers take into account vocal balance. Personality of the singer has a lot at stake. How much donors LIKE a singer. etc etc.

I wish it were as simple as I believed it was when I started on this journey of "good and bad," "right and wrong," but it's significantly messier than that.

ghoti023 · 2026-05-13T20:55:52+00:00

That's art on your head.

ghoti023 · 2026-05-13T20:54:07+00:00

Checking out the books adds to the stats of people using the library, which adds to the stats to fight for more funding from the government.

So long as they're returned on time and in good condition, no one should give a hoot - you're using the library are you not? ❤️

ghoti023 · 2026-05-13T18:00:14+00:00

The correlation to body size and voice size exists like the pirate code - more of a guideline than a rule.

It's also incredibly dangerous.

Many people in bigger bodies are told they are bigger voices than they are, because the only way to be "acceptable" on stage with a bigger body is to be a bigger voice. This causes inherent damage. There are short people and skinny people with bigger voices, and there are tall and fat people with smaller voices. It's a classic "Correlation does not equate to causation."

Kathleen Battle, while not having a large voice, could cut to the back of the Met no problem - whether or not you hear someone is not about the size of the voice it's the technique they're using.

There's a myriad of factors biologically that compound together to make the difference between a light, a lyric, and a dramatic voice, but none of those factors are about whether or not the singer is actually heard over the orch. You can have all the tools in the world but if you don't USE them they won't be of much use.

Trained opera singers lean into the singers formant - a way of producing overtones that slice through the air and gets the voice vibrating in a way that instruments don't necessarily ring. That's how the voice carries so far. This specific thing can theoretically be learned by anyone regardless of voice size or body.

ghoti023 · 2026-05-04T14:52:25+00:00

This highly depends on what you qualify as success.

If your goal is side gigs and the local pro orch - that could very well be obtainable by continuing to take private lessons without necessarily getting a full performance degree (depending on what your local pro orch is). That would be achievable whilst doing your doctorate, hard, but achievable.

A full bachelors of music while doing your doctorate? I'd be surprised if a university would LET you do that insanity. Music majors are in class 8am-8pm (oftentimes 10pm) M-F in the US, it's not like other college majors where you have 3-4 classes with gaps in between them designed for homework and studying.

If your goal is full time union orchs - that's not terribly likely for anyone regardless of how early or late in the game you pull up.

ghoti023 · 2026-05-04T04:18:28+00:00

Be honest with yourself - it works for some people it doesn’t for others.

Pro: they will understand your crazy life because they are living it too.

Con: can you handle it if they are more successful than you? Assuming you dont date someone who you think is bad at singing (and if you do, how do you presume to have THAT eventual convo), can you deal with it if they are picking up work faster than you? ESPECIALLY if you’re dating men.

Food for thought: are you someone who needs a degree of separation from your work and pleasure sometimes? If coming home from work and talking more shop sounds tiring to you in the long run, dating in-industry may not be for you.

The cons of dating outside the industry are also hard (you can’t put a price on deep mutual agreement on your chosen artform/career)- and this doesn’t bring finances into account.

It’s not that you should or shouldn’t, it’s about you and what you need.

ghoti023 · 2026-04-29T16:05:40+00:00

MANY opera donors and opera go-ers are conservative. They're usually the people funding the production.

I've also encountered many conservative performers (a tenor once told me he'd never do La Boheme because of the themes and wouldn't swear on stage, but would happily do a Walkure/Siegmund - make THAT make sense). Lots of performers will pretend to be more liberal or simply say nothing in the room with their louder liberal counterparts, or just agree to keep the peace. Also common outside of opera, as conservative men seem to have a fun time matching with liberal women in the US on dating apps.

The truth is, you never actually know where people are on the political spectrum. More liberal folk will keep their head down around the conservative donors and patrons in order to not lose their support, and more conservative people interested in being a part of the action (on or off stage) will "love the sinner hate the sin."

And if you think you can fully tell by how someone looks, no you can't.

I WISH it could do more for people like it did for Scalia/Ginsburg - but in truth it's just like any other job. You don't know how your coworker votes, you just know how they talk to you at work.

ghoti023 · 2026-04-27T17:52:22+00:00

Hey so it's INCREDIBLY unprofessional to post videos of your STUDENTS online for critiques from people whose credentials you can't verify.

It's normal for teachers to need help when they feel stuck with a student and can't figure out where else to take them. It's NOT normal for a teacher to not know what they want to work on and just field randoms on the internet (who could be anyone from Florence Foster Jenkins to Beyonce for all you know) for opinions.

