What Timothée Chalamet got right about opera, ballet — and my mornings in synagogue |
On a Saturday in January I went to Shabbat services in the morning and the New York City Ballet in the evening.
By which I mean, maybe Timothée Chalamet has a point.
The star of the Oscar-nominated ping-pong biopic “Marty Supreme” is raising a ruckus with his suggestion that ballet and opera are dying art forms. His remarks came in a Variety and CNN town hall with fellow actor Matthew McConaughey, where the two discussed efforts to keep movie theaters alive in the face of competition from streaming services.
“I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera or things where it’s like, ‘Hey! Keep this thing alive,’” the 30-year-old Chalamet said in comments that circulated widely on social media this week. “Even though it’s like no one cares about this anymore.”
Ballet and opera companies clapped back. “Every night at the Royal Opera House, thousands of people gather for ballet and opera,” the Royal Ballet and Opera House posted on Instagram. “If you’d like to reconsider, @tchalamet, our doors are open.”
OK, “no one cares” is a gross overstatement. The night I went to the NYCB, it was part of its “Art Series” that includes discounted tickets, a post-performance afterparty and cocktail tastings. The theater was packed with young, beautiful people who cheered the dancers like Knicks fans.
But despite events like these and excitement about new young creators (including the opera director Yuval Sharon, the American-born son of Israeli parents who this week is making his debut at the Metropolitan Opera), ballet and opera remain niche entertainments. Los Angeles Times art critic Jessica Gelt recently compared annual ticket sales for all American opera and ballet — 1.4 to 3 million each — to the 19 million........