Arts generally don't require the level of technical skill they used to. Ariana Grande couldn't hold a candle to Leontyne Price. Similar in painting and sculpture.
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Why would Grande be the right comparison? Why not compare Price with the leading opera singers of today, many of whom are astonishing technically and otherwise?
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Good point. Andy phrased it as “the bar” and I thought of where society's bar is, rather than who is actually best in the world
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Some senior figures in the professional music world actually do claim that today's opera singers don't measure up to past greats, but I have always been skeptical of such claims, for some of the same reasons that I'm instinctively skeptical of nostalgia for past economic eras.
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There's no doubt that vocal training has changed over time, and that today's opera singers may be qualitatively different in various ways, on average - but I would contend that the overall bar of achievement, considered holistically, has not slipped.
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I really love the optimism of these examples! 🙇♂️