Anyone who knows me (and anyone who read my first post on here back in March) will know I absolutely love opera. To me it is beautiful, exciting and inspiring (everything that a work of art should be). Over centuries, composers have continued to produce absolute masterpieces which have lived on and on and will continue to for centuries to come. This is why it makes me so sad (and angry) to see it cheapened by the likes of a TV talent show, Popstar to Operastar.
For those of you who haven't heard of or seen the show, the basic premise is that a bunch of popstars (down on their luck with failed careers as is often the case with celebrity talent shows) are set challenges week by week to learn and perform operatic arias. Note how I won't say "learn and perform opera", because that's exactly what they're not doing.
Within weeks, these singers are expected to sing some of the hardest arias in opera. Lighter (and often more beginner-friendly) composers such as Mozart are sometimes used, perhaps fairly appropriately for such inexperienced singers. But more often, powerhouse composers such as Puccini and Verdi have their works ripped to shreds. They're sung badly, performed badly and chopped down to a couple of minutes to fit in with the schedule of the show. Arias of 6 or 7 minutes, chopped down to 2. Tragic.
What irritates me the most about this (and this is where you see my truly opinionated side) is that, as with all TV talent shows, the producers try to "quick fix" a process which actually takes years to perfect. People like me work solidly, study for a decade or more, to even be considered good enough to sing some of the arias performed on Popstar to Operastar. And yet, these celebrities practise for a week at a time on one piece, cheered at every "high" note (however badly sung) by an audience who lap it up. I mean really, Andy Bell singing the pinnacle of baritone arias, "Largo al factotum?" Cheryl Baker singing the notoriously difficult "Je veux vivre"? Oh please! And the worst part is, this is widely considered opera because of this show. Viewers commenting on videos on Youtube saying "I could really see *insert celebrity here* performing in opera" when in fact, they'll never be good enough. Throughout this process, a priceless art form is progressively cheapened.
There are those who will argue that this format of programme is making opera "accessible", and a few will even try to claim it boosts ticket sales in opera houses across the country. The truth is, this is not the case, at all. Opera has always been accessible, just people have stereotyped it as a "toff's" art. And as for boosting ticket sales, quite the opposite. People watch and think they're experiencing real opera (because the likes of Katherine Jenkins say that's what it is.. more on her later), and therefore don't bother to buy a ticket to a real opera, where they sing over a full orchestra with no microphone, a true skill. Why would they need to, when they can watch "opera" every sunday evening from the comfort of their own homes?
People really do have a warped perception when it comes to classical music, and not just at the hands of Popstar to Operastar. Just look at Katherine Jenkins, for example. People (wrongly) see her as a real "opera singer" (a phrase I dislike since it covers just one aspect of opera). She's not. She's a classical crossover single, i.e. one who sings classical music and releases it within the popular genre. She's in fact never set foot on the operatic stage, and isn't good enough to do so. Unfortunately, a pretty face and cavernous cleavage aren't enough to cover up the swallowed tone, bad diction and mucky sound that someone who knows what they're talking about will see. Truth is, without her microphone her voice would be lost on the operatic stage. Another is Paul Potts, once billed as the "new Pavarotti" because he shakily sang "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's Turandot on Britain's Got Talent. Now I don't mind Paul Potts, at the end of the day he has spent a lot of time (and money) training his voice, and he's not half bad. But he's not an opera singer, and never will be. He's a realtity TV star who will probably never know real opera.
The real building blocks of opera are lost on shows like these. The direction, the production, the months of stress and hard work that goes into it, the staging, costumes, the set, and the acting, the movement, and singing all together, the miriad of skills which make a truly talented operatic performer. Opera is no longer about a fat lady standing on a stage singing, it encompasses all art forms in one, and this is what I love most about opera. Art, dance, national culture, history, myth, literature and music, coming together in one giant art form. This is why the likes of Joe McElderry are not singing opera, however it's dressed up. Without the context of a whole opera and the production behind it, these shows are achieving nothing, and the singers are learning no real skill. The result is the quick-fixing and cheapening of an art form. The saddest part is that people actually buy into this crap.
Call me opinionated and stuck up, but that's just how it is. I just think it's a huge shame to see the word "opera" cheapened on a weekly basis by people who have no real idea what goes into an actual opera. Get off your arses and go and see a REAL opera, and tell me I'm wrong.
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