Opera bosses credit pop star Rosalía for artform's 'surge of support'

Opera bosses credit pop star Rosalía for artform's 'surge of support' 31 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleGareth BryerandOwain Evans,BBC WalesGetty ImagesWNO boss Adele Thomas says pop star Rosalía is helping opera to be "more culturally relevant"Timothée Chalamet might have called opera an art form that "no one cares about" - but the bosses of the Welsh National Opera (WNO) say the art form has never been "more culturally relevant".Eighty years since the WNO's first performance as a bunch of amateurs who rehearsed above a garage, it credits the record-breaking chart success of Spanish star Rosalía and the rise of so-called "opera aesthetics" on social media for a "surge of passionate support"."At the moment we live in a time, where opera, strangely, has been more culturally relevant than maybe it has been for a long time," said the WNO's co-director Adele Thomas.She said opera did not feel "like an artform from a different era", adding: "I think that's where people get put off, thinking this is an historic re-enactment rather than a work of art."Getty ImagesThe head of the Royal Ballet and Opera thanked Hollywood star Timothée Chalamet for boosting ticket sales as a result of his remarksThe classically-trained Rosalía topped many end of year polls for her opera-influenced album Lux, with an inevitable flurry of TikTok videos using her music. And her performance of the lead single Berghain - with Bjork, a full orchestra and a youth choir - on stage at the Brit Awards in February brought her to a wider audience. Classical experts have also cited the influence of composers such as Vivaldi, merged with hip hop and pop. Pinterest said "opera aesthetics" - a trend which it said encapsulated "dramatic, opulent and theatrical styles" - was one of its fastest growing trends, with a 55% increase in interest in opera-themed dresses on...