In America today there is a strange anomaly: more and more young men and women studying to become opera singers and a decline in subscribers to opera companies. I specify subscribers even though single-ticket buyers are down, too, because opera companies live off of the committed subscriber. Though the recession is over, most company’s bottom lines do not look healthy, yet the flood of singers graduating from universities and conservatories continues unabated. I think there are more Americans seeking opera careers per capita than in any other country except Germany.
If so many of our young people are seeking to give us opera, what is wrong? And what can be done to help? I do not agree with those who say that the opera repertory is too stagnant, that the majority of people are not interested in opera, new or old. There may be some truth that the Millennial generation finds it impossible to concentrate on anything for longer than 52 minutes or what constitutes the length of most TV programs, but that’s one problem that shouldn’t now affect most ticket buyers who are generally older. In America opera companies spend a great deal of money educating the young, knowing that in their twenties and thirties when men or women are establishing careers and trying hard to find the money to educate their children, they have neither the money nor the time to buy opera tickets. But over the last half century those who were educated as young people come back to opera in their forties and fifties. This is not happening as readily as before, and opera lovers therefore have a real problem.
Some may say it is a stultification of repertory, but I don’t agree. Since opera began, some works disappear because they lose currency, others remain vital. Meyerbeer was the toast of Europe and America in the 1800s; his work has rarely been performed since 1900. When I was young, no opera had greater popularity or more repetitions everywhere than Aida. But the grand opera format with elaborate sets, ballet, and spectacle has become dated because it encouraged standing and singing. Audiences now look for opera as theater. Look at the explosion of interest in Handel who had virtually no American performances thirty or forty years ago. As recently as 1970 Charles Rosen, one of the most distinguished musicologists of the time, declared Handel operas much less successful than his oratorios. Today the frequency of Handel performance is so great that a singer’s audition in which a Handel aria is not offered is rare.
I think the problem with audience comes in part from something James Levine said quite a while ago. He pointed out that the coaches who worked with Puccini, Verdi and Wagner are long dead. Even their grandchildren are gone so the contact with the composer and what he wanted is pretty much non-existent. All through the letters and writing of Verdi, Wagner, and Puccini are comments about the need for singers to convey emotion, to express feelings, but opera today is too often coached and prepared by those to whom technique is valued over expression. The American singer is almost always well trained, but correctness is where the training stops.
Obviously one must have the notes, but the most successful singers of the past who filled opera houses involved their audiences emotionally in the way they sang. If a soprano can handle all the runs in Lucia’s Mad Scene brilliantly, if a tenor has the right legato for “Una furtiva lagrima” or a baritone the vocal power and accuracy for “Cortigiani”, they are deemed ready for the roles of Lucia, Nemorino, and Rigoletto. Did an audience censor Maria Callas for leaving out the first high E-flat in the Mad Scene? Or Franco Corelli’s throwing in high notes because he could sing them? Or Leonard Warren’s varying the tempi and holding high notes longer than the score indicated?
Another problem with correctness is who it excludes. My firm belief is that two of the greatest artists of the past century, Maria Callas and Leonie Rysanek, would find it hard today to find a job. Why? Both of them, because they were so emotionally involved in what they were singing and acting, were extraordinarily variable. Both could on some nights hit every note, and on others give downright painful performances.
Rysanek once said to me that she had never succeeded in Tosca the way she wanted to because in Act II she always got too carried away and had too little to give in Act III. I also remember nights when her pitch went crazy in that very opera. But did anyone care? No, because even if she was not hitting every note on the nose–and this was certainly the case with Callas–she was pouring her whole personality, her whole soul into what she was doing, and the audience lived the drama with her. When Rysanek finished her long aria in Elektra and she pounded the stage as though she would die of frustration, the audience loved it. She brought home to everyone what it meant to live with an evil mother, her consort, and her crazy sister. Would anyone do that today?
I have dwelt on two sopranos but there were singers in every voice range who were deeply personal, whose personality hit an audience in its ears and eyes and made them come back for more. Recently Lorraine Hunt Lieberson could certainly do this as could Carol Vaness and Tatiana Troyanos. Male artists usually don’t vary quite so much, but certainly Placido Domingo and Jon Vickers packed houses wherever they sang as much because they were dramatically thrilling and individual as that they were great singers. And I cannot complete such a list without mentioning Franco Corelli, whose fidelity to the text or the production might have been questionable but whose vocal and physical personality sold out every seat in any house in the world.
