TikTok has certainly changed the way Gen Z consumes content, encouraging the return of subtitles on movies and TV and chopping up films into bite-sized chunks, but now even the world of opera has been affected by the generation’s preference for everything in bite-sized portions.
Giacomo Puccini’s operatic masterpiece La bohème, a four-act production following a bohemian seamstress living in Paris with her artist friends, will debut a shorter version on stage in Perugia, Italy, next month in a bid to appeal to the TikTok generation.
The abbreviated version of Puccini’s opera reduces the duration from two hours and forty minutes to just ninety minutes. The times information.
The work is believed to have been shortened to appeal to the shorter attention spans of the TikTok generation, but opera fans are said to be outraged by the “operacorto” (short opera) format.
The author of the shortened version, Gianluca Terranova, who will also play the male lead of Rodolfo, has explained that he wanted the work to help people understand the opera if they were new to the format. He also fears that younger audiences will be put off by the almost three-hour length of the original work.
Giancomo Puccini’s operatic masterpiece La boheme has been given the TikTok treatment as a shorter version is set to premiere
“This is the first time that an abbreviated version of an opera has been performed in a theatre,” he told the newspaper.
He added: “This is an introduction to the opera and the idea is that you will want to watch the whole thing afterwards.”
However, operatic puritans have responded to the abbreviated version of the masterpiece and expressed skepticism about the decision to shorten it.
Opera critic Alberto Mattioli said Puccini’s work is “sacred” and that removing even a few words from his works would detract from the opera’s impact.
Instead, he suggested that a contemporary version of La Boheme would be a better option, to help younger people identify with the plot.
Gianluca Terranova (pictured), who created the shortened version of the opera, hopes it will encourage people to go and see the full production.
The dispute comes as TikTok changes the way Gen Z consumes content.
Last year, on October 3, the streaming platform reserved one of millennials’ favorite movies, Mean Girls, for fans to watch in celebration of the Lindsay Lohan film on ‘Mean Girls Day.’
Instead of showing the 98-minute film in one sitting, the film was cut into 23 chunks and posted to the official Mean Girls TikTok page.
It’s also possible to watch a clip-by-clip version of Mel Gibson’s 2000 romantic comedy What Women Want. And the first season of hit US comedy series Killing It became free to watch on TikTok in August, after NBCUniversal announced it would release five clips, each between three and eight minutes long, on the Gen Z-loved platform.
Total Film magazine editor-in-chief Jane Crowther told MailOnline that social media is currently the most powerful promotional resource available to studios.
‘Influencers and TikTok are increasingly the way studios sell movies. The interaction starts with quick, short clips that draw viewers into the theater.
“There are a lot of movies on TikTok that are[illegally]in this format. You can watch multiple movies in short bursts if you want, and now studios are just imitating what’s already happening there. It’s more a case of, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”
Even though Mean Girls is almost 20 years old, the franchise still has plenty of life left in it, Crowther says.
Furthermore, it is believed that the TikTok effect has also influenced Generation Z to watch TV and movies with subtitles.
In a recent YouGov study, 61% of viewers aged 18-25 said that when they sit down to watch TV, they choose to turn on subtitles, even if they are not hearing impaired.
With increasingly detailed subtitles being added to TV shows and movies, including sound effects and names of songs featured, viewers are turning this option on when they tune into their favorite show.
As the trend becomes increasingly popular, TikTok users have been poking fun at their own viewing patterns, joking about how they can’t focus on what they’re watching unless the captions are on.
Among those who joined the trend was former X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing contestant Fleur East, who posted a TikTok video of herself watching TV with subtitles – however, the moment she looked away from the TV, the audio turned into inaudible gibberish.
London-based psychologist Giulia Bianchi told FEMAIL that younger people are more likely to opt for subtitles because their brains are better suited to multitasking.
He added that, in general, using them as an aid to his viewing experience helps increase his understanding of the show, helping him process background noise or a line spoken in a lower tone that he might otherwise have missed.
“Young people watch TV with subtitles because they are better at multitasking,” Giulia said.
‘The human brain is most agile after the age of 20, so watching TV while following the subtitles, texting or surfing the Internet is often something that many young people can do.’
He added that the improved detail in subtitles is also improving the viewing experience for people with hearing problems (for whom the method was originally intended), making television more accessible.
‘Subtitles promote better retention, accessibility, improved comprehension and cultural exposure,’ he said.
“In my opinion, all of this has a positive impact on the viewer experience.”
So while the debate over the shortened version of La Boheme continues, perhaps even more changes to its format are in the works for the future.
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