Opera Bus Pre-Event “What’s All the Singing About?”

Once infamously described as "an exotic and irrational entertainment," what we know as opera was originally conceived as a union of several arts: poetry, music, acting, stagecraft, and dance. Four hundred years later, is opera still relevant? Why does it persist? As Robert Benchley once remarked, "Opera is where a guy gets stabbed in the back, and instead of dying, he sings." So let's explore what the singing is about and what it's been like throughout the history of this unique art form.