PERSPECTIVE — Award-winning librettist, trained vocalist, opera company director, and arts commentator Caitlin Vincent is a true Renaissance woman. She is well-versed in an art form that is intriguing, exalted, and maddening: opera.
In her new book Opera Wars (Scribner), Vincent takes on issues facing the opera world, both today and in the future. She likens this realm to a combat zone rife with conflict — the scene of a never-ending struggle between ego-driven composers, librettists, directors, and singers to dominate the stage. With language that is easily understandable for aficionados and less savvy readers, Vincent paints a clear and convincing portrait of this ongoing fight.
Erica Miner: What inspired you to write Opera Wars?
Caitlin Vincent: Opera Wars emerged from me wrestling with my mixed feelings about opera. When anyone spends the majority of their life immersed in an industry, they can’t help seeing the cracks and pressure points. I divide the book into eight chapters, each of which tackles a different “battleground” in the field and draws on a combination of my personal experience, original research, and interviews with opera insiders. I especially wanted to make the book accessible to people who are intrigued by opera but don’t know where to start. With this book, there’s no pre-reading or music dictionary required.
EM: Is opera the perfect combination of music and drama?
CV: The goal of the art form is to achieve a complete synthesis of text and music (visuals, too, if we’re including staging, which I consider the third integral component of opera). But it’s incredibly difficult to realize this goal in practice. Opera is more often an imperfect combination of music and drama. It’s one reason why the art form attracts so many composers, librettists, stage directors, and performers. It presents such a daunting artistic challenge. When everything does align perfectly, the result can be transformative, for the people in the audience and those onstage.
EM: How did your musical education prepare you for your career as a performer, writer, and opera director?
CV: For a long time, I was certain that performing as an opera singer would comprise my entire career. But looking back, it seems my studies were laying the groundwork for a different kind of career. At Harvard, I was a history and literature major, knee-deep in great works of literature, learning about their historical context. That shaped my craft as a librettist, as well as my approach to researching the opera industry. At Peabody, I cultivated my voice and learned about different styles of repertoire and models of collaboration with singers, instrumentalists, and composers.
I’m not sure I realized new music was a thing — let alone that I could be writing the text that composers set to music — until I worked on modern repertoire with the likes of John Shirley-Quirk, William Sharp, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, and Ah Young Hong. At Deakin [University in Australia], I was introduced to the world of research: I did my Ph.D. on the use of digital projections in opera and the ways technology can change and disrupt production behind the scenes. I’ve always been curious about the “how” and “why” of the opera world. My degrees helped me pursue that curiosity from many different angles.
EM: Is becoming an opera singer more difficult now than previously?
CV: It has never been easy to become an opera singer. Every generation faces similar challenges in terms of competition, limited work opportunities, and the investment of time and money required to have a shot at it. Some aspects are easier now: YouTube and social media have made it possible for aspiring singers to become visible to prospective employers in ways that earlier generations couldn’t. At the same time, the present-day opera industry is under incredible financial strain. Companies are highly risk-averse in their programming, who they’re hiring, and how much they’re paying them. Fewer work opportunities and lower pay mean fewer opera singers can advance in their careers.
EM: Where do you stand in the current controversy over “contemporary” productions of traditional operas?
CV: We see the conflict emerge with popular historical operas (think Carmen or La bohème) that have traditionally been staged in a particular way over decades and even centuries. Some argue there’s a right way to stage those works. But I think this perspective frames opera as a museum piece, something fixed in time, not meant to be reimagined through modern eyes. Opera is a dynamic, living art form. Why would we want to limit the artistic creativity of directors, designers, and performers?
EM: Will opera continue to be relevant?
CV: Models of production may change, but as a form opera will remain relevant. Operas being written right now reflect who we are in this moment. They unpack aspects of our society in important ways. Even an opera written 200 years ago has the power to connect with an audience in ways that no other art form can. The opera house will become more important as a stronghold of human expression and excellence. No microphones, Photoshop, AI. Just an orchestra, singers, director, designers, conductor, composer, and librettist, working together, using art to communicate with an audience. The magic formula? We all need to buy more tickets.
