Is Timothée Chalamet Right About Opera and Ballet Being Irrelevant?

Actor Timothée Chalamet recently suggested that opera and ballet may be becoming irrelevant.

Standing here at Lincoln Center in New York, between the Juilliard School, the New York City Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera House, I wanted to reflect on that idea.

Inside Juilliard, musicians who began studying their instruments as children dedicate their lives to mastering their craft. Across the plaza, dancers at New York City Ballet train with extraordinary discipline and sacrifice.

And tonight at the Met Opera, they are performing Tristan und Isolde — a work that changed the language of music and helped shape the storytelling language of cinema itself.

Opera and ballet do not become irrelevant because they are old.

They become irrelevant only when we stop being curious about beauty.