IS OPERA TOO LONG, OR ATTENTION TOO SHORT?

Commenters on the BBC Radio 3 message boards didn't take strong issue with the assertion here that the opera is too damn long, but implied the problem lies not with opera, but with us. Said one:

"The electronic media have totally transformed our expectations and demands, haven't they? I'm aware of this in myself: I sit in the opera house or theatre and want to adjust what I'm hearing: more volume, a touch less bass, widen the stereo image, alter the balance - all things that I can do easily, and do do habitually, at home. And surely if attention spans have become shorter, that's down to the same reason: with drama of all types available at the touch of a button, to be sampled, paused, rewound, abandoned, and revisited at the viewer's convenience, is it any wonder that some people, even those sympathetic to the genre, can struggle to enjoy a full-length opera in the theatre?"

Perhaps. But let's not be too hard on ourselves. When Carmen appeared in 1875, live performance was the only performance. When opera came around, audiences were eager to soak up hours on end. We are not so easily entertained now. One could say our attention span has been narrowed. One could also say our taste has been refined. It's not just a matter of pause and rewind. The greatest voices of all time, in their peak moments, await us in rows on our living room shelves. It's no wonder we find it harder to tolerate a dramatic lag in the opera house. Modern opera companies have a duty to adjust.

Comments

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