Battle Book Club: Someone Else’s Music: Opera and the British

Partners:

Has society completely turned its back on opera? Alexandra Wilson says no, opera-going is closely connected to modern culture, and has been for at least the past century. While opera is routinely called elitist, Wilson – in her book Someone Else’s Music – challenges that belief, arguing that opera is part of the very fabric of British life and culture, transcending class divides.

Has opera been cancelled? Today, opera has faced much controversy due to the increased push for diversification. Should traditional opera be expanded to include voices previously unheard? Or is opera sacred, a reflection of an established past?

Opera is pervasive, necessary to understand modern debates about everything from education and art policy to public broadcasting. Music has shaped the modern British cultural landscape, and opera is included. Highlighting working-class Londoners, musically inclined Welsh miners, soldiers in wartime Italy and the modern socialite, Wilson proves that opera has always been for everyone, and it can be again. It ain’t over till the fat lady sings.

Examining the shifting cultural perception of opera over the past century, Wilson finds that opera has never gone truly out of style. While the perception has changed, mostly due to deep-seated British anxiety about class and education, opera’s popularity, up until recently, has not dwindled.

Why do we perceive opera as elitist? Is the age of opera over? Or will we see a renaissance of composition?