Opera Wars
Inside the World of Opera and the Battles for Its Future
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- £11.99
Publisher Description
Blunt, irreverent, and at times wittily subversive, Opera Wars spotlights opera’s colorful and sometimes warring personalities, increasingly fierce controversies over content, and the battles being waged for its economic future.
Drawing on interviews with dozens of opera insiders—as well as her own experience as an award-winning librettist, trained vocalist, opera company director, and arts commentator—Caitlin Vincent deftly unravels clichés and presumptions, exposing such debates as how much fidelity is owed to long-dead opera composers whose plots often stir racial and gender sensitivities, whether there’s any cure for typecasting that leaves talented performers out of work and other performers chained to the same roles, and what explains the bizarre kowtowing of opera companies to the demands of traditionalist patrons.
Vincent never shrinks from depicting the industry’s top-to-bottom messiness and its stubborn resistance to change. Yet, like a lover who can’t quite break away, she always comes back to her veneration for the artform and in these pages stirringly evokes those moments on stage that can be counted on to make ardent fans of the most skeptical.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This lively debut from librettist and former opera singer Vincent takes stock of the current state of opera and the challenges facing it. She unpacks debates like whether directors should revise classic opera scores (which traditionalists often treat as "carefully preserved antiquit" but are closer to the product of "centuries-long game of Telephone," according to Vincent) and production companies' reluctance to take risks on less popular operas. Sharp insights are also offered about directors' attempts to breathe new life into classics—on the one hand, fresh stagings can be less impactful for audiences unfamiliar with the original, but traditional stagings raise questions of their own (an extreme example being the continued use of blackface and yellowface in some corners of the opera world). Drawing on personal experience and a wealth of interviews, Vincent paints a clear-eyed picture of an art form constrained by massive costs, shrinking audiences, and bygone traditions, while also giving due to its beauty and resilience. Longtime opera lovers and newcomers alike will be edified.
