to think Opera doesn't deserve the elite image?

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At the age of almost 49, went to the opera for the first time last night. Touring production of Carmen, tickets cost me £22.50 each through a Groupon type website. None of the preconceptions about opera applied. Yes it was sung in French, but there were subtitles. Nobody was dressed to the nines, DH and I were there in jeans and smart-casual tops and didn't feel out of place. It wasn't at all expensive when you compare with other sorts of entertainment (our panto tickets last year were double the price, it's at least £20 to get into a zoo or a theme park). It wasn't boring or difficult to follow what was going on. It was quite long at about 3 hours with breaks but so are some superhero movies.

Not saying it's turned me into a die-hard opera fan but it was a nice evening out seeing some seriously skilled singers and performers.

I agree, it's not elitist, people just think it is. Same goes for ballet as well.

Scottish Opera did these brilliant sessions with the kids when mine were at Primary - they'd come in, teach the songs and then leave the teachers with CDs/download links so the kids could practice over the next few weeks, then come back and workshop a full performance with costumes and professional singers. All the kids got a part, nobody was the "star" and they all loved it.

You can see it in the cinema.
I've never seen the real thing but have seen it in the Cinema, same with ballet.

Yanbu there's quite a lot of accessible opera now, often sung in English, cheaper tickets available etc.

DH and I had decent seats for Marriage of Figaro in London this winter and the tickets were far less than things like a christmas panto or a west end show.

There are also tons of cheaper deals for things like under 25s, even under 30s.

I work in theatre, quite often in opera, so I'm biased, but I don't think opera is especially elitist. It's not the easiest thing to listen to on first hearing (I've worked on a Stockhausen opera, for un-listenability it knocks Wagner into a cocked hat), but neither are some more contemporary types of music. I don't listen to rap or hip hop because I don't enjoy them.

(I would mention that the Ellen Kent productions have a bad reputation for long hours and low pay - it isn't helped when an average opera requires an awful lot of people to produce it, but I wouldn't go to one of their performances on principal)

I do not like opera. I do not go, I would feel I was taking a seat that someone who enjoys it could have.

However, I recognise the immense amount of skill required for opera singing, and am glad to read OP that you enjoyed it.

As for "The problem with opera is that they sing/wail/warble/screech in a funny way" here's Luciano doing just that ...

If you think that's screechy, you should go to a Chinese opera, complete with acrobatics. It's like opera on steroids!

I think the elitist reputation is somewhat deserved, though I also think that's a bit of a shame. It's a fairly inaccessible art form to most of the population. There isn't wide familiarity with it or much common knowledge about the structure of opera, the languages it's generally sung in are not widely understood, and the music isn't very popular amoung the public at large. But our elites are far more widely exposed to all these factors and that makes opera far more accessible for them.

I think the performers are incredibly talented and don't really see it as elitist anymore but I wouldn't want to go to see it. Give me a live rock based show anyway!

Surtitles - usually above the stage, often they are not word for word translations but give you the gist of the story and the choruses.

OP

Well done, I love a bit of opera.

For anyone who has never been, English National Opera sing in English and I've seen a touring company that took the best known songs and then had the actors speak to the audience to explain what was happening, I think it was 'English touring opera' but I could be wrong.

The stories are often quite simple, for starters I'd go for Carmen, Madam Butterfly and Don Giovanni (I've seen it a few times but my favorite was at the Sidney Opera house where DonG made his entrance from a first floor window half dressed).

Opera is also useful if you are ever told not to listen to a certain type of music (eg rap) because it is racist or sexist, well Carman is as racist as can be and Don G might not call women bitches but he has his servant following him around recording his conquests.

I think the performers are incredibly talented and don't really see it as elitist anymore

Composers, writers, directors, etc are all incredibly talented too - but entry to these professions is still limited by elitism. Partly because opera creation really does need talented, well trained creatives, but partly because music and arts education is (in England, at least,) more and more the preserve of the well off.