Opera is first, last, and always an emotional art form, and today we are not getting nearly as much personal emotion from those who are creating the art as we should. I see this as more of a problem for those who are presenting opera than for the artists. Too often the singer who is just correct, who can always keep the curtain up, is praised while the more emotional, variable singer is considered not worth the gamble. Succeeding in an opera performance never fails to be chancy; the human voice is always at risk. But those who play for the biggest stakes keep opera thrilling and involving.
I have also noticed the disparity in audience age vs. Performers age at American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Rep, and Magic Theater all in the Bay Area….it is odd.
Hear, hear! Well into the mid-20th century singers who knew the language and times of the composer intimately–who might have known the composer intimately!–inhabited our opera stages and poured their hearts into their performances. Now, with our focus on technique, we get a “mediocrity of perfection”. What is necessary is to bring the sense of immediacy of the opera experience back–by creatiing opera productions that speak to audiences, both novice and veteran; by fostering the skills in young singers to carry opera forward (and believe me, many of those skills are being overlooked in conservatories and music schools); and by ensuring the singers and audiences understand every word that is being sung. Bravo! when this works.
Its the same with instrumentalists: Most are indistinguishable and interchangeable. No risks, no thrill, no drama. Gone are the times of Adolf Busch, Pablo Casals, Bronislav Huberman or György Cziffra where each note was a unique personal statement.
Being an ardent music lover I mostly prefer not to go to concerts…
This coming from the man who gave us white bread opera for ages. Years of dull, correct singing in Seattle Opera.
I am not quite sure what opera house you were sitting in, but at Seattle Opera I have experienced thrilling performances from the likes of Carol Vaness, Neil Shicoff, Stephanie Blythe, Marius Kweicien, Ben Heppner, Norah Amsellem, Kate Lindsey, Nathan Gunn, Jane Eaglan, John Relyea, William Burden, Stefan Vinke, Greer Grimsley, Alexsandra Kurzak, Mary Elizabeth Williams, Christopher Maltman, Lawrence Brownlee, Peter Rose, Stephen Milling….shall I go on?
I may not be a subscriber to the opera, but I have enjoyed a range of opera from the traditionally classic to contemporary, many times in my life.
This article is spot on in my opinion and reflects very well what we currently try to achieve at Hallmark of Harmony, one of the best barbershop choruses in the UK, whilst the musical leadership also spend a great deal of time on vocal technique as well as on how we articulate the words, how we shape our mouths to deliver them, as well as, essentially, engaging our minds with the emotional content of a song.
Such an interesting piece. Thank you.
There are singers today who can transmit that emotional thrill. Rene Pape, as Gurnemanz–I did not hear this in the theater, but even via my car speakers, I paid attention and, for the first time, saw the point of the Act 3 narration. Kelly Kaduce is a singer who has more than once kept me awake for hours after a performance.
Saw Kelly Kaduce as Cio-Cio San a few weeks ago – incredible performance.
You are so right in your comment about the emotional commitment and expression of great singers of the past and that this is an essential element that made them great. Today’s singers are so often interchangeable and unrecognizable in the sense of them not having a recognizable vocal profile.
On the other hand, it is quite amazing to see, as you have also commented, that the numbers of graduates from music conservatories around the world seems to be growing exponentially. When I hear that a competition such as “Neue Stimmen” has over 5000 applications and that Brian Dickie listens to well over 1000 of these candidates in person in order to chose just 40 candidates to compete in Gütersloh, Germany. What are these young singers all to do?
Your article highlights an interesting observation – less emotional understanding in singing with more volume of singers with good “voices”. The development of a greater functional understanding of the mechanics of the voice has been intellectually stimulating and, in the hands of a few good teachers, of benefit. But interestingly there is not necessarily a lager volume of real singing super stars in the modern opera world. I am beginning to
become aware of a rumbling counter movement…a move in some sections of the singing fraternity towards more interest in the teaching of meaning. Let’s hope this continues! It is important to encourage all our singers to feel the meaning and colour of words not just the voice! Thank you for your contribution towards the debate….
Wonderful insights, yet one point that I strongly feel which was left out – “regie theater” – when a director’s vision is more important than the score, the singers, and even the composer!
