drawn to the idea that opera can produce emotions in people, and for people. That feels like an especially important aspect of our human condition to communicate through art.
Timothée Chalamet recently told an interviewer that he wouldn’ t want to work in opera or ballet because, as he put it,“ no one cares about this anymore.” What’ s your reaction?
I care about it … I am trying to make opera relevant to people. There are certainly people who do not care about it, and there are people who do. But the point is really that for those who don’ t care about it, I want to find some point of access, whether that is an opera by Philip Glass about an Egyptian pharaoh, or a book, or a very inexpensive ticket, which is what I’ m doing at Opera Philadelphia. Because I believe that when people see it, there is so much to grab them, just as it grabbed me at 13.
Tell us about what you’ re doing at Opera Philadelphia. You inherited the company in debt. How did the“ Pick Your Price” initiative come about?
When I was 14, I sang at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia with Luciano Pavarotti. I have a photo of that, which was a truly seminal moment for me. And then, not quite 30 years later, I took over Opera Philadelphia as General Director and President and, yes, I inherited a company in debt. We had 12 weeks to raise four million dollars or we were going bankrupt. So, I started to look at the business model and think about how much revenue we were getting from tickets. It was such a tiny part of our annual revenue. And I thought: Price is such a barrier for people. What would happen if we used this moment to invest, like a venture capitalist, in order to make money? So, I made every ticket to every show, for the entire season, $ 11 or Pick Your Price. The initiative caused an international press sensation that reached 1.5 billion people, and in my first season— the 2024-25 season— we sold out our entire season in three weeks. Sixty-seven percent of ticket buyers were first-timers, and 69 percent were under 45. What we saw is that people were genuinely open to trying opera; they just don’ t want to try something they know nothing about and pay $ 200 for it. But if you can pay $ 11— less than a movie ticket— and discover whether you love it, that spark can take hold.
And is the program ongoing?
Yes. If anyone goes to our website and clicks on any seat, they’ ll see a drop-down menu that says $ 11, $ 20, $ 30, $ 40, $ 50, and goes up to the standard price. That’ s how every ticket is priced, even a box or a frontrow seat. And it also means that instead of programming brand-name operas all the time so we can sell expensive tickets to people who already know a little something about opera, we are simply selling the experience and the idea of opera being cool. Then when audiences get to the theater, we put on art that actually is cool, that might genuinely connect to them. We recently did a world premiere called Complications in Sue, written by Michael R. Jackson, the Pulitzer and Tony Award ® – winning playwright of A Strange Loop, and it starred Justin Vivian Bond, the MacArthur Genius and cabaret legend, alongside four opera singers, with music by ten different composers. It was so vibrant, funny, and irreverent that it really captured this audience and met them where they are. My favorite Instagram story was from a firsttime operagoer who posted a photo of the curtain call and wrote,“ Opera’ s Crazy, Dog!” I thought, yes, that’ s exactly right.
Your Grammy ® win came for your title role in Philip Glass’ s Akhnaten. Yet Handel has been equally central to your career. How do you think about those two composers in relation to each other?
Countertenors tend to sing music from either before 1750 or after 1950. Part of that is because we’ re singing music originally written for castrated men in the 17th and 18th centuries. That’ s a large part of our repertoire. But starting in 1960, Benjamin Britten wrote the first opera specifically for countertenor, A Midsummer Night’ s Dream, and from there many composers have followed. As for the connection between Handel and Glass, there is a kind of protominimalism in Handel’ s work, where he uses repetition in a similar way to Philip Glass. Handel has arias that are da capo, meaning ABA form, and he repeats little pieces of text, whereas Philip Glass repeats chunks of music, measures, and phrases, but there is a real connection between the form and purity of the Baroque and the contemporary style of minimalism.
This will be your first performance in the Berkshires. What can the audience expect at the Mahaiwe this August?
I’ m excited to be presenting a whole range of repertoire, from operatic classics to something that feels more like vaudeville. I’ ll be working with one of my closest collaborators, the pianist Bryan Wagorn, who is an assistant conductor at the Met and someone I’ ve worked with for 18 years. Bryan is a master of every style, and I think it’ s genuinely fun to hear the countertenor voice across many different styles, including some you might not expect.
It’ s interesting you mention vaudeville, because when the Mahaiwe opened in 1905 it was a vaudeville theater.
That makes it even more meaningful to bring that spirit back.
You’ re currently performing at the Palais Garnier in Paris. How does it feel to move from one of the world’ s grandest stages to an intimate New England theater of 650 seats?
I always bring all of myself, and I don’ t hold back my voice in a smaller space. It’ s about connecting with people. What’ s wonderful about an intimate theater is that I feel like I’ ll really get to know the audience, and they’ ll get to see the real me, not through the lens of a story or an opera, not with any distance between us. They’ ll get to see my personality and who I am. That, to me, is the great joy of this art form: connecting with people.
What do you most want readers to take from your upcoming book, Countertenor?
It talks about everything from how I became a countertenor as a child and my own story, to the history of castrated male singers, to popular culture, and to ideas about gender and sexuality that are inherent in the voice and in the idea of pitch. It is both personal and historical, but it’ s not academic at all. I’ ve tried to make it quite entertaining, but above all, I hope people get a sense of just how much the human voice can express. n
May / June 2026 BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE // 95