Contemporary opera makers are constantly striving to make operas that people want to attend, and try to make opera accessible to children who lack adequate musical education - but even the tiniest, pop-up opera is expensive to produce and inevitably involves an element of exclusivity at every stage of creation.

I've been to various Operas at home and abroad. It's an acquired taste and one I've not acquired, despite my efforts at trying modern and traditional Opera.

I did read that Oprah was written for the poor people see and to enjoy back in the day , which rather surprised me as it's always had elitist connections I think and not something most people would be interested in.
My dad saw a production of Madam Butterfly in Italy during WW2 and loved the music and the story.

Because the the overwhelming impression given by the cultural status and historical audiences for opera is that it is for high-end, high-culture people. It is an expensive art form. It is considered highbrow.

My uncle loved opera and he was a window cleaner. There’s obviously nothing inherent in the music that marks it out as being special. It’s just music. But just as greyhound racing, bingo and line dancing are low-status pursuits, so Royal Ascot, roulette and opera are a bit more for toffs.

I agree that opera shouldn't have an elite image, and I think in Italy, particularly, it has a much more across-the-board appeal - or did once.

I remember watching a documentary about Luciano Pavarotti which illustrates this. Pavarotti worked in his father's small bakery and both shared a passion for football and opera (somehow can't imagine that happening in the UK). His father worshipped Enrico Caruso, but one day the young Luciano told him he'd heard a better singer - Mario Lanza - and it ended in a punch-up amongst the flour bags because they both cared SO much about singing.

Pavarotti worked in his father's small bakery and both shared a passion for football and opera (somehow can't imagine that happening in the UK).

I have a passion for football and opera. I can't claim to have liked opera when I was a kid, mind: it's something that happened when I was around 30.

His father worshipped Enrico Caruso, but one day the young Luciano told him he'd heard a better singer - Mario Lanza - and it ended in a punch-up amongst the flour bags

Mario Lanza, of course, played Enrico Caruso in the (highly fictionalised) movie, The Geat Caruso.

There's a scene in James Joyce's short story The Dead (the last story in the book Dubliners; also filmed by John Huston as his last work before he died) where the people at the epiphany dinner discuss opera singers past & present. One of the guests is a tenor who is all in favour of modern singing, while many of the older guests lament the passing of old-fashioned bel canto. Probably similar to the intergenerational quarrel between Pavarotti senior and junior.

Did nobody ever see Harry Enfield & Paul Whitehouse's guide to opera in 1993?

vhistory.wordpress.com/2018/04/11/harry-enfields-guide-to-opera-tape-1423/

I absolutely love opera, by far my favourite sort of music. I go as much as I can. Just booked for Samson and Dalila at Covent Garden 😀

I like the cinema relays from the Met and Covent Garden. Of course it's not the same as being there but it's a fraction of the price, the filming and sound quality are really excellent and it makes performances far more accessible. You can also stream a lot at home- the Met in particular has done brilliantly with this. They also have a superb podcast series.

I also really rate English Touring Opera- I find their productions often have a fresh take (but don't update things for no reason), excellent young singers and reasonable prices.

It's such a varied art form. There is a world of difference between Handel and 19th C grand opera, or between Mozart and Philip Glass.

IME, the opera crowd splits into two groups: 1. rich people on a corporate jolly drinking champagne, only marginally interested in the music, and 2. people who love the music, happily sit up in the gods and aren't necessarily rich or elite at all. The second lot are by far the nicer.

I have a passion for football and opera

Me too. I think it's quite a natural pairing, to be honest, especially with Italian opera- the drama, the scale, the excitement of people pushing themselves to the absolute limit of what a person can do.

The singing is more entertaining at football...

I love the power of the singing. The only voice trained to project over an orchestra with no amplification. Sometimes you can catch a student busking in London, fantastic to hear that voice over street/market sounds and for it to be totally casual and accessible.

Well you both sound such a hoot.