Opera Wars: Inside the World of Opera and the Battles for Its Future

But the truth is an entirely new art form didn’t just emerge fully formed that day at the Palazzo Pitti. For opera traditionalists, it’s the source of all answers and all meanings, and a truly pious operatic knight need only crack it open to understand the truth of an opera such as Carmen or La bohème. Then as now, such future-facing music wasn’t always appreciated. Who’s willing to pull out their jingling purse to cover the training opportunities and small-scale productions and dozen or so mediocre operas that need to be written before a composer and a librettist can finally produce a “timeless” one?