Local opera singers and the head of a Taunton dance school have spoken out in reaction to recent comments by the Hollywood star Timothée Chalamet.
Appearing on the US outlet Variety, the Oscar-nominated actor Chalamet told fellow actor Matthew McConaughey: “I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera. Things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this anymore.’”
The star added: "All respect to the ballet and opera people out there, I just lost 14 cents in viewership, I just took shots for no reason."
In response, Gemma Bown-Porter, principal at Taunton’s Trull School of Dancing, said: “I completely disagree with Timothée Cha
lamet’s comments, and so would the 250 or so students at this school.
“Ballet is still very much alive, and I have students coming every day to learn it.”
She added: “He [Chalamet] is in his own film bubble and maybe hasn’t experienced everything else that’s going on within the arts world. So maybe he doesn’t have that awareness of ballet and the arts and everything it’s good for.
“In a day and age where we’re trying to get children off their screens and we’re worried about mental health, ballet is the perfect thing for them to come and do.”
Josephine Cresswell and Stephanie Berner, professional opera singers and co-chairs of Taunton-based Somerset Opera, echoed these views.
Stephanie said: “If you go anywhere, there are people crying out for live music, no matter what it is. Opera and ballet are so emotional, they connect with people in a way that can’t necessarily be vocalised through words.
They play on the heartstrings.”
Josephine said: “Chalamet comes from a very privileged position, as someone who can flippantly say this sort of stuff. But opera and ballet and these classical arts have been around for hundreds of years, and they will outlast Timothée Chalamet and his views.
“Our shows are all sell-out shows, so the hyping of opera as dying is not true for Somerset opera, that’s for sure.
“Artists and musicians should be coming together rather than fighting. We’re in this world where we all want to make some kind of art. There is space for everything, and opera is certainly not dying.”
Further afield, Chalamet's comments also prompted a response from US opera singer Isabel Leonard who said in a comment on the video posted to Variety’s Instagram: “Honestly, I’m shocked that someone so seemingly successful can be so ineloquent and narrow-minded in his views about art, while considering himself an artist as I would only imagine one would as an actor."
“To take cheap shots at fellow artists says more in this interview than anything else he could say. Shows a lot about his character.
“You don’t have to like all art but only a weak person/artist feels the need to diminish in fact the very arts that would inspire those who are interested in slowing down, to do exactly that.”
Canadian mezzo-soprano Deepa Johnny added in another comment: “What a disappointing take. There is nothing more impressive than the magic of live theatre, ballet and opera.
“We should be trying to uplift these art forms, these artists and come together across disciplines to do that. The impact of these mediums are long lasting and life changing.”
Chalamet was contacted by PA for comment.
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