Callas would never have performed many of the contemporary productions we see today on the stages of major opera houses. Eva Marton, in my opinion, was one of the last great opera personalities who was larger-than-life on the stage and created that unique “out-of-body” experience when one feels part of the action on stage, not just a spectator in the auditorium. Most of her legendary performances were traditional productions.
We have such singers today: Jay Hunter Morris, Joyce DiDonato, Eric Owens, Sondra Radvanovsky, all of them USA born and bred… The list goes on. And among younger singers as well: ones I know who have trained in the USA include Jonathan Blalock, Maya Lahyani, Claudia Chapa… Lucia di Lammermoor that we had in Opera in Williamsburg (VA) with Haeran Hong, Won Whi Choi, Suchan Kim, and Branch Fields was deeply emotionally compelling.
Anybody who aims for a career as an opera singer is passionate about it — it is certainly not an easy way to build a career or a life. It is a tribute to the power of opera as an art form that so many talented people are drawn to it. In the best singers, after years of disciplined study, this passion combines with technical mastery (which Callas and Rysanek certainly had) to create breathtaking performances. So was the case in the past, and such is the case today. It is up to us to support venues where such outstanding singers can share their art with us.
I think the term “correctness” is the key to this puzzle. Current singers may be well-trained in some respects, but the “business” of opera (agents, directors, PR people, record executives and even the audiences to a degree) has evolved to a critical point where individuality is much less valued than, say, 30-50 years ago. Sound reproduction (radio, recordings, DVDs) has become so advanced that every little glitch in a singer’s performance can be heard. In the past, as you have pointed out, great singing transcended the minor blemishes (even some major ones: Sutherland’s terrible diction, Rysanek’s wayward pitch, Domingo’s short top, etc.) usually due to the overall impact of the unique, individual personalities of the singers and their approach to communication through music. These days, there seems to be great interest in personal beauty, but much less interest in unique expression. Corelli, Callas, Kraus, Gruberova, Sills, Gobbi, and many others knew how to inhabit a character AND play to the audience – even if sometimes the results were imperfect. There are fewer and fewer singers willing and able to take such vocal and interpretive risks, lest they step outside the bounds of “correctness”. The result: a rather more generic art form, increasingly devoid of the mercurial stars badly needed to buoy its popularity.
THANK YOU! As a performer and teacher, I say to students all the time that the “business” does not support individuality, on stage or in the recording studio. Also, I believe we go at auditions in a completely backwards fashion. “Scouts” should be out at university and regional productions, seeing performers in action in a real hall on a real stage, where they are able to show their full chops.
I think, as Mr.Jenkins himself said- it’s more that the companies are not taking the risks. They are quicker to hire a ‘safe’ singer who sings with a solid technique than one who might display some moments of inconsistency vocally but will give you an emotionally charged performance.
The challenge for artists is to attain a discipline that will enable the art. Whereas it is impossible to teach someone who is not artistic the magic that is art. many artists fail because of not attaining the discipline and most disciplined singers fail because there is no art, no magic., no connection, (not just singers)
As far as audiences……more music in schools. No music in schools ….no audiences later
More band programs, more musicals.
Hockey is good, band is better.. Those that don’t make it as professional players make an appreciative audience. It’s a rare phenomena to see a 70 year old playing hockey but he can sure dazzle us on the keyboard or violin.
“There may be some truth that the Millennial generation finds it impossible to concentrate on anything for longer than 52 minutes or what constitutes the length of most TV programs”
As someone who will hit the big 5-0 next year, I’m beginning to sympathize with the “teenagers are annoying, dress funny, and their music stinks” attitude, but I really have to call foul on this one. They binge-watch. I can’t stomach sitting in front of a screen for longer than two hours, not without a break. These kids sit there for eleven hours at a stretch. Trust me, their attention span is fine and generally outlasts their parents — there is no truth to the above claim whatsoever.
This is exactly what I’m talking about. Most of the movies targeting the millennial generation push three hours in length if not more. Every Marvel movie and Lord of the Rings epic has long running times. Time to ditch the attention span blame game as an explanation. This is a marketing problem, and the fact that we do not have opera stars to rally around that produce the performances worthy of chatter is one of the big branding issues. Many productions are either too safe overall or overblown in the wrong places. Opera is comedy, sex, murder, violence, everything you see on TV and in movies today. Houses that rework the marketing formula to the contemporary American audience will find success. Houses that bank on pleasing old money will continue to decline.
