You’re welcome to your opinions but for goodness sake, have some class, Timothée!

Unpacking Timothee Chalamet’s "No one cares" about opera and ballet comments.

B'Opera and RoguePlay's circus opera première of Under the Moon

Timothée Chalamet of Wonka fame, pronounced that “No one cares” about opera or ballet when talking to Matthew McConaughey at the University of Texas, as you’ll see in this clip originally shared by Variety.

He’s faced a considerable backlash from fellow artists, particularly and not surprisingly those working in opera and ballet.

So let’s unpack what he said.

The first and most glaring problem for me, is not this guy’s opinion - he’s welcome to one of those. It’s not even that opinions are cheap and ubiquitous and should probably be expressed less often, though that’s also true. It’s the packaging of opinion as fact. “No one cares”. That’s just not true is it? If no one cared, those art forms wouldn’t exist and he wouldn’t be facing such a lot of criticism. Lots of people care. When the fragility of your point of view means you have to claim that “everyone” agrees with you, you know you’re on shaky ground.

It really is desperately important that we don’t impose our view of the world onto BILLIONS of other people, and to do this I recommend learning that golden phrase “In my opinion”, or “The way I see it is…” or even “In my experience…” The bigger our platform and the more we are celebrated and have the potential to influence others, the more this responsibility matters. As someone looked up to by young people who may not yet have the critical discernment to understand the level of ignorance at play here, this sort of pronouncement is a serious problem.

Next, the context of this clip - McConaughey and Chalamet were discussing efforts to preserve cinema. How odd - if opera and ballet is as obsolete as he claims and cinema by contrast, presumably so relevant, why would you need to be having conversations about how to preserve it?

Accompanying his remarks (which really weren’t respectful were they, by any stretch of the imagination?), with “All respect to opera and ballet folk” is a classic tactic. Ever heard anyone preface a comment with “No offence but…”? Oh, there’s offence on its way when you hear that, you know it.

“I just lost 14 cents in viewership” - implication - “No-one cares about opera and ballet, and even if they do, they will make zero difference to my comparatively large earnings.” Who knows? But I’ve watched colleagues in Britain struggle and leave the opera industry in droves, thanks to the UK’s handling of Covid and funding shortages, despite a wealth of talent, passion and years of training. It seems to me that mocking that from your financially secure vantage point is seriously lacking in class.

Furthermore, Chalamet seems to have forgotten (or perhaps he doesn’t care?) that film often turns to opera to enhance moments of power and poignancy. The Fifth Element, anyone? The Shawshank Redemption? Pretty Woman? Mrs Doubtfire, Fatal Attraction, Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation, The Godfather, Philadelphia, Apocalypse Now, Batman Begins, Despicable Me 3, Moonstruck… There are some pretty iconic films in there.

B’Opera introduce opera which is, after all, storytelling to music, to thousands upon thousands of 0-4 year olds in Birmingham, who, incapable of faking a reaction, respond transfixed with avid attention. Their opinions may not have the airtime and audience of billions that Mr Chalamet’s do, but they’re every bit as important, are they not? When my singer colleague and I sang to a Muslim man’s baby daughter at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, the family looked for an analogy for how time-stoppingly meaningful they found that moment. What cultural reference did they land on? That sublime excerpt of Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro from The Shawshank Redemption.

Hollywood star Jamie Lee Curtis asked, "Why are any artists taking shots at any other artists?” Good question. And choreographer Martin Chaix argued, "If anything, in a world where AI is reshaping cinema faster than most realise, the unmediated human presence of ballet and opera becomes more essential, not less. I hope he finds his way into a theatre.”

Amar Small brings some much needed class to the situation with his analysis, framing opera and ballet as expensive to produce (they really can be - lots of highly trained people) and therefore worthy of a sense of occasion. He introduces something much needed to the dialogue about opera, which is that its labour intensiveness, live skill and cost, which make it impossible to imitate or clone, but are portrayed by a capitalist-blinded society as insurmountable setbacks, allow it to portray rare and beautiful moments of intensity, live on stage. And its spine-tingling unpredictability is the antithesis of the cheap AI slop that’s being sold to you on the assumption that you don’t care and don’t know the difference.

I wonder who will outlive who? Chalamet or Opera/Ballet?

Zoë Challenor is the Director of B’Opera Baby Opera which brings first experiences of opera to babies and toddlers at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and through a programme of workshops, concerts and touring performances. www.bopera.co.uk