Opera is for the old!

We talked about how cultures are evolving, how nothing is static and that, with evolution, also our values and habits may change. Uniformly, a culture begins to be identified with other features. So far, so good.

Technology couldn’t come in a more perfect time: in a little time space, with the advent of the internet and social media platforms, can we imagine our lives without these mediums? Probably we can but, as a famous Portuguese add says, it wouldn’t be the same.

As Erasmus students as ourselves, we see even more the impact of new technologies in our lives: the distance between ourselves and the family and friends back home is less than the actual one; with one click we can see our parents in the screen our talk for hours with our friends through email or instant messaging. We use Facebook to show the pictures and update our statuses as the day goes by, we tweet our new discoveries and adventures the moment we live them, we put on youtube the videos we filmed in that amazing party! Yes, each and every one of us, in and out of our class room, has an online life which is difficult to distance from.

The English National Opera used that reality as a way of getting people's attention for their new opera using this video:

Technology became cultural, a part of what we do and even are. With this simple add, they not only made as think about that online lives of ours, but also gave us this need to see more, learn more about it, go and see the opera so we can actually see which dangers are those they are talking about. And they just showed what we do on the internet but refuse to do in real life (and even despise the ones who dare to do it).

As simple as that.


Besides, practicaly all young people has in their minds the idea that opera is for elder ones. With just one video, the English National Opera show that an opera can be about anything at all, even Facebook or Twitter! And what theme can be as captivating to youngsters as technology? In the end, they picked up a current theme, wrote an opera about it and now they want young people to go and watch how fun the opera can be.


I certainly became curious!




Inês Maria