Opera is for everyone
Plus, the museums putting it all on display.
Hello. Since the last time we spoke, I have:
Watched The Brutalist (2024) and the first season of HBO’s My Brilliant Friend, which is just as good as everyone says it is (though I cannot say the same for The Brutalist).
Went to Luna Luna at The Shed. Very fun!
Finished reading Alla Gorbunova’s It’s the End of the World, My Love, an atmospheric, haunting, and sometimes wry coming-of-age novel largely set in 1990s Saint Petersburg.
Now, the news—and a special treat at the end: an interview with conductor and musician Timothy Long about why 2025 should be the year you get into opera.
Prepare to see a lot more discussion around the repatriation of objects and artifacts in museums. It’s something we’ve discussed a few times now, and in a new long-form piece for The Guardian, chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins explores how the British Museum may navigate its future amid increasingly powerful calls for the return of items such as the Elgin Marbles and the Benin Bronzes. The honeymoon period for new director Nicholas Cullinan is over, she says. So how is he really going to lead the institution—which has at least 6 million objects in its collection—into its next era?
It’s not entirely clear just yet, and we’ve spoken already about Cullinan’s ambitions for the museum with its forthcoming digitization project and renovation efforts. But Higgins puts a finer point on what’s going unsaid in Cullinan’s press tour: the British Museum is still repairing its reputation in the wake of the summer 2023 headline that a museum employee had stolen 2,000 items from the museum’s Greek and Roman collections (the accused employee has denied those allegations, but still, more than 600 objects remain missing, and about 500 were damaged beyond repair). And as more museums worldwide agree to return objects that were looted or otherwise unfairly obtained (largely through colonialism) to their nations of origin, it looks increasingly bad that the British Museum is so slow to take any kind of action along these lines; as such, the museum has developed a reputation for being a beacon of imperialism.
There are some reasons for this delay. For one, unlike most similar museums worldwide, the British Museum is not free to return objects without the consent of British Parliament; there are exceptions for some human remains, as well as objects that had been looted from their original owners by Nazis. But who is to say that the British government couldn’t change that fact? The now-in-control Labour Party seems more open to discussion, but the Museum remains historically slow-moving on any change.
Adding to the Museum’s current challenges to keep up with the times is the fact that many of its objects are not cataloged in a digital database that would make it easier to keep track of them. There is a goal for this current digitization project to be completed by 2029, but employees remain skeptical. “If I did literally only that for the next five years, maybe it would be possible,” a senior curator told Higgins. “People seem to think we have minions. I don’t have minions. It’s just me.” All this to say: It will be interesting to see how the Museum moves forward.
Here’s one way a few museums are modernizing: They’re putting more of their collections on display by making their storage facilities more amenable to visitors. The V&A East Storehouse will open in London in May, the Financial Times reports, and it will showcase a vast collection of objects that don’t quite fit into its Kensington museum. It’s not the only museum to come up with this idea, but it is an increasingly popular move. The British Museum opened BM_ARC last year—it’s a storage facility that makes its objects “readily available for study” (these ones, at least, are fully digitized). In Rotterdam, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen—located right next to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen—opened in 2021, becoming the world’s first publicly accessible art storage facility (or so it says, at least).
Putting their storage on display is one of the ways that museums can embrace “degrowth,” Jan Dalley writes for the FT. The concept, which Tate director Maria Balshaw details in her recent book, Gathering of Strangers: Why Museums Matter, is basically about “revisiting and making use of what you already have.” A smart move in a time of increasing financial strain for museums.
That kind of strain is threatening the future of the Museum of the Earth, an Ithaca natural history museum that is facing foreclosure after defaulting on its mortgage for a year and a half; donors recently failed to fulfill a $30 million pledge, The Ithaca Voice reports. The museum opened in 2003 and contains more than 7 million specimens.
This museum is far from alone in its struggle; we know that such institutions are often beholden to large donors. But this is also a good reminder to visit smaller, independent museums. Megan Greenwell recently made a lovely case for regional art museums in Defector: “They’re the places I've learned to discern my own taste. They’re the places where I feel most free to listen to what I actually like, rather than what I know I should.”
