Opera Wars: Inside the World of Opera and the Battles for Its Future

Blunt, irreverent, and at times wittily subversive, Opera Wars spotlights opera’s colorful and sometimes warring personalities, increasingly fierce controversies over content, and the battles being waged for its economic future.

Drawing on interviews with dozens of opera insiders--as well as her own experience as an award-winning librettist, trained vocalist, opera company director, and arts commentator--Caitlin Vincent deftly unravels clichés and presumptions, exposing such debates as how much fidelity is owed to long-dead opera composers whose plots often stir racial and gender sensitivities, whether there’s any cure for typecasting that leaves talented performers out of work and other performers chained to the same roles, and what explains the bizarre kowtowing of opera companies to the demands of traditionalist patrons.

Vincent never shrinks from depicting the industry’s top-to-bottom messiness and its stubborn resistance to change. Yet, like a lover who can’t quite break away, she always comes back to her veneration for the artform and in these pages stirringly evokes those moments on stage that can be counted on to make ardent fans of the most skeptical.

Caitlin Vincent is an award-winning librettist, trained vocalist, opera company director, and arts commentator. Her librettos have won all three of America’s top opera prizes: the Sackler Music Composition Prize (with composer Douglas Buchanan), the Domenic J. Pellicciotti Opera Composition Prize (with composer Timothy C. Takach), and the 2024/25 Dominick Argento Chamber Opera Competition (with composer Douglas Buchanan). In addition, her vocal work is featured on the Grammy Award-nominated album 40@40. Vincent was the artistic director of The Figaro Project from 2009 to 2014. She holds a PhD from Deakin University (Australia), an MM in vocal performance from Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins, and a BA in history and literature from Harvard. She was born in the US but currently makes her home in Melbourne, Australia.