NZ Opera general director has responded to comments from Oscar-nominated actor Timothée Chalamet, who stirred controversy in recent days by criticising the artform.
In a recent interview, Chalamet said: "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 the ballet and opera people out there."
"I just took shots for no reason," he said, which drew a laugh from the audience.
Speaking to Breakfast today, NZ Opera general director Brad Cohen said: "Look, we’ve all said stupid things haven’t we in public? And some of us regret it."
Cohen then jokingly suggested he wouldn't "go slagging off" table tennis in public, referencing Chalamet's movie Marty Supreme, which was released in January.
Instead, Cohen said all of these artforms are about storytelling, and are just "different varieties" of doing so.
“The cinema is just, I don’t know, campfire projected on a cave wall. Opera is storytelling through the power of the human singing voice, there’s nothing more primal and powerful that. There's a reason these artforms are 600 to 2000 years old, because they’re resilient.
"I’m not here to defend them, I’m just here to observe that they are core to our experience (of) being human."
Cohen said opera in New Zealand is "the strongest it's ever been".
"Community is really at our heart, we perform Opera in the Park to 2000 people, we’re currently on tour to tamariki across two islands with a school show, and that’s by a contemporary New Zealand composer, these are living arts, not museum pieces.
“That’s the kind of public perception, that they’re kind of zombie artforms. They’re so far from that. Our resonance in New Zealand shows that if you connect with people where they are, that is something that is really valuable to them."
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