Meanwhile, art museum directors are increasingly concerned about censorship according to a new report from PEN America, the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), and Artists at Risk Connection. While the sample size of the survey was relatively small, ArtNews notes, its findings are damning (but unsurprising): more than half of respondents said that censorship is a much bigger problem today than it was 10 years ago. Governmental forces aren’t the only ones driving this fear; a majority of directors have also been pressured by visitors, board members, and donors to remove an artwork from an exhibit or gallery. The majority of institutions don’t have any policies against censorship; in light of the Heritage Foundation’s ambitions to crack down on sexual content in libraries, museums bolster their anti-censorship efforts.
All this makes it seem especially questionable that the National Gallery of Art—a nonprofit institution—hosted a fundraising dinner for the Trump-Vance Inauguration Committee yesterday; to attend donors needed to give $1 million or raise double that amount, The Guardian reported. An NGA spokesperson told Hyperallergic: “While the National Gallery does not typically allow private events, exceptions have been made for official requests from across previous administrations. This includes inaugural occasions, such as an event held for President Bill Clinton in 1993.” I do not think this means that the National Endowment for the Arts is any safer!
Some better news is that the Noguchi Museum staff has unanimously unionized. Solidarity!
Damage from the Los Angeles wildfires remains devastating; among the many losses are 100,000 scores from the collection of composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951). Especially devastating is the fact that digital copies of the scores were also destroyed in the fires; Belmont Music Publishers, run by Schoenberg’s son, rents and sells these scores to orchestras worldwide. Now, many will have to reconsider upcoming programming. Luckily, Schoenberg’s original manuscripts are safely kept in the Schoenberg Center in Vienna, and Belmont will be working on creating new digital versions based on those materials.
Also lost in the fires was late author Gary Indiana’s personal library, which, as Colm Tóibín reported for the London Review of Books, had tragically arrived in Los Angeles from New York City just a day too early to be saved.
So many people are facing incomprehensible losses right now. That has led the J. Paul Getty Trust to build a coalition of arts and cultural institutions, philanthropists, and donors to create a $12 million emergency relief fund for LA-based artists impacted by the wildfires, ArtNet reported. The fund is growing, and individuals can donate here. Among the founding contributors is the international art fair Frieze, which still plans to hold its sixth Los Angeles fair in late February. Organizers said the event “serves as an opportunity to stand with the community in its time of need,” ArtNews reports.
The publishing industry at large has not been looking great lately, but in Africa, the literary ecosystem is booming. Increasingly, publishers like Nigeria’s Cassava Republic Press and Masobe Books, literary festivals like Namibia’s Doek, and literary magazines like Kenya’s Lolwe, are bolstering the profile of authors across the continent, both at home and abroad, the New York Times reports. “The West is not discovering us,” South African writer Zukiswa Wanner told the Times. “We are discovering us and then telling our stories and then saying to the West, ‘Well, this is us.’”
We are continuing to see new ways that dance can become more accessible. We’ve previously spoken about the U.K.’s Stopgap Dance Company. More recently, the NYT profiled Azara Ballet—a Florida company founded in 2022 to be inclusive of neurodiverse dancers and supportive of dancers’ mental health. Azaza is also supportive of neurodiverse audiences its sensory-friendly performances—an offering that some larger companies, like New York City Ballet, have started folding into their performance calendars.
Starting an orchestra today isn’t an easy feat; the San Antonio Philharmonic is evidence of that fact as it navigates money troubles in its third season. But that did not stop Russian-American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya—who moved with her family to the United States when she was nine—from starting the nonprofit Refugee Orchestra Project in 2016, amid the Syrian refugee crisis.
Yankovskaya keeps busy, the FT reported in a spotlight piece ahead of her show conducting the London Philharmonic later this month; as the former music director of Chicago Opera Theater, she still oversees its Vanguard Initiative, which supports composers venturing into opera for the first time. “We need to create an environment where we can initiate art that speaks for today. At some point in the last century, we forgot this in the classical music world and a museum mentality started to set in,” she told the FT. “Supporting living creators: this has been one of my passions from the very start of my career.”