Your comment is very interesting. I am well aware of the capacity of people in their thirties and forties, as well as teenagers and twenty-year-olds sitting in one chair and playing a game for hours. So why have I heard from people in the thirty and forty age group that our operas are too long, that I should abbreviate them? Since I never hear that from older opera attendees, I attribute it to the inability of watching something that takes concentration for longer than a TV show. Maybe this is because when they are playing a game, they are in action; when they are attending an opera, they are watching and listening, not in action. Of course you point out that many can watch television for long hours; I can only argue that the stories on television are never very long; they change quickly and are often broken up by advertisements. In opera one must focus on the same story for a longer period of time as one does in a play. My basic argument is that with charismatic artists onstage who have both voice and the ability to act, we can overcome the problem.
Or it could just be that the seats are uncomfortable. I love attending live opera, but, being tall and wide, I find it difficult to appreciate the music when the seats are so narrow my knees are scraping the seat in front of me.
Given the choice between paying upwards of $100 per ticket for seats that feel like implements of torture or staying home on my nice, comfy couch and watching an opera on DVD…well, I know which one I’d pick.
Also, opera is more intellectually stimulating that most modern TV shows.
Or make a new opera where the audience participates in the action
I agree with Speight Jenkins’ response to your comment, Janis, and I would add that I strongly disagree with your emphatic assertion that “their attention span is fine”. While it may appear that Millenials watch hours of uninterrupted television, I have a hunch that you refer to long strings of episodic material that don’t require much concentration on plot (or anything, for that matter). Even more to the point, there is a strong likelihood that they are also on their electronic devices tweeting, texting, whatever throughout – perhaps also eating, drinking, taking phone calls, etc. In other words, the collected stimuli add up to something very different than sitting quietly in the operahouse (no noise, no texting, no interruptions) which seems nearly impossible for the younger generations to endure.
Thank you Mr. Jenkins,
You have written a truly important article.
I have been in the opera world for over 43 years now.
I agree totally with you .”Opera is first, last, and always an emotional art form, and today we are not getting nearly as much personal emotion from those who are creating the art as we should. I see this as more of a problem for those who are presenting opera than for the artists.”
The great artists of the past knew this and were excluded from the “modern opera world”. I was friends with Licia Albanese from 1975 till her passing away in August 2015. (40 years) Her knowledge along with that of all other gerat opera singers from her generation was ignored by the powers to be at the Met and in other opera houses around the world. They were not needed.
I am very happy that I started my own opera company, Opera Classica Europa, without help from anyone and our attendence is at an all time high. Opera is exciting when singers are set free to display their understanding of the great operas written by Verdi or Puccini or all other great composers.
This was the opera that LICIA ALBANESE taught me.
Thank you again for a great article.
Sincerely,
Michael Vaccaro
Thank you for an excellent article. Another contributing factor to the lack of emotion in performances throughout the classical world is the widespread use of beta blockers for performance anxiety.
When Callas or Rysanek missed a note or wrecked an aria, they didn’t have to worry about everyone in the audience going home to put their impressions on Facebook. I’m sure that singers today must be extremely aware that every false step and gargled note, every ill-fitting wig or unattractive costume, is going to be commented on or posted in a blog for everyone to see. Many commenters are merely out to show off their mastery of the snarky putdown. And of course nothing in the digital world can be forgotten. It isn’t surprising that young performers go for the safe option.
It is, however, possible to sing both accurately and with enormous emotional depth. One need not exclude the other.
I loved this article by Speight. The central point about emotion coupled with the Levine comment about the coaches that worked with great composers is incredibly valid.
Back when I started and before I “made it” I was sent to Italy to study with Campanini in Naples and was also fortunate enough to be coached by Roberto Benaglio in Milan and to work early on with Gianadrea Gavazzeni and Carlo Maria Giulini. They may not have been connected directly to Verdi and Puccini but they all had learned from people who were. Sir Georg Solti had learned much from Toscanini who played cello in the orchestra at La Scala while Verdi sat in on the rehearsals for his new opera Otello. All these people had much to pass on to young singers like me. Our role models were Callas, Tebaldi and Sutherland.
