{"id":1819723,"date":"2026-03-11T11:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T08:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1819723"},"modified":"2026-03-11T11:20:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T08:20:00","slug":"ballet-and-opera-are-dead-and-thats-ok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1819723","title":{"rendered":"Ballet and opera are dead, and that\u2019s OK"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/640\/240-0-640-427\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/1\/1441320.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article class=\"main-article standard \">\n<div class=\"article-main-content article-wrapper has-media-but-its-an-image\" data-status=\"loaded\" data-primary-article=\"true\" data-url=\"\/life-culture\/article\/69881\/1\/in-defence-of-dead-or-dying-art-forms-timothee-chalamet-ballet-opera\" data-article-id=\"69881\">\n<header class=\"article-header has-landscape-image no-media\">\n<div class=\"wrapper dg-max-width\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<figure class=\"main-img has-figcaption\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"2.4\" data-template=\"Standard Article\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Black Swan\" class=\"img\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1023\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/1\/1441320.jpg\" width=\"1023\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"inner\"><span class=\"credit\">Black Swan <span class=\"nowrap\">(Film Still)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"meta\">\n<div class=\"inner\"><time datetime=\"2026-03-11T11:20:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"11 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"11\">11,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"titles\">\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical - life-culture\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\">Life &amp; Culture<\/a><br \/>\n\/<br \/>\n<a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/opinion\">Opinion<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"standard-tag-container\"><a class=\"standard-category\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\">Life &amp; Culture<\/a> \/<br \/>\n<a class=\"standard-series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/opinion\">Opinion<\/a><\/div>\n<h1 class=\"title\"><span>Ballet and opera are dead, and <span class=\"nowrap\">that\u2019s OK<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"standfirst\">\n<h2>Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet is right \u2013 ballet and opera are dying, but a unique opportunity lies in their <span class=\"nowrap\">cultural afterlife<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-03-11T11:20:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"11 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"11\">11,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-03-11T11:20:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"11 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"11\">11,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"providers\">\n<div class=\"contributors\"><span class=\"contributor\" data-contributor-role=\"Text\"><span class=\"contributor-role\">Text<\/span><a class=\"contributor-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/user\/ThomWaite\">Thom Waite<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article-body-container\">\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>How can you tell if an art form is alive or dead? You can\u2019t take its pulse, or request a death certificate. No heartfelt eulogies will be posted online or published in the newspaper. The truth is, there\u2019s no easy way of knowing, which is probably why there have been so many premature RIPs in the past (see: painting in the 1830s, the novel in the 1960s, rock music and photography in the 1990s, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/69665\/1\/is-rap-music-dead-hip-hop-k-pop-reggaeton\"><span>rap in 2025<\/span><\/a><span>). Nevertheless, the conversation has flared up once again this past week, thanks to a recently-shared video of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/timothee-chalamet\">Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet<\/a> in conversation with Matthew McConaughey.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>If you\u2019re even remotely online, you\u2019ve probably already seen footage of the offending statement as it circulates on social media. For those whose attention is tuned solely to Tchaikovsky, though, Chalamet essentially declared that ballet and opera are all but dead in 2026. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be working in ballet, or opera, or things where it\u2019s like, \u2018Hey, keep this thing alive, even though like no one cares about this any more,\u2019\u201d he told McConaughey, jokingly adding: \u201cAll respect to all the ballet and opera people out there. I just lost 14 cents in viewership&#8230; Damn, I just took shots for no reason.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Unsurprisingly, Chalamet\u2019s \u201cshots\u201d sparked a significant backlash in the worlds of opera and ballet. Beyond that, celebrities from Doja Cat to Jamie Lee Curtis also chimed in, with the latter asking in an Instagram story: \u201cWhy are any artists taking shots at any other artists?\u201d Meanwhile, esteemed institutions of opera and ballet were quick to point out that the arts are \u201cnot only alive and well, but thriving\u201d in 2026.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>To illustrate this, the English National Ballet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DVjMHniDOB3\/?img_index=4\">shared<\/a> its audience figures on Instagram, writing: \u201cLast year alone&#8230; over 200,000 people joined our performances, experiencing the power of ballet. Our production content was seen by over 5 million viewers around the world. Our social content saw over 65 [million] impressions. And we connected with thousands of people of all ages and walks of life through creative learning and participation.