Historicist: Life in Wartime
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-Verse
Many of us developed an affection for opera early in life through Looney Tunes versions of Rossini and Wagner. For some, having Elmer Fudd chant “Kill the Wabbit” to the tune of “Ride of the Valkyries” in Chuck Jones's animated masterpiece taught us everything we wanted to know about opera. But if your ambition to appreciate the finer things in life extends beyond Bugs Bunny, real opera could be an intimidating world of old rich people, dead composers, elitist intellectualism and impenetrable European languages.
The Canadian Opera Company's free-of-charge Opera 101 series strips away the elitist attitude and opens up the daunting world of opera appreciation for the under-30 crowd. On the evening of January 15 at the Drake Hotel Underground, CBC Radio’s Brent Bambury will host a conversation with tenor Robert Künzli and costume designer Astrid Janson. The COC's upcoming production of Janacek's From The House of the Dead will be discussed, and questions from the audience are welcome. In addition, there'll be merchandise and ticket giveaways. The event starts at 7 p.m.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
But if your ambition to appreciate the finer things in life extends beyond Bugs Bunny, real opera could be an intimidating world of old rich people, dead composers, elitist intellectualism and impenetrable European languages.
Erm... have you been to the opera lately? Old rich people? Impenetrable languages?
Opera.ca cites a Stats Can estimate that "3% of the Canadian population attends opera. The demographic break-down shows an encouragingly high participation rate of 2.8% for the 20-24 year-old category, dropping to 2.0% for the Gen X population, then growing back to 2.8% for 35-44 year-olds, reaching its highest level of 4.5% for those between 45 and 59."
And the COC routinely provides English subtitles to most of their productions.
If you go to see Wagner full-ring-Cycle dealies you're going to run into loads of intellectual elitism compounded with several hours of boredom. Not a good way to introduce yourself to the medium. If you start with the lighter "Bugs Bunny" stuff (i.e. opera buffa, like Barber of Seville and Marriage of Figaro) it's a lot less tedious .
There's as much range in opera as there is in film, for example. Going to see Kramer vs. Kramer is going to yield up a completely different cinema experience from going to see Toy Story. It's kind of important to pick stuff you might be vaguely interested in.
Chris, I'm not sure how exactly you can object to the characterization of opera audiences as old when according to your own numbers, "old" people are almost twice as likely to attend opera as "young" people.
As for rich people, they're probably more likely to be found at Leafs games than anywhere else. Who else could afford those tickets?
Mostly the characterisation of "old rich people" vs "old people"... Old people are naturally more likely to speak a second language, aren't they?
Totally agree on the Leafs though. I have sworn off buying tickets until they show their good-faith bona fides by winning a Cup. =)