Posted on 03/10/2026 3:07:09 AM PDT by WhiteHatBobby0701
Timothée Chalamet is under fire this week and losing traction in the best actor Oscar race for saying just about the most obvious thing in the world: Nobody cares about ballet or opera in 2026.
Here is the exact quote from the "Dune" and "Marty Supreme" star during a recent CNN town hall: "I don't want to be working in ballet, or opera, or things where it's like, 'Hey, keep this thing alive, even though like no one cares about this anymore.' All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there."
The backlash was swift and severe. According to the BBC, Canadian mezzo-soprano Deepa Johnny described Chalamet's comments as a "disappointing take" while, American artist Franz Szony wrote, "Two classical art forms that have been around for hundreds of years, both of which take a massive amount of talent and discipline this man will never possess."
But to today’s pretty boy of Hollywood’s point, who the hell are these people?
When I was 10 years old, the greatest ballet dancer in the world was Mikhail Baryshnikov. He was as famous as Larry Bird or Doc Gooden, as was the greatest opera singer of the time, Luciano Pavarotti. That is gone today.
Today, almost no American has the slightest idea who the greatest ballet dancer or opera singer alive is, because it's not for them any more. The fine performing arts have become a bubble of progressive intolerance. They don’t even want us unwashed non-believers involved.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Where did he say anything about opera and ballet dying because they’ve gone woke? He just said that they’re fading away, which is even sadder. Both these arts make us better people.
“Both these arts make us better people.”
Why do you say that?
I like some opera - funny opera or overly dramatic, but I can never really “get” ballet.
But i’d like to learn your perspective as i’m sure i’m missing somethign
This passage really struck me. While I never saw Baryshnikov, I saw Nureyev and Pavarotti live, and many other luminaries of the stage, but as he said, I couldn't name one today. The convenience of digital media, streaming, affordable large home screens and packaged menus of BigMedia offerings have as much to do with the decline of these arts as wokeness.
In support of his view, however, first up is the now-permissible racism against white people and Western civilization. Escalating inflation, and crime around city venues where many of these fine arts companies are located discourages attendance. Both of those are the result of wokeness in law enforcement and the Democrats' importation and care of millions on welfare.
As for inflation by itself, a dozen years ago I took a loved one to the Kennedy Center for an hours-long opera performance. It was a week night, so we grabbed sandwiches and sodas from a deli after work and rushed around to find parking a pay a fortune for it. The sandwich meal, the two orchestra seats, the parking fee, and dessert and coffee afterward at a cafe in DC totaled $500 dollars in the early 2010s. Lord only knows what it would cost today.
Ping!
A lot of people on the Left (predictably) and Right (surprisingly) are criticizing Chalamet’s comments. I heard the clip. It was pretty funny and true. Opera and ballet are dying arts. They don’t have to be but they are. And the funny part is that when Chalamet was called out by reporters for his comments, he doubled down. He can generate no better PR for himself than to have a running battle with the pretentious art kid community.
my brother and I crack up recalling that one - 30 years later we watched it and obviously someone was on LSD when they wrote that one! Or, I am not cultured enough to recognize its brilliance.
The rise of streaming services (e.g., Netflix, Spotify) and on-demand entertainment has significantly reduced attendance at live performing arts events.
The biggest star of opera did the National Anthem at Super Bowl XLVIII in East Rutherford, New Jersey. 
Operas used to be quite profitable.The word, Eurotrash, has been around a long time now, and stems from that peculiar form of Western Marxism which went through into "woke." We've seen classical concerts and ballet wherein an audience loudly booed the directors. But when a state government funds and a state minister of some sort approves, the public be "damned."
The Mozarts, Rosinis or Verdes were big stars.
The famous opera singers of past were equivalents of big pop stars of today.
They made their monies and they did not need any government support!
Nowadays, what passes as modern opera is just terrible, so experimental, that nobody can watch it.
So now, they live happily on government support!
A quick survey of "cult of ugliness" shows its alliance with much will causes ill in the world.
Thankfully, we are seeing a public turning away from the modern "woke" which is really only the spawn of the Frankfurt School and similar "elite" groups. The Obama center is not "brutalist" in conception and design; it is simply UGLY. One example among many.
OK, GenX. You got me. Operaman was definitely High Art. Mostly, High.
Fed up with the postmodern. And it goes along with the old Billy Sunday line, “If you turn hell upside down, you will find ‘Made in Germany’ stamped on the bottom.”
It was said during World War I, but as I read in the MacDonald article, it was the trust of West German theatre directors working to show the DDR (East Germany) and the influence of Communist directors.
You can say “Made in the DDR” because the influence of the DDR created this. And you can see Communists’ influence on art. Why is the President pushing to classical Greek architecture? Why is the new East Wing being planned with classical architecture?
Government has destroyed the auto industry. They have destroyed art. Subsidies are the problem. It led to sponsorship cessation.
There’s one Atlanta Opera singer who performs at Braves games often. That is based on Cobb, where the Braves play.
In the Arts, in general, it’s all been done before. There’s literally no new ground to break.
They should add breaks for commercials. These arts were of-the-times.
Behind all the pompery and costumes, the subject of most of these operas were base concepts and behaviors - adultery, murder, etc. You can find the same thing all over television and movies; just in English in modern settings.
“you’re relegated to hearing a nightclub where someone in a band sings the latest hits”
My neighbor invited me to attend a service at what I would call an non denominational Christian church. When asked what I thought, I said it was a great show. 90% of the service was entertainment. 5% mentioned Jesus and 5% was fund raising.
Opera and ballet are like NPR and PBS. They can’t exist without government subsidies.
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