\u201d For context, London\u2019s Prince Charles cinema <a href=\"https:\/\/princecharlescinema.com\/savethepcc\/\">reported<\/a> 250,000 ticket sales in 2024, across 858 different films.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content has-tweet\" data-embed-type=\"media-twitter\" data-script-depends=\"twitter-widgets\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Ok I did not hear this. This sucks <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/O2ZW26zHrb\">pic.twitter.com\/O2ZW26zHrb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Seth Abramovitch (@SethAbramovitch) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SethAbramovitch\/status\/2029702135215214837?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 5, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Is the death of an art form really just about audience figures and Instagram likes, though? Or is it more about the \u2018life\u2019 of the art itself? In music and cinema, for example, we can point to moments in recent memory that have changed the way people think about the form itself. In cinema, you might cite the mainstream success of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/uncut-gems\"><em><span>Uncut Gems<\/span><\/em><\/a><span>, the films coming out of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/harmony-korine\">Harmony Korine<\/a>\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/62582\/1\/aggro-dr1ft-harmony-korine-film-internet-ai-edglord\"><span>EDGLRD<\/span><\/a><span>, or even the sprawling, green-screen-riddled Marvel Cinematic Universe (not all change is good). In about the last 40 years of music, there\u2019s been rave, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/hip-hop\">hip-hop<\/a>, dubstep, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/hyperpop\">hyperpop<\/a>, and more, each with its own styles, subcultures, and means of production. Both art forms, alongside the visual arts, are also undergoing significant shifts in the age of AI, with even greater transformations just over the horizon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>I can\u2019t claim to be aware of every single new ballet or opera that\u2019s been performed in the last four decades. What I <\/span><em><span>do<\/span><\/em><span> know is that composer Philip Glass and choreographer Pina Bausch (born 1937 and 1940, respectively) are still frequently hailed as radical, avant-garde figures in their respective art forms. Both were at the height of their creative powers in the 1970s. And even then, the fundamental context and staging of Glass\u2019s work would have been recognisable to opera-going audiences a century before, even if they hated it. (Today\u2019s equivalent would be screening <\/span><em><span>A Minecraft Movie <\/span><\/em><span>in IMAX<\/span><span>for Charlie Chaplin, or fitting Louis Armstrong with a pair of Airpods and blasting 2slimey.) In other words, if an art form\u2019s health can be measured by how much it changes or responds to the world around it, opera and ballet are, undeniably, dying, if not already dead.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>This is <\/span><em><span>not<\/span><\/em><span> to say that ballet and opera aren\u2019t still worth our time and money, or that they should be stripped of the public funding that helps keep them afloat. In fact, they\u2019re arguably even more valuable as static artefacts of a time gone by \u2013 somewhere we can escape, for a couple of hours, the pressing issues of the present, the shock of the near future, and the endless discourse that ties it all together. What a relief, at least, to go to the Royal Opera House and not be distracted by some Twitter discourse about whether George Balanchine fell off, or what to rate <\/span><em><span>Jewels<\/span><\/em><span> on Letterboxd!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>A lot of the backlash to Chalamet\u2019s comments seemed to (maybe accidentally) agree with this idea of ballet and opera as their own microcosm, which doesn\u2019t interact with modern life in a particularly meaningful or radical way. Take, for example, choreographer Martin Chaix, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cx281xz2qjqo\">wrote<\/a>: \u201cIf anything, in a world where AI is reshaping cinema faster than most realise, the unmediated human presence of ballet and opera becomes more essential, not less.\u201d This is a good point and, according to Chaix, it proves that the art is \u201cvery much alive\u201d. But isn\u2019t he actually saying that its value lies in the fact that it\u2019s <\/span><em><span>dead<\/span><\/em><span> \u2013\u00a0as in, no longer responsive to the times we\u2019re living in \u2013 so that it won\u2019t be swayed by the transformative effects of emerging technologies?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>If we\u2019re being generous, we might suggest that this is what Timmy was trying to say, albeit clumsily, when he dismissed ballet and opera as art forms on life support: not that they\u2019re no longer beautiful, or can no longer touch the human soul, but that they can\u2019t speak to the present in the way other art forms can, or make a massive splash outside their <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/yougov.com\/en-gb\/articles\/48498-cultural-engagement-in-britain-frequency-of-visiting-theatres-museums-zoos-and-more\"><span>relatively tiny<\/span><\/a><span>, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/does-uk-opera-have-a-future-to-sing-about-231205\"><span>shrinking<\/span><\/a><span>, worlds. As someone who\u2019s made no secret of his desire to shape contemporary culture (he\u2019s dating a Kardashian! he stood on top of the Las Vegas Sphere!), it\u2019s easy to see why Chalamet doesn\u2019t want anything to do with those art forms, in this case. In fact, his statement about ballet and opera seemed to be borne out of the anxiety that cinema is on a similar path toward obsolescence \u2013 that, sometime in the near future,<\/span><span> no one will care about going to sit in the dark, eat popcorn, and stare at a big screen for two hours, either. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>But for ballet and opera themselves, death doesn\u2019t have to be the end. Instead of defending what\u2019s left of their relevance to the modern day, they could lean into their role as antique art forms, and we could embrace the rare opportunity for an experience that feels truly out-of-time \u2013 not in competition with newer art forms like cinema, but <em>in addition<\/em> to them. There\u2019s a whole afterlife to be lived, if only they\u2019re willing to embrace it (and the government and\/or extremely wealthy give it the funding it deserves). Go toward the light!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. 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Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>How can you tell if an art form is alive or dead? You can\u2019t take its pulse, or request a death certificate. No heartfelt eulogies will be posted online or published in the newspaper. The truth is, there\u2019s no easy way of knowing, which is probably why there have been so many premature RIPs in the past (see: painting in the 1830s, the novel in the 1960s, rock music and photography in the 1990s, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/69665\/1\/is-rap-music-dead-hip-hop-k-pop-reggaeton\"><span>rap in 2025<\/span><\/a><span>). Nevertheless, the conversation has flared up once again this past week, thanks to a recently-shared video of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/timothee-chalamet\">Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet<\/a> in conversation with Matthew McConaughey.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>If you\u2019re even remotely online, you\u2019ve probably already seen footage of the offending statement as it circulates on social media. For those whose attention is tuned solely to Tchaikovsky, though, Chalamet essentially declared that ballet and opera are all but dead in 2026. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be working in ballet, or opera, or things where it\u2019s like, \u2018Hey, keep this thing alive, even though like no one cares about this any more,\u2019\u201d he told McConaughey, jokingly adding: \u201cAll respect to all the ballet and opera people out there. I just lost 14 cents in viewership&#8230; Damn, I just took shots for no reason.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Unsurprisingly, Chalamet\u2019s \u201cshots\u201d sparked a significant backlash in the worlds of opera and ballet. Beyond that, celebrities from Doja Cat to Jamie Lee Curtis also chimed in, with the latter asking in an Instagram story: \u201cWhy are any artists taking shots at any other artists?\u201d Meanwhile, esteemed institutions of opera and ballet were quick to point out that the arts are \u201cnot only alive and well, but thriving\u201d in 2026.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>To illustrate this, the English National Ballet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DVjMHniDOB3\/?img_index=4\">shared<\/a> its audience figures on Instagram, writing: \u201cLast year alone&#8230; over 200,000 people joined our performances, experiencing the power of ballet. Our production content was seen by over 5 million viewers around the world. Our social content saw over 65 [million] impressions. And we connected with thousands of people of all ages and walks of life through creative learning and participation.\u201d For context, London\u2019s Prince Charles cinema <a href=\"https:\/\/princecharlescinema.com\/savethepcc\/\">reported<\/a> 250,000 ticket sales in 2024, across 858 different films.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content has-tweet\" data-embed-type=\"media-twitter\" data-script-depends=\"twitter-widgets\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Ok I did not hear this. This sucks <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/O2ZW26zHrb\">pic.twitter.com\/O2ZW26zHrb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Seth Abramovitch (@SethAbramovitch) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SethAbramovitch\/status\/2029702135215214837?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 5, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Is the death of an art form really just about audience figures and Instagram likes, though? Or is it more about the \u2018life\u2019 of the art itself? In music and cinema, for example, we can point to moments in recent memory that have changed the way people think about the form itself. In cinema, you might cite the mainstream success of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/uncut-gems\"><em><span>Uncut Gems<\/span><\/em><\/a><span>, the films coming out of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/harmony-korine\">Harmony Korine<\/a>\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/62582\/1\/aggro-dr1ft-harmony-korine-film-internet-ai-edglord\"><span>EDGLRD<\/span><\/a><span>, or even the sprawling, green-screen-riddled Marvel Cinematic Universe (not all change is good). In about the last 40 years of music, there\u2019s been rave, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/hip-hop\">hip-hop<\/a>, dubstep, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/hyperpop\">hyperpop<\/a>, and more, each with its own styles, subcultures, and means of production. Both art forms, alongside the visual arts, are also undergoing significant shifts in the age