Opera Wars

Blunt, irreverent, and at times delightfully subversive, Opera Wars spotlights opera’s colorful and sometimes warring personalities, increasingly fierce controversies over content, and the battles being waged for its economic future—a “colorful, witty look behind the velvet curtain” (Renée Fleming).

Drawing on interviews with dozens of opera insiders—as well as her own experience as an award-winning librettist, trained vocalist, opera company director, and arts commentator—Caitlin Vincent “gives us the insider’s backstage view” (Financial Times), deftly unraveling clichés and presumptions. She exposes such debates as how much fidelity is owed to long-dead opera composers whose plots often stir racial and gender sensitivities, whether there’s any cure for typecasting that leaves talented performers out of work and other performers chained to the same roles, and what explains the bizarre kowtowing of opera companies to the demands of traditionalist patrons.

Vincent never shrinks from depicting the industry’s top-to-bottom messiness and its stubborn resistance to change. Yet, like a lover who can’t quite break away, she always comes back to her veneration for the artform, and in these pages—"suitable for young operaphiles-in-training and budding sopranos alike” (The Wall Street Journal)—she stirringly evokes those moments on stage that can be counted on to make ardent fans of the most skeptical.

Caitlin Vincent is an award-winning librettist, trained vocalist, opera company director, and arts commentator. Her librettos have won all three of America’s top opera prizes and her vocal work is featured on the Grammy Award–nominated album 40@40. Vincent was the artistic director of The Figaro Project from 2009 to 2014. She writes frequently on the arts for such outlets as The Conversation and Limelight, and her perspective on opera has been featured in The New York Times. She holds a PhD from Deakin University (Australia), an MM from Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins, and a BA from Harvard. She was born in the US but currently makes her home in Melbourne, Australia.