Opera - The Melting Pot of Culture
Discovery Day
6 February 2025
Finale of Die Zauberflöte, Royal Opera
This fast moving Discovery Day is Sarah Lenton's ‘calling card’. It charts opera from its classic 17th century beginnings to its evolution in the 18th (brocade, high voices, happy endings) and on through war and revolution to the 19th (nationalism, grand opera, and dead sopranos).
As we hit the troubled 20th century the genre begins to spin out of control but, to everyone’s surprise, it’s landed in the 21st in good shape, with more festivals and opera houses than ever. On the way we discover how closely connected opera is with the politics and tastes of the people who pay for it.
Sarah Lenton has spent her working life in the theatre: her principal employers are the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Garsington Opera. She writes programme articles, radio and play scripts, gives lectures on the operas and ballets in the repertoire and broadcasts regularly for BBC Radios 3 and 4. She is also a cartoonist.
Sarah Lenton