Opera on America’s Got Talent

We’ve had a number of VERY lively discussions in the comments of previous posts about the Opera that’s being sung on America’s Got Talent. The most famous one being winner Neal E. Boyd, but also joining the discussion is Donald Braswell and last season’s Barbara Padilla.

The discussion really centers around how good the opera singers are that sing on America’s Got Talent. Many reasonably say that if they had ‘real’ opera talent they’d be singing in other places. The discussion also usually leads to pop opera versus traditional opera.

One of those opera fans pointed out to me that there will be a documentary called “The Audition” on PBS. The movie is about the semi finals and finals of the Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions – the most prestigious professional opera competition in North America. In Northern Westchester, NY (Cablevision) it’ll be on PBS on Jan 20th at 9pm.

Seeing this type of hard core opera competition might be a way for people to become more educated on the quality of the opera singers that are trying out for places like the Met. I’ll be keeping an eye out for this. It won’t have the same entertainment value as something like America’s Got Talent I’m sure, but it will have much more educational value. I’ll be keeping an eye out for it myself.