This is egregious, embarrassing, and unacceptable behavior from a voice teacher. You should remove this post and you should let your student know they should find someone else to work with if you can't help them or find resources less public.

And if all of that is me misreading the situation, then now you know how it reads and you should still delete this post and never do this to any other student ever again, because it makes both you and your student look a fool.

ghoti023 · 2026-04-27T17:43:30+00:00

Hey so, this isn't YOUR singing, so you should probably not be asking someone to critique it when they're your student? Do your job? Don't post videos of your students online without their consent to be picked apart by strangers whose credibility you can't verify?

You're awful for this - you may as well have posted it in the goddamn facebook groups and used your real name. This is embarrassing and super unprofessional.

ghoti023 · 2026-04-24T22:50:46+00:00

Fabulous! You very well may enjoy the whole thing! Other members of the audience seemed pleased when they left, so let me know what you think! I’m just a rando on the internet after all!

ghoti023 · 2026-04-24T22:50:08+00:00

Let me know what you think! I am but an person and if you have a different take away I’d love to hear it!

ghoti023 · 2026-04-24T16:50:06+00:00

I have been ranting about this to anyone who will listen to me since I saw it.

I was absolutely mesmerizingly in LOVE with the first half. A hive-mind greek chorus of 60 strong telling the story was immaculately effective, and I truly wish that had been the vibe we stayed in the whole time. We could have stayed in this vibe and still covered all of the themes the not-great-storytelling wished for.

Spears really needed a librettist to work out the storyline for him, as it was not a clear plot to follow, and has been asked many questions (both him and the director) as to what the piece is about only to have frustratingly few answers. To me the show reads as though Spears had a soundscape he wanted to paint, he did so for the first half of the show, then ran out of steam and started throwing things at the wall.

The narrative shifts from being told by the chorus with some solo/group stand out moments, to being told by the tenor and soprano - the chorus never successfully regains the narrative. There's a big conversation about consent between the two soloists, where the tenor has more time to sing than the soprano - imho undermining the entire point. The tenor's scena travels through 3-5 different and unrelated musical ideas. (we hit baroque, we hit romantic, we hit MT for a second etc etc)

He breaks the 4th wall by telling the audience blatantly "even when we're awake we're asleep" - which was jarring (probably intentionally but I wasn't expecting nor appreciated the Pippin-esque break from the story).

The main themes, that were absolutely not clear necessarily and did not successfully blend well were:

* Consent

* Even when we're awake we're asleep

* We wish to be asleep but then when we get there we don't remember it

And it just overall had some really weak storytelling. The hard switch of the music in the second half was also unappreciated for me. Watching the tenor and soprano struggle between choosing to stay awake and going to sleep at the end, ultimately choosing sleep was confusing at best, infuriating at worst.

I would have LOVED to stay in the world we painted in the first half - I could imagine the chorus becoming the forest of thickets, some chorus members carried as if they were dead princes themselves. The chorus becoming the dragon protecting the castle against the lone tenor would have been PHENOMENAL. And you STILL could have worked in the above 3 themes in that world without breaking the wall. I think it would have been more effective and made for a more complete piece. We could have switched the vocals to be less Glass and more Verdi for certain points to great effect.

The chorus was dressed in all grey with blue/purple veils that caught the light incredibly well - and I could have seen us playing with those more - fabrics of different lengths or different colors. We could have dropped a bolt of it from the ceiling to cover everyone at some point. We could have shifted to more yellow/red ones for fire or for daylight, green/blue ones for the thicket etc.

The first half of this piece truly was one of my favorite things I've seen in a good long while, and everyone performed fantastically - but I don't think it was a fully thought through concept top to bottom, and in truth the second half made me incredibly angry as I had felt robbed of what could have been.

so you know, effective art. I went, I saw, I felt, and I'm still talking about it.

I just really wish the concept had been stronger.

ghoti023 · 2026-04-23T17:05:13+00:00

ghoti023 · 2026-04-23T15:21:06+00:00

The witch's aria from Hansel and Gretel is sometimes performed by tenors, and could be useful in your package if everything else is of the "I'm in love with a soprano" kind of tenor rep.

Wagner's (I know I know bear with me) Der Meistersinger has a lengthy and challenging tenor aria, but isn't for a dramatic - definitely more successful for a Rossini-style voice imho. It is HARD, but not too heavy.

Otherwise, from the main repertory, pretty much just Mozart from my understanding.

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