I was struck by Rysanek’s comment to Speight about Tosca. It seems today that there is serious lack of TRUE spinto singers. Now whether this down to lack of training or, as I think, lack of time to develop that vocal power is arguable. I am sure those voices are being born but i know it took me 14 years of ongoing study to develop my spinto and as I got older and experienced some challenges, the types of teachers that might have been able to help simply did not exist – or if they did, I couldn’t find them.
Today, a great singer is snapped up by every house, jets across the globe, sings as much as possible and generally does not experience a full term career. The idea of being married to one house, serving its public and the odd leisurely international tour, pre the jet age, is gone. I think the long term development of great voices went with it.
The passion of a great Puccini role or the line, colour and depth of a great Verdi heroine were enhanced by the greatness of the other singers who joined you on stage. I sang with people like Siepi, Cappucilli, Bruson, Taddei, Zancanaro, Domingo, Carreras, Pavarotti, Cosutta, Cossotto, and so many others. Big voices, warm sounds, none of them perfect except that they were just perfect (if you know what I mean).
Rosalind Plowright is exactly the type of artist of whom I was writing. I remember her Medea in London that was the most remarkable performance of the role I had experienced since Callas, and the excellent Klytemnestra she sang at Seattle Opera. What I want to do more than anything is to encourage young singers, who often are of the highest quality, to spend the time not just to sing well but to sing with emotion and meaning. If only they can be taught that rushing from one engagement to the next with no time for relaxation or thought is not a good idea, and that every new role takes time to mature in their voices and their minds, opera audiences would pay them back more than they can believe.
Insightful comments based on half a century “in the trenches”…Bravo, Mr. Jenkins!
Emotion in opera is very much still alive… you just need to look for it:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=989641444402122&set=vb.205243582841916&type=2&theater
What makes a Great Opera Singer has nothing to do with voice.
An opera star is no different than any other kind of star.
What makes a star is a personality.
Beverly and Luciano were nothing if not themselves. Beverly wasn’t even particularly irreplaceable vocally. But she was Beverly.
Stars demand fees and are not replaceable.
Opera houses (and Broadway houses) cannot afford fees and cannot afford for attendance to depend on the audience’s affection for individuals, who cancel, get sick, get old.
They must have consistency. They are trains that must run on time.
And so they invest in the interchangeable.
And the interchangeable is what they now offer.
Why can’t opera hold the audience’s attention span? They aren’t offering anything that would.
I agree with your fine article. There are a few factors that I feel really have impacted ticket sales and certainly subscriptions. I will try to make this as concise as possible. I started going to the opera at the age of 5 in the early 80’s. I had the interest, but had the productions been as they are now, my mother simply would not have taken me. I am not a moralist nor am I easily shocked, however in a country where we have split political parties to two extremes, we still have Victorian basic morals. We have parents of all walks of life struggling to keep control of what their children are exposed to because of the internet etc. That very few parents are going to invest in season tickets if they cannot bring their young people or even teenagers or even grandma. I stopped buying season tickets about ten years ago because I used to take some of my elderly friends and nieces to the opera, and I got tired of having to call the opera house before each opera to ask if there was nudity, or overt sexual content. I wont waste time here telling you of some of the stage directions etc. You’ve then got the elderly opera goers who are literally dying off and the ones who haven’t will try financially and physically to come, but only if it is what they expect! Dying of TB on stage and a courtesan is as about as much as they can handle, and only if it is done in good taste. Then we have the thirty something crowed who has made enough money to finally start going to the opera because it is an upper class social event. They have never really been to an opera, not studied the libretto and do not know what to expect, so the opera company is telling them “this is the bible truth”. And they accept it. I do not however expect that we do moth eaten old productions of Butterfly every year, the points Callas made were really about staging and artistry. Her complaints about “The old Lucia, the old Traviata etc” were that they were archaic sets and mismatched costumes dating back to the 20’s and 30’s. She wanted new life in newly staged productions. I never saw her in modern dress. I am sorry that many young singers in order to work have to lend their talent to these unattractive and frequently salacious productions. How can they become fine individual artists if they are put in such unattractive packaging and presented to the public. Young singers who are striving to become artists are chosen usually for their physical beauty first, then the voice, sometimes with Wagner they make an exception out of necessity. If we had had to rely on he physical beauty of our favourite and greatist singers in the world, past and many present, we might never had heard them and opera certainly would not have come into the 20th century. I have a really clever idea for opera companies and directors. Take the original score, read it! Do what the composer asks, find voices that can sing it well, get a talented set designer and you will find you have sold out subscriptions! Treat the material like it was hot off the press and that will make it fresh. Not cheap theatrics to appeal only to limited audiences who’s only taste is in their mouths! This is in no way directed towards Mr. Jenkins. It is a generalization of a few of the serious problems affecting the modern opera world. Pace!
