Opera Myths

I won't understand it.

Most operas are sung in their original language, which could be Italian, French, English, or even German. But don’t worry! If you go to Nashville Opera, all performances have super titles clearly projected above the stage and can be read from every seat in the house. Every line of an opera is projected above the stage in English onto the screen simultaneously with the singer.

The opera singer are fat, screming ladies wearing horn helmets.

“It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings" is a phrase typically associated with opera. That phrase was coined out of some Wagnerian operas- and more recently in Bugs Bunny cartoons, but is not seen much in the opera of today. The current trend for opera singers in America and throughout the world is for singers to be believable in their roles – in size, voice and dress.

Opera is too expensive.

An integral part of Nashville Opera's mission is to make opera financially accessible to all people even though the art form is one of the most expensive to produce. Tickets to all Nashville Opera performances are incredibly reasonable, depending on the membership package you select. Nashville Opera offers a variety of Membership levels to accommodate the many diverse needs of our patrons. Our prices are far less than many other entertainment options in the city. Nashville Opera has also developed a new program, for our patrons whose busy schedule has prevented them from committing to specific performance dates. Click here to read more about our new Flex Ticket program! If you are a student with a valid student ID, be sure to learn more about our special student rush tickets to save even more!

Opera is for "blue hairs" only.

Opera is one of the fastest growing of the performing arts with more than 20 million people attending annually. Not only are audiences growing, but they're growing younger too! In fact, one of the fastest growing audiences at the opera is Generation X, whose attendance at opera grew by more than 18% in recent years. People from all age groups come to Nashville Opera and the popularity of the art form continues to grow. Many students come to Nashville Opera to take advantage of our student rush tickets, which are available 45 minutes prior to performance.

Opera is boring.

It is difficult to find anything more enthralling and magical than opera. You will be moved by the exquisite singing on stage and full orchestra sound from the pit. Many opera plots are quite dramatic and intense, others hilarious and light-hearted. Their stories (often about love, betrayal, seduction, war, or morality) keep you in suspense and on the edge of your seat. One of the most thrilling aspects of opera is that every performance marks a new theatrical experience that can never be equally replicated. The excitement of live theater makes each and every performance its own unpredictable work of art.

Opera is outdated.

You probably recognize more operas tunes than you think, and not just from Bugs Bunny, but commercials, movies, and even popular music. Today, the popularity of classical crossover artists – Andrea Bocelli, Sara Brightman, Il Divo, Josh Groban, and Charlotte Church for example – has grown so quickly that Billboard recently added a new category entitled “Classical Crossover” to their charts. Many Broadway musicals (Aïda, Miss Saigon, Rent, Baz Luhrmann's La bohème) and major motion pictures (Philadelphia, Moonstruck, Pretty Woman, and Fatal Attraction) drew their inspiration from operas. Furthermore, the art form of opera continues to grow and evolve. Composers of today are just as ingenious as those of the past, and new operas are constantly being composed and performed.