In a now notorious interview, actor Timothée Chalamet declared he only wanted to work in a creative field people valued. He was not keen on an art form like opera, “where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this anymore’.”

His comments predictably triggered a backlash across the opera industry – and some say they contributed to him losing this year’s Best Actor Oscar race. What should the rest of us make of the fuss?

This is the kind of question Melbourne-based opera expert Caitlin Vincent sets out to help answer in her new book, Opera Wars.

Caitlin Vincent. Photo © Ruth Schwarzenholz Photography

Her declared target audience is “the opera curious” as well as “opera lovers”, but the book is no mere operatic primer. Vincent, too, harbours serious doubts about the ongoing relevance and importance of this once venerable European art form.

The book’s driving narrative comes from her exploration of the grounds for such doubts. It examines two broad areas of concern. One is the challenges facing anyone considering an opera career today. Her informed and wide-ranging discussion of them...