The opera wants you...

Capital Arts Online 2004 | The opera wants you

"Despite its elitist reputation, opera’s influence is visible in our culture. Famous librettos have been parodied in the story lines of many cartoons. Along with Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Warner Bros. used Rossini’s Barber of Seville as the setting for another Bugs/Fudd face-off. The most opera illiterate can recognize the “Anvil Chorus” from Verdi’s Il Trovatore, because it has been used in commercials to peddle everything from cars to batteries.

Even Bizet’s classic opera Carmen fell victim to the pop-culture massacre, when MTV used it as an acting vehicle for pop-sensation du jour Beyonce Knowles, in a modernized, “Hip-Hopera” version.

The popularization of opera culture has helped make musical theatre more accessible to people of all levels of society, not just the tux-and-monocle crowd. The North American opera audience has increased nearly 30 per cent since 1980, more than for any other art form".