Terence Corcoran, in his grossly closed-minded article inspired by the COC’s 2013 production of La clemenza di Tito, found himself so distraught by the sight of two women kissing (that head-turning product of opera’s “pants role” tradition) that he suggested we throw out all of opera with the bathwater. One of the article’s commenters puts it well: “The works of Mozart, Verdi, Wagner and other composers can succeed without the procrustean attempts of directors who misdiagnose and mistreat both opera and its audience.” Create a piece of art that is self-sustaining, and not reliant upon a ticket holder’s advance research on their Roman Emperors, Druid mythology or the function of a da capo aria. Create characters that are so rich that we understand immediately their status onstage. Use musical and textual repetition, notoriously snooze-worthy devices of Baroque and bel canto opera, to really say something new. This is theatre, for chrissake.

Most importantly, if the piece doesn’t give its team of artists enough tools to create one of these self-sustaining, entertaining operas, let’s just not do it.

Go, go see some opera, be it magical or be it terrible.

So, what to do? Make sure audiences see good opera. What does that mean? The kind that starts with the music, and evolves. I know a wonderful opera director who maintains that Mozart was one of the great directors of history. So, yes, we’re over the concept production for its own sake. But we also need to make room for new pieces, pieces that work harder at creating not just a concept for a show that will catch the eye, but creating a piece that is simply entertaining in itself. For example, John Adams and Mark-Anthony Turnage write their operas about people like J. Robert Oppenheimer and Anna Nicole Smith. Bam, just like that, you’ve got the attention of both baby boomers and 90s kids. That’s a lot less white hair. I’m not saying that pieces about contemporary issues or celebrities should be written because they’ll be more interesting, especially if they don’t actually make a great protagonist onstage. But in terms of an audience sympathizing with a character, having a real human being with human motivation is a step up from some like, say, Rusalka, the Czech water-sprite.

The operatically inclined youths running around Toronto are really putting out some amazing work. It’s some truly innovative stuff, coming from companies like Against the Grain Theatre and Opera 5, and the rave reviews are plentiful. I mean, how much more contemporary could a production be than getting an invitation to Figaro and Susanna’s wedding?

Go, go see some opera, be it magical or be it terrible. Go and watch someone tell a story with the sound of their voice. Go and grab a seat along the sides of the theatre and try to catch a lazy assistant stage manager standing in the wings. Go and simply marvel at what the singers, orchestra, conductor, all of them, can do, the sounds they can make. It takes a lifetime of work to do what they do, and it was all for the sake of making you feel something.