do you like opera? (new york city opera may cancel rest of season)

[Liberal_in_LA]

The 21st century has been cruel to the finances of City Opera, which Mayor Fiorello La Guardia called “the people’s opera” when it was founded in 1943.

The company began running mounting deficits in 2003. After flirting with leaving Lincoln Center for artistic reasons, it decided to stay when its longtime home, the New York State Theater, was given a major renovation and renamed for its benefactor, David H. Koch.

But going dark for the 2008-9 season while the theater was being rebuilt proved costly. The company lost a year’s worth of ticket sales just as its deficits were growing unmanageable.

That season, the troupe raided its endowment, withdrawing $24 million to pay off loans and cover expenses. The move, coming just when the endowment was already depleted by investment losses brought on by the financial crisis, had long-term repercussions: While the endowment once provided the company with more than $3 million a year in investment income, it now produces less than $200,000 a year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/09/arts/music/city-opera-warns-that-it-may-cancel-rest-of-season.html#http://json8.nytimes.com/pages/arts/music/index.jsonp

9 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	I love opera
	3 (33%)
	I like opera
	3 (33%)
	I hate opera
	3 (33%)
	it's for the 1%
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[Aerows]

1. I've tried to like it

and I love Operatic voices ... when they are actually singing in a language I understand. Then, they are phenomenal. But Opera? It's awful.

Operatic practices produce incredible voices, wouldn't want that to change. But modern opera is horrid.

[yesphan]

2. Subjectively speaking

of course.

I was responding to your unedited text. You cleared things up nicely.

[Aerows]

3. Well, it was asking for my opinion

So I offered it. And I'm not offering an opinion that is without education and consideration.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. opera, ballet and classical music are having problems attracting younger audiences

[Aerows]

6. They shouldn't

because the practices that create fantastic voices come from Operatic techniques. I won't pretend to know anything about dancing, music has always been my thing and I have three left feet.

[pkdu]

5. So some (English language) operatic voices are phenomenal but Operas as a whole genre are

Aweful?.....my S.O. Would so kick your ass. (Verbally)

[Aerows]

8. It's a generalized comment

I would LOVE to hear your SO sing and kick my ass. There are so many, however, in the young generation that do not understand it.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

7. None of the above:

I don't personally enjoy opera, but I fully acknowledge it as a mature and serious form of art/music.

[dipsydoodle]

9. Some of it.

Largely what I would call operatic popular classics.

[eissa]

10. Loathe it

I was active in a charity a few years ago where our annual fund-raiser was a concert featuring native artists in various performances: opera, symphony, and dance. For four years I gave it a chance, and for four years I sat through it and secretly wished someone would stick an icepick in my ear to stop the pain.

[DJ13]

11. I hate opera, but

As an art form, it needs to survive.

The pageantry of classical opera is a special kind of entertainment.

[Cleita]

12. I do, but to tell the truth what they have been doing

in artistic innovation has been in many cases just weird. I don't live back east but watch what's on PBS and from weird set designs, like the ride of the Valkyries on wood planks, or the men singing soprano. I don't think the average opera goer wants to spend their money on that. They should stick to the traditional and do maybe a few experimental operas in a season.

[Aerows]

13. It's like dance

you have to see it live to either love it or hate it. I've been twice, and I'm in the hate it category, but I love voice and music. Maybe if you took my eardrums out without anesthetics I would like it.

I've been to more concerts than most people that included an orchestra. The problem is the lack of talent to relay what they are singing to an audience that doesn't understand the language. Madame Butterfly never gets better if you are singing to an audience that is lost, and it gets worse when the actors and actresses don't convey it properly.

[Cleita]

19. You won't enjoy it unless you are prepared. That requires study like

learning an appreciation of Shakespeare. You must know the story and the libretto in English before you go to the opera. Also you have to appreciate the training that went into creating those vocal cords. In the case of dance, besides the story, you are watching a finer athletic performance than most sports and the results of years of training. In my case since I had years of ballet lessons, I know what it it took to give that delicate as a butterfly performance.

Also enjoy the music, the costumes and the sets. Much sweat, artistry and skill went into those too. It's not a rock concert that is designed to overwhelm your senses with glitz and often shock that glosses over a lot of formulaic mediocrity.

