Podcast Summary: New Books Network — Caitlin Vincent, "Opera Wars: Inside the World of Opera and the Battles for Its Future"

Host: Dave (New Books)
Guest: Caitlin Vincent
Date: January 9, 2026

Overview

In this episode of New Books in Critical Theory, host Dave interviews Caitlin Vincent about her book Opera Wars: Inside the World of Opera and the Battles for Its Future (Simon and Schuster, 2026). The conversation explores the contested, complex—and sometimes contradictory—space of opera as both an art form and an industry. Vincent, drawing from her experience as a performer, director, librettist, company founder, and academic, discusses why opera inspires so much debate over its “canon,” staging, social roles, and survival. The episode examines not just what makes opera unique, but what its ongoing internal battles reveal about contemporary culture, creative labor, and the future of the performing arts.

Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Motivation & Personal Perspective

[03:05] Caitlin Vincent discusses her relationship to opera—both as a passionate insider and as a critical observer:

• The book is motivated by “a bit of a love-hate relationship” with opera.
• Vincent’s background: trained opera singer, opera librettist, small company founder, and now a scholar.
• Quote: “At a certain point over the years, it becomes very hard to ignore the cracks and the rifts…and I really just can’t seem to escape it.” [03:27]
• Felt compelled to “unpack the complexity of the industry”—why is it the way it is, and how does four centuries of ‘baggage’ shape opera today?

2. What is Opera? Battlegrounds Over Definitions

[04:45] & [05:55] The episode outlines opera’s fundamental characteristics and why defining it is so contentious:

• Opera is “unwieldy,” composed of music, text (libretto), and live visual performance.
• Debate over boundaries: Does a Sondheim musical count as opera? Is “West Side Story” opera?
• At root, opera is a “battleground” between art forms: “It’s this conflict between these different art forms…that is somehow transformed into something more.” [06:33]
• Memorable moment: Vincent challenges the “cliché” of opera—horned helmets, giant venues—and emphasizes opera’s diversity.

3. The Canon: Tradition vs. Innovation

[08:42] Exploration of what counts as the core operatic ‘canon’ and the forces that shaped it:

• The “museum repertoire” idea is recent—only dominating the past 125 years or so.
• Opera was formerly driven by novelty and new works; now, a small set of “greatest hits” (e.g., Mozart, Puccini, Wagner, Carmen, La Bohème) dominate.
• The challenge: canonical works are historical artifacts with “complications,” especially around their creators’ views on race and gender.
• Quote: “[A] modern day opera company is supposed to do with a work that’s 200 years old and has 200-year-old views of things like race and gender.” [10:31]

4. Fidelity, Staging, and Interpretive Battles

[11:48] Why is there so much anxiety (and argument) about ‘fidelity’ to original scores and staging practices?

• Rise in published, ‘official’ scores fueled fixation on “the correct version.”
• Tension: Musical scores are “frozen in time,” but live performances cannot perfectly reproduce what’s on paper.
• Emergence of modern staging directors added creative interpretations, confronting traditionalists who want only “authentic” productions.
• Quote: “When you're talking about a published score...then suddenly you’re bringing in the stage director who has all these different ideas about what the opera could mean…and that can be really confronting for a lot of traditional audiences.” [13:29]

5. Diversity, Casting, and Representation

[15:01] Opera’s struggles around problematic tropes, casting, and diversity both on and off stage:

• Many standard works contain racial exoticism, and staging traditions include practices like yellowface and blackface—“something that is still very much common” in opera, shocking compared to other art forms.
• Modern audiences (especially younger ones) are increasingly alienated by this lack of inclusivity and outdated portrayals.
• Quote: “Opera has been struggling for audiences for a long time. It struggles for relevance…So how can you actually, you know, make the choice to stage an opera in a historical traditional way, even though you know that that’s going to alienate a significant portion of your audience?” [16:24]

6. Working Conditions and Industry Sustainability

[17:28, 19:33] Discussion of the ‘dark side’ of opera careers:

• Opera singers as “the original gig workers.” Independent contractors, no HR protections.

• Vulnerable to abuse, particularly in rehearsal spaces; young and less established artists are most at risk.

• Abusive behavior is often excused as the “genius” of directors or casting executives.

• Companies themselves are struggling, passing financial pressures onto artists.

