Snow White gets the operatic treatment

Something strange is happening in Hollywood this year. There have been two hit movies, Barbieheimer and a slew of flops. It’s been so bad that this year has coined the term flop-buster. The biggest flop of them all, based on the cost of the production versus the box office revenue, has been Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

Indiana Jones was once an unassailable intellectual property. There was a trilogy of successful movies that fans were happy to watch time and time again. In The Dial of Destiny Indiana Jones is reimagined for modern audiences and, as it turns out, modern audiences aren’t interested. The Dial of Destiny is set to lose about $100 million.

This year Disney has released remakes of their classic animated movies such as Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid and the upcoming Snow White. None of the remakes have been good and *Snow White* is poised to be a disaster.

The actress portraying Snow White has made it clear that the original is out of date and features a creepy prince who stalks Snow White. Her Snow White isn’t interested in finding true love but rather in finding her power and becoming a leader. The response has been so severe that the release has been pushed back by several months and some have begun to wonder if it will be released at all.

For whatever reason, Hollywood is failing to understand that audiences like what they like and will watch the same movie on repeat. In this regard, Hollywood is about 50 years behind opera.

Opera companies have been reimagining operas to their own demise for decades. They’ve tried to refresh tired old warhorses with modern settings in order to attract a new audience. It hasn’t worked. What it has done is alienate the audience that opera already had.

I thought about going up to LA Opera to see Aida a few seasons ago but the set was designed by a street artist. I passed. What the hell does a street artist have to do with Ancient Egypt? It makes the story being told on the stage complete nonsense.

Opera has failed to realize that audiences will watch the same opera over and over again. If I go to see Carmen I want to see 18th Century Spain. If I go to see Lohengrin I want to see Antwerp in the 10th Century. I want to see and hear the opera that the composer created.

Operas will make sense to new audiences when they are produced in their appropriate setting. This will help new audiences understand and maybe even love opera. Opera composers created theatrical experiences that audiences have been connecting with for hundreds of years. This means a new audience was created in each generation with no reimagining required.

Reimagining opera is a soulless exercise in hubris. Pride comes before a fall and opera companies that have prided themselves on modern sentiments are falling–fast.