Joseph Gaines as Pontio Pilato in the 2008 Glimmerglass Opera production of Wagner’s Das Liebesverbot, with Ryan MacPherson as Luzio (Photo: Cory Weaver)

Artists pursue a calling in a special way, yearning to participate in an art form often in the face of long odds for making a career of it. What is an artist to do if their calling is opera? Opera has faced some difficult times in recent years, and it is facing an uncertain future. Yet if it is to have a future at all, it must depend on those with unwavering commitment to realizing the form — to celebrating past masters and new works, and to bringing those creative expressions to an audience. Joseph Gaines, a tenor, seeks to serve an art form that he truly loves. In telling his story, we seek to both learn something about the form itself and about the admirable motivations of the artist, motivations from which we might all learn something even if we ourselves are not artists.

To learn of a good narrative about a career artist and to reflect on the nature of opera, we invite you to read our third installment in the opera series from The Muse Dialogue, “Joseph Gaines, the Story of Opera and of an Artist” (click here to read full article).

A scene from the Pittsburgh Opera production of La Cenerentola (Photo: Pittsburgh Opera)

The Muse Dialogue turns attention now to opera and opens a series with consideration of the barrier of our own presumptions and misconceptions. Opera is among the longstanding art forms now in a state of transition, evolving as it faces the current era of the arts. One of opera’s challenges is surely our own notion of what it is, an often misinformed bias. Andrew Swensen writes, “Opera might well stand at the top of the list of art forms deserving your good-faith effort to dispel preconceptions. You might find yourself having what is perhaps the most frequent response of first-timers: “That was not what I was expecting.”” Along the way, we have the thoughts of Christopher Hahn, the General Director of the Pittsburgh Opera, and a reflection on Richard Wagner’s responsibility for one of opera’s great cliches.

Join us for the first in a series on opera: “That Was Not What I Was Expecting”: To Get to Opera We Must First Get Past Ourselves” (click here to read full article).

Read more in, “Some [Don’t] Like it Hot: A Perspective on Targeting Young Audiences, Part II.” (click to view full article)

Kate Aldrich as Carmen and Roger Honeywell as Don Jose in the Pittsburgh Opera production of Carmen (Photo: Pittsburgh Opera)

Kelly Englert continues our series on connecting younger generations with the arts. She explores the model of PITT ARTS, an initiative at the University of Pittsburgh, which cultivates arts experiences among students. She writes, “Some classical performance arts like ballet and opera have been around for centuries and still endure in our culture. However, as cultural gaps between generations grow wider and wider and new technologies constantly evolve our interests and the way we experience art and music, what does the near future hold for the fate of these and other “traditional” arts? Are these organizations successfully attracting a young audience?” Good questions indeed. Read on and share what she learned when she investigated possible answers in an innovative program that exists in order to connect young adults and the arts.

Click here to read the full text of her article.