of AI, with even greater transformations just over the horizon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>I can\u2019t claim to be aware of every single new ballet or opera that\u2019s been performed in the last four decades. What I <\/span><em><span>do<\/span><\/em><span> know is that composer Philip Glass and choreographer Pina Bausch (born 1937 and 1940, respectively) are still frequently hailed as radical, avant-garde figures in their respective art forms. Both were at the height of their creative powers in the 1970s. And even then, the fundamental context and staging of Glass\u2019s work would have been recognisable to opera-going audiences a century before, even if they hated it. (Today\u2019s equivalent would be screening <\/span><em><span>A Minecraft Movie <\/span><\/em><span>in IMAX<\/span><span>for Charlie Chaplin, or fitting Louis Armstrong with a pair of Airpods and blasting 2slimey.) In other words, if an art form\u2019s health can be measured by how much it changes or responds to the world around it, opera and ballet are, undeniably, dying, if not already dead.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>This is <\/span><em><span>not<\/span><\/em><span> to say that ballet and opera aren\u2019t still worth our time and money, or that they should be stripped of the public funding that helps keep them afloat. In fact, they\u2019re arguably even more valuable as static artefacts of a time gone by \u2013 somewhere we can escape, for a couple of hours, the pressing issues of the present, the shock of the near future, and the endless discourse that ties it all together. What a relief, at least, to go to the Royal Opera House and not be distracted by some Twitter discourse about whether George Balanchine fell off, or what to rate <\/span><em><span>Jewels<\/span><\/em><span> on Letterboxd!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>A lot of the backlash to Chalamet\u2019s comments seemed to (maybe accidentally) agree with this idea of ballet and opera as their own microcosm, which doesn\u2019t interact with modern life in a particularly meaningful or radical way. Take, for example, choreographer Martin Chaix, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cx281xz2qjqo\">wrote<\/a>: \u201cIf anything, in a world where AI is reshaping cinema faster than most realise, the unmediated human presence of ballet and opera becomes more essential, not less.\u201d This is a good point and, according to Chaix, it proves that the art is \u201cvery much alive\u201d. But isn\u2019t he actually saying that its value lies in the fact that it\u2019s <\/span><em><span>dead<\/span><\/em><span> \u2013\u00a0as in, no longer responsive to the times we\u2019re living in \u2013 so that it won\u2019t be swayed by the transformative effects of emerging technologies?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>If we\u2019re being generous, we might suggest that this is what Timmy was trying to say, albeit clumsily, when he dismissed ballet and opera as art forms on life support: not that they\u2019re no longer beautiful, or can no longer touch the human soul, but that they can\u2019t speak to the present in the way other art forms can, or make a massive splash outside their <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/yougov.com\/en-gb\/articles\/48498-cultural-engagement-in-britain-frequency-of-visiting-theatres-museums-zoos-and-more\"><span>relatively tiny<\/span><\/a><span>, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/does-uk-opera-have-a-future-to-sing-about-231205\"><span>shrinking<\/span><\/a><span>, worlds. As someone who\u2019s made no secret of his desire to shape contemporary culture (he\u2019s dating a Kardashian! he stood on top of the Las Vegas Sphere!), it\u2019s easy to see why Chalamet doesn\u2019t want anything to do with those art forms, in this case. In fact, his statement about ballet and opera seemed to be borne out of the anxiety that cinema is on a similar path toward obsolescence \u2013 that, sometime in the near future,<\/span><span> no one will care about going to sit in the dark, eat popcorn, and stare at a big screen for two hours, either. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>But for ballet and opera themselves, death doesn\u2019t have to be the end. Instead of defending what\u2019s left of their relevance to the modern day, they could lean into their role as antique art forms, and we could embrace the rare opportunity for an experience that feels truly out-of-time \u2013 not in competition with newer art forms like cinema, but <em>in addition<\/em> to them. There\u2019s a whole afterlife to be lived, if only they\u2019re willing to embrace it (and the government and\/or extremely wealthy give it the funding it deserves). Go toward the light!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69881\/1\/in-defence-of-dead-or-dying-art-forms-timothee-chalamet-ballet-opera&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/640\/240-0-640-427\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/1\/1441320.jpg&#8221;] Black Swan (Film Still) March\u00a0 11,\u00a0 2026 Life &amp; Culture \/ Opinion Life &amp; Culture \/ Opinion Ballet and opera are dead, and that\u2019s OK Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet is right \u2013 ballet and opera are dying, but a unique opportunity lies in their cultural afterlife March\u00a0 11,\u00a0 2026 March\u00a0 11,\u00a0 2026 TextThom Waite [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,76],"class_list":["post-1819723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1819723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1819723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1819723\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1819723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1819723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1819723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}