That’s a sentiment that Timothy Long would agree with. The conductor and pianist is the artistic and music director of opera at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. A Muscogee Nation citizen from the Thlopthlocco Tribal Town—who is also one-half Choctaw on his mother’s side—Long is passionate about bringing opera to modern audiences, which means supporting new, diverse work.
Long fell in love with classical music at a young age thanks to his mother’s vast collection of Beethoven records. Since then, he’s also grown passionate about indigenous visibility within the art form; in 2020, he began the North American Indigenous Songbook: “a new library of repertoire written by descendants of the first inhabitants of North America.”
With a history of work that includes this project as well as countless performances around the world—as a pianist, violinist, harpsichordist, and conductor—Long has a strong vantage point from which to see the future of classical music, and more specifically, the future of opera. I’m so pleased to share my Q&A with him about his vision for this art form, how he came to love opera, and his advice for people thinking about getting into opera:
I know that your parents instilled a love of classical music in you from a young age, particularly through your mother's collection of Beethoven records. At what point did you develop an interest in opera, specifically? Was there a life-changing performance you saw or a piece you encountered?
After my aunt passed away at the age of 50, I began listening to her records. She used to go to the Met tours and to the Santa Fe Opera, so she had some wonderful recordings. When I was an undergraduate at Oklahoma City University, her Leinsdorf recording of [Puccini’s Madame] Butterfly became incredibly important to me. Leontyne Price was Butterfly, and it was stunning, and the humming chorus was unlike anything I had heard.
Another very important thing was that I played violin in the orchestra, and the school did two operas and two musicals per year. The first opera I played was Dido and Aeneas and I fell in love. By my third year, I was concertmaster. I distinctly remember playing La Bohème solos and I felt like I was on stage with Mimi and Rodolfo. It was a highly emotional experience for me. After I graduated, I played violin in the pit at Opera in the Ozarks. I found the pieces so emotionally powerful that I would almost always need to sit by myself to process what happened. I was changed.
Opera can be intimidating for people who haven't been exposed to it—or who assume it’s all like Wagner's Ring cycle. What advice would you give to someone who is interested in learning more about opera, but doesn't quite know what to expect or where to start?
First of all, you can stay or leave whenever you want. You won't feel trapped. Then, you need to remember that opera is like a movie musical or like an extended music video. There are so many elements to notice. If you are not used to operatic voices, there are sets, costumes, lights, and orchestra. If you are not visual, you can close your eyes and listen. Personally, I find it to be a great place to people-watch.
The operas you produce at Eastman are all 21st-century works. What makes a successful opera today, in your view? Are there certain types of stories that are particularly suited to the medium?
Eastman Opera Theatre’s season is called “The 21st Century.” It sounds adventurous, but I asked myself what repertoire I would be doing if it were 1925. At that point in time, there was a great treasure trove of fantastic repertoire, and I think that is the case in 2025 as well. So many important works have already been written in this century, and the art of operatic composition is at a very strong place. More importantly, the pieces work for the students that we have.
The things that make an opera successful today are no different from the past—stories that connect us, music that challenges us, and performers who are devoted to great singing and sincere storytelling.
Why is it important to you to tell diverse stories through the operas you produce at Eastman? What do you think opera can achieve as a medium?
By opera’s very nature, we are taught to look at diverse stories. As Americans, we are so often investing in stories from other countries, cultures, and languages. Why would we change that with 21st-century music? Opera is the most artistically inclusive art form around, in that there are singers, a chorus, an orchestra, designers, choreographers, directors, and many production staff. We all have different backgrounds and stories, and the operas we choose can help us and our audiences see commonalities that can teach and heal us all. It can be a balm for society.
What’s the biggest misconception you think folks may have about opera today?
The biggest misconception is when people think opera is not for them. Everyone is welcome, no matter their experience level, education, or socio-economic background. If you feel like attending in jeans and sneakers, do it. I do. If you feel like the theater is itself intimidating, remember that it was built for you. Our current season has operas on the shorter side. If you are nervous about going to an opera, this is the year to do it. We will welcome you with open arms.
You can find information about upcoming opera performances at Eastman here. ▲