2023-11-10 23:02:00
Child’s play? The prejudice is: operas are boring. Not true, says Magdalena Mackinger and asks herself: How do you attract young people to opera houses?
If I ever declared war on my own self-confidence in the future, I would have already lost. Because my main argument, that there is nothing unusual about me, can be destroyed with a single statement: “Name me three young people in your area who voluntarily listen to opera.”
As a young person who has recently become very enthusiastic about opera, the realization that many of my peers cannot do it hits me personally; I don’t like sitting alone in the hall. And no one puts themselves on stage just for me.
There is something elitist about opera and classical music in general. They have always been elitist: after all, music has long been commissioned work for the nobility; When concerts became public, not everyone could afford them. This stereotype still exists and if we’re honest, we tend to imagine an “opera audience” as older people.
On average, opera goers are around 57 years old, and around three quarters have studied. It’s all well and good, you might think, that old people with doctorates go there. But this is a significant problem for the industry.
The pool of people who meet these criteria is not exactly unlimited anyway. As a result, the industry is missing out on a large potential audience. But a bigger problem is that the current audience is getting smaller. If anyone hasn’t noticed, old people die earlier than young people. And if no one advances to the seats of the dead, the auditorium looks empty.
I see two main reasons why young people are not enthusiastic about opera: The first and larger is the image that opera is uncool. Possible interested parties wouldn’t even think of giving the opera a chance. It is not present, it seems as something alien, something for the old and the elite, not for the average sixteen-year-old consumer. If someone says the word opera, you immediately groan internally: That’s boring! Who does this voluntarily?
Of course, it is understandable that not everyone can love opera, but society is already doing its part to ensure that this basic attitude finds its way into the minds of all those who would otherwise toy with the idea of watching an aria from “Aida ” to listen to.
Second, opera is old. “Il barbiere di Siviglia”, “The Ring of the Nibelung” and whatever they are called, all the great operas are old and the themes, the plots, the music simply hardly appeal to modern audiences. Classical music is no longer particularly popular, the audience mostly doesn’t speak Italian, when Don Ottavio sings about revenge for the fifth time it starts to get boring, when Don José stabs Carmen it doesn’t seem like the desperate act of a helpless lover, but like the act of violence from a man who won’t take no for an answer.
If it wants to survive, opera has to change, and she has noticed that. Schoolchildren receive price reductions, which makes access easier for them, and youth operas that appeal to a younger audience are performed. But as I said before: I see the big problem in the basic attitude towards operas. How can you change that?
That is hard to say. If the word opera alone has a deterrent effect, it won’t exactly be a walk in the park. Youth operas do their part to dust off the opera’s image a little, but “opera” is still primarily associated with classical opera. The opera houses’ schedules need to become more varied and this needs to be shared in the media, especially social media, so that perception can be changed.
An additional approach that I find promising would be to encourage instrumental teachers to also play pieces from operas. Anyone who learns an instrument often plays classical music – this could also be used to familiarize children and young people with opera.
I hope the opera survives. Whether opera, operetta, musical: stories that are told with the help of music fascinate me and captivate me. I hope that the long history of opera will not end like Madama Butterfly.
Magdalena Mackinger (17) comes from St. Pantaleon (Upper Austria) and attends the Rottmayr-Gymnasium in Laufen (D).
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