I know, it's not for everyone. It comes out of an age that is strange to us. I imagine our early movies will seem strange and boring to future generations too.

[Rectangle]

14. I prefer Mozilla Firefox for browsers, but, Opera has

a lot of cool features.

[jberryhill]

27. I thought that Firefox and Opera were built on the same code, no?

[Rectangle]

29. Yeah, if you use both, you'll see the commonalities. Opera has (IMO) better

bookmark organization, right-click browsing and auto forms fill-in.
However, things don't always open well in Opera, pages sized funny,
page widths going off screen, missing links, Java not implemented fully ect...

Firefox has none of those problems for some reason, so i gravitated to it.
'Just wish I could drag a few of those cool features over to firefox.

[Liberal_in_LA]

30. lol.

[Marrah_G]

15. I hate opera, but I know lots of people like it

And I think the arts are a very valuable part of our society.

[joeybee12]

16. I like some opera...my cats hate it for what it's worth...

Series-ly, whenever I play some, they run.

[Aerows]

17. I went to Catholic School in New Orleans

I nearly fucking died the day that the music adjunct teacher filled the hall with her voice. She radiated through it so profoundly that I didn't know what to do but be in awe. She did it without a microphone.

That is what Opera training does, and she was, of course, trained in New Orleans.

When you attempt to make a production, however, someone has to guide that beautiful energy into something meaningful. I've yet to see it other than her knocking the hell out of me as a teenager with a crystal clear voice.

[matt819]

18. You do know what's going to happen, don't you?

The Koch Brothers, already arts patrons in NY, will write a check.

[aikoaiko]

20. Yes, because it is difficult, complex and beautiful

Much like my wife.

Now the City Opera is something Bloomberg should spend money on.

[KamaAina]

21. This sucks. The City Opera is actually affordable.

Unlike the Met, which is for one-percenters only. Mom and Republican Stepdad go to the City Opera and even took me once.

[adirondacker]

22. I like attending and seeing an opera, but just listening borders on torture. nt

[longship]

23. I love it with a passion.

Yes, knowing the story ahead of time can help. But as many of the stories are classics in their own right that isn't a high cliff to climb for those educated in the literature.

I am not that educated in that area, so for me it has always been about the music and the awesome spectacle the opera presents to the audience, with full orchestras and singers belting out their voices with no amplification. Even at the extreme top of the NY Met house one hears everything.

All houses now have English super-titles projected over the stage, but one quickly learns not to use them much. The acting does a lot to communicate the words.

New opera is very interesting. My favorites of these include Philip Glass, Satyagraha which is so haunting an experience one does not quickly forget it.

People will inevitably have personal favorites, as opera is diverse as the literature it depicts. Mine is probably Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, a comedy of such wonderful musicality that I have seen it live four times -- once at the NY Met --and would do so again and again, if I could afford the tickets.

There are operas I don't like too much, but as I think these are personal matters I won't malign them here just because I don't like them.

Call me an opera fan boy.

[Liberal_in_LA]

31. I've only been to the Opera once, maybe twice. I give the experience a B-.

[SomethingFishy]

24. I respect it.. but it's not for me...

I respect Opera and the talent it takes to create and perform an Opera, but I am a rock and roll junkie. If it don't rock.. I don't roll.

[hrmjustin]

25. I am personal not a fan but I would hate to see it go. Many people love the Opera and it makes money

for the city.

[Le Taz Hot]

26. Love it.

Always have, always will. Vocalists who actually STUDY THEIR ART -- what a concept! No Autotune to help them sing 3 notes. And today's opera singers beat the shit out of opera singers only 20 years ago. Rene Fleming is the voice of the angels. PERFECT resonance. PERFECT!

[Buns_of_Fire]

28. I'm afraid that between Elmer Fudd and J.G. Wentworth, my tastes have become so corrupted that

I wouldn't know good opera if Brunhilda herself beat me over the head with her breastplates.

[amerikat]

32. I build opera sets but have never seen an opera.

Were working on our third set in the last six months. I got to see The Fisher Center at
Bard college. It was an amazing space. I could become a fan of opera just for the
amazing sets and opera houses.

http://fishercenter.bard.edu/about/