Operatunity

Operatunity
PBS' Great Performances
Televised (re-air April 3, 2006)

American public television viewers got a condensed version of British Channel 4's reality show, "Operatunity" yesterday, rebroadcast from an original broadcast last year. We got 1.5 hours of the show, which originally ran in four one-hour chunks. It's very much like American Idol, in that they scour the country looking for performers: only this time, they want opera singers. They want someone with no professional opera experience, and who will win the chance to perform in major roles with the English National Opera. The singers in this competition, though, are mostly all very talented and well trained - their lives just went in different directions than professional opera. Thus the supermarket checkstand lady who went to music school now uses her training to compete for a dream ENO spot.

The whole thing was all well and good: a feel good hour that gave you insight into the opera world and all of its quirks. It did, though, feel far more educational than entertaining. A response, perhaps, to the elitist image that classical music holds in the UK - the whole thing seemed be saying, "Look! We're not so scary! Look what goes into it, and you can enjoy it, too!" More of a marketing gimmick than a competition. Not that reality TV isn't a marketing gimick as well - but at least there everything is blatantly commercial and the end result is obviously a commercial product as well. This program just had the feeling of a public service annoucement, as fascinating as it was for a look at the opera world.

Operatunity on PBS