How can we make opera great again?

>>1911294
Maybe trying new topics? In Mexico they did one all in Nahuatl, and it deals with a Toltec erotic tragedy.

>>1911301
I'm planning on becoming a libretist if and when I get a passive income.

(not OP)

>>1911294
make it an anime
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9mGQU7rGGM

>>1911406
I'm planning on becoming a composer. We could make a partnership. What are some of your ideas and interests?

>>1911422
Well, not bad.

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Adapt modern stories--books or movies or plays or recent history.

pic related, The Bonesetter's Daughter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M4rmrDMcjU

Not every fucking opera needs to be a pretentious drama about 18th century aristocrats

Silly example, but here

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zFosUj6A22c

>>1911422
;)
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

>>1911606
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.

>>1911615
Do you say this as a librettist or composer? If librettist, then we can be friends. If composer, then we're mortal enemies...

>>1911422
:~)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEuf9ZSJrdg

>>1911615
>there are some YA bestsellers that would be cool as operas, bringing their fans to the opera world...
kill yourself fshdam

>>1911627
librettist

>>1911723
you got some better ideas to get young people interested in opera?

>>1911615
>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.

>>1911727
Nice. I'm an aspiring composer. I'd like to see, hear your ideas.

>>1911606
Not every fucking example of anything less than old rich white European aristocrats has to be poor modern urban American Africans.

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.

>>1911770
it answers OP's question

>>1911857
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.

>>1911735
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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXkIQcqflfs

>>1911807
That's nice. Where are you based?

>>1911920
You mean making animes with opera as bgm? Anime adaptations of the stories?

>>1911931
On the internet.

>>1911936
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

>>1911984
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.
>>1911982
at what point in time do you figure you could tackle comosing an opera?

>>1912087
>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.

>>1912114
That's great!

On my side I'm nowhere near ready, though.

>>1911294
>new composers and new styles,

Like John Adams?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cM_lSJOGbs

Or Philip Glass?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAiv-LU82t4

>>1912178
No prob. Feel free to discuss ideas though.

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.

>>1911594
A Dune opera would be great. Jonas Kaufmann for Paul

>>1911857
>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

>>1911914
You can rent operas on video from iTunes and the Met website. Also DVDs (including from the library)

>>1912087
I'm a total noob to classical music, and I mostly listen to Verdi/Wagner/etc. because its closest to film scores

>>1912234

Try Schubert, Bruchner, and maybe some of the lavic composers like Stravinsky and Mussorgsky.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCEDfZgDPS8

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.

>>1912228
Thank you for the information.
>>1912270
> 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.

>>1912437
>So anon 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.

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.

>>1911294
>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

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>>1912513
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.

You know opera is fucked when even Gilbert and Sullivan seems to be dead these days :(

Just don't throw your damned ashes into the orchestra pit, OK?

>>1913204
Explain.

>>1912669
could yo name us those operas, please?