• Quote: “Artists are also workers, that opera is not just an art form, it is also a site of employment. And these singers who are also artists deserve safe working conditions and a certain level of expectation for how they're going to be treated.” [20:39]

7. Vincent’s Experience: The Figaro Project

[23:04] Personal case study of running a small company:

• Founded in response to recession and disappearance of local opportunities.
• Built around peer support (“put on a show with my friends”), programming both classics and new works.
• Ultimately unsustainable: “We made no money. I never got paid for any of it.” Couldn’t keep asking collaborators to work for free.
• Quote: “I mean, it was five years and at the end, you know, it really was just that there was no money. And I couldn’t keep asking people to work for free. I couldn’t keep myself working for free.” [25:18]
• Large-scale opera almost never covers costs through tickets—“You can never earn enough revenue from selling tickets to actually cover the costs of putting on the performance because it’s so expensive.” [25:52]

8. Audience Fragmentation, Funding Models & the Path Forward

[26:40, 27:52] Conflicts between traditionalist and progressive audiences, and funding as a solution:

• In Europe (esp. Germany), generous state support enables risk-taking and programming of new works.
• In English-speaking countries, far less government funding → more conservative programming, risk aversion.
• There is a genuine divide: traditionalists want the “grand” canon, contemporary fans want innovation, and each tends to ignore or devalue the other’s preferences.

9. Fear of the New? Opera’s Ongoing Paradox

[29:51, 30:47] Does opera have a “fear of the new”? Who is afraid—companies or audiences?

• The “restaurant” analogy: audiences gravitate to familiar ‘dishes’ instead of new ones.

• Companies ration new work (“out of five operas, four are old and one is new”) due to financial insecurity and audience expectations.

• New work often gets second-class treatment, rarely being given the advocacy it needs.

• Quote: “But I do think it’s tricky because companies are not in a secure position. So…if they don’t have the financial stability…of course they’re going to continue to retreat to the canon because they’re just trying to keep the lights on.” [33:05]

• Stigma around new opera persists—audiences fear it will be inaccessible or unpleasant, which is rarely true nowadays.

10. Preserving vs. Extending: The Paradox of Opera’s Future

[34:18] How to keep opera both relevant and reverent?

• Opera’s challenge: preservation versus extension; respecting history while fostering innovation.
• The same pressure points exist across other art forms (ballet, theatre, cinema, visual arts).

11. Vincent’s Current & Future Work

[35:51] Caitlin’s dual career as creator and academic:

• Keeps composing and writing (including a new comedy, recent large-scale works).

• Academic research now focuses on career pathways for stage directors/conductors, and diversity in hiring in opera companies.

• Broader issues like AI, audience decline, and parallels with other industries are also future research interests.

• Quote: “I do love opera. I love, hate opera. So I think that I do keep coming back to it, but I certainly like flirting with other art forms as well.” [35:51]

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• On being both critical and passionate:
  “I approach opera as an insider in that I was a trained professional opera singer...I really just can't seem to escape it.” [03:27]
• On defining opera:
  “It's this conflict between these different art forms...that total work of art...compelled so many creators over four centuries to just keep going back to it.” [06:27]
• On the realities of the canon:
  “Opera was very much defined by novelty...now a small number of greatest hits....[that’s] only the past, let's say, 125 years or so.” [09:08]
• On problematic representation:
  “This can be really jarring for many modern day audiences because we do not have yellow face and blackface in a really explicit way in pretty much any other art form these days. It's only in opera where it is still very much common.” [15:48]
• On unsustainable business models:
  “We made no money. I never got paid for any of it...I couldn’t keep asking people to work for free.” [25:18]
• On hope and resistance:
  “I do love opera. I love, hate opera. So I think that I do keep coming back to it, but I certainly like flirting with other art forms as well.” [36:49]

Additional Memorable Moments

• [04:45] Playful debunking of the “horned helmets” opera stereotype.
• [13:29] On the explosive potential of director-led staging versus score “fidelity.”
• [22:00+] Insight into the gig economy nature of artistic labor in opera.
• [30:47] Analogy comparing canonical opera to always ordering the “same dish” at a restaurant.

Conclusion

Caitlin Vincent’s Opera Wars—and this interview—reveal opera as a locus of constant negotiation between past and present, art and industry, exclusivity and relevance. The “wars” within opera mirror broader cultural and social struggles over tradition, innovation, labor rights, audience development, and public funding. Vincent’s insights, as both practitioner and scholar, offer an engaging and empathetic look at both the enduring grandeur and the urgent challenges facing opera—and the arts more broadly—today.