The excellent transformation of live operas to the screen: in movie theaters, on television, and in computer broadcasts, has affected opera houses and opera singing in many ways. People who can’t afford to attend operas live are able to see the best and less best singers in the world on screen. I attend all of the performances of Live From the Met. Out of a feeling of duty and curiosity, I also go to the productions of our local opera, with which I sang for many years. They are mostly disappointing (vocally/musically rather than dramatically), and if I wasn’t invited by a music critic who sits in the front rows, I probably wouldn’t be willing to shell out the $100+ for a ticket. Many young people are inspired by opera on YouTube, etc. which may explain the jump in aspiring opera singers as opposed to opera house attendance. They see much more opera at home than at the opera house.
The recording and screening of live opera also exposes the singers technical lapses for posterity. When recordings are made of operas with many takes and lots of electronic manipulations, we can buy almost perfect CD’s. It is true, the singers’ ups and downs on stage were once passing moments to be forgotten and forgiven. Now millions can hear them over and over again. Opera singers can also no longer get away with the kind of grimaces and physical mannerisms they once used to produce big sounds. On stage they could get away with them; on screen the public won’t accept them.
But filming of opera has made good acting an important priority of an opera singer’s education. Acting in film is different then acting on stage. I remember the first time I saw Pavarotti live. I was in the balcony and pretty much watched a fat tenor singing in a very static position on stage, wiping his sweat a lot with his handkerchief. My opera glasses were not much of a help. But when I saw him on the screen, I was able to see the facial expression which expressed every word and feeling of the text and music. I was blown over.
Whereas acting in traditional opera was often overblown in order to reach the audience over the orchestra, on screen the range of acting is different (also in the movies as opposed to the theater). I believe that this is also the reason that many lyric voices are singing dramatic and spinto roles today. On screen they don’t need to amplify the way they do on stage. It’s as though singers are trying to juggle two related but different arts: stage and screen. As a result, secret microphones often help amplify the voices in many large opera houses.
Opera has somehow become a more “intimate” art. This also explains the rise of Baroque operas, which require smaller orchestras and not such big voices. Whereas Opera Seria was once static and boring, it can now be spruced up with all kinds of visual and technical effects. It has become more interesting to the public.
Mr. Jenkins, I agree totally that opera singers have to be trained to portray emotion vocally as well as facially and bodily. I believe that emotional involvement comes on top of their basic vocal technique and requires experience and technical freedom to realize. The emotional expression also often enriches technique. I disagree that expressive singing is not being taught and encouraged by today’s teachers and coaches. Expressive singing is as much of a talent as a good voice. Perhaps some singers are jumping onto the stage too early, before they have developed and freed their emotional capacities. Some just don’t have the talent, and never will.
Mr. Jenkins is absolutely right that emotion is vital to the success of opera. That emotion must be conveyed in the passion of singers.
It is increasingly plain that major opera critics, like Alex Ross, Zachary Wolfe, and Anthony Tommasini, insist on promoting novelty over passion. But they are paid to judge, whereas the rest of us must pay precious dollars to be emotionally transported to a new and beautiful place.
If singers are asked to value technical performance over emotion, opera companies are also encouraged to produce anything new, no matter how barren of emotional content. The result is costly presentations of emotionally sterile music.
Puccini, Verdi, Wagner, and their colleagues wrote thrilling music about love – not tediously and utterly forgettable noise about such topical yawners as Nixon in China! Seriously? Spare me! Nixon? Forget it!
If we need new operas, we need music that carries our emotions with it, like Bernstein’s “Tonight” in “West Side Story” or Isolde’s Liebestod.
Who writes such compelling music for today’s singers and audiences?
Speight Jenkins has a point that singers should know the composers but the composers must compose music that moves people. Today, almost no one seems willing or able to bring that off. Instead, we get weird effects and tedious noise and are told we must struggle to enjoy them. Nonsense.
Write gorgeous music and singers will sing their hearts out and audiences will come in droves and sob as we long to do!