With the growth of opera’s online presence, companies and houses around the world are embracing the power of social media to their advantage. Making opera more accessible one post at a time, houses like the Royal Opera House in England, their Instagram having the largest amount of followers in the world, rendering the process of putting together an opera has become a game of revealing the hidden layers beneath the performance.

Well-known opera singers of the current generation have become mini-celebrities in their own right thanks to their social media presence, several very popular names including mezzo-sopranos Jamie Barton and Joyce DiDonato, and sopranos Sondra Radvanovsky and Puccini veteran Angela Gheorghiu. However, outside the vein of performance, from the educational side, social media has become an advantageous method of helping audiences, informed or novice to opera, about the life of the opera singer, what it takes to make it in the industry, the repertoire, and different facets of the lifestyle as well. Many accounts have sprung up which provide historical recordings and opportunities to listen to some of the best ‘Old World’ singers opera history has to offer.

But among the many accounts, one mixes public education with performer vlogging. This is where Anna Trombetta comes in, an American soprano residing in the Netherlands whose training has primed her for the new music scene and the contemporary movements of the opera industry from top to bottom. As an opera singer who exploited the power of social media for public educative purposes through her YouTube channel, ‘Opera Anna’ and her Instagram account, ‘Opera Anna,’ providing a way to be transparent about the challenges and the surprises of pursuing opera is greatly aided by social media. In-depth looks at opera arias, tidbits of operatic history like seminal recordings and honest reactions of heavyweights like Birgit Nilson and many others, recordings of operas at their most sensational, a look backstage at the making of opera, and candid discussions on the struggles of being an opera singer.

Trombetta’s social media work with opera is reforming the culture of opera from its close-door past to a far more transparent and open future. With over 29,000 followers on Instagram, Trombetta provides a rare glimpse into the world of the opera industry and allows the public to see what it’s like as an opera singer in today’s climate. Trombetta sat down with OperaWire to discuss her journey, her thoughts on social media, and contemporary opera. In no mild way, Trombetta’s account sets a new precedent for the way the opera industry is seen by both professional public alike. By opening the window, Trombetta allows a new generation of singers to know what life will really look like for them and MORE. In short, a breath of fresh air we all desperately need!

OperaWire: How did you get started using Instagram for opera content? Was there a catalyst or a trigger point?

Anna Trombetta: My journey to Instagram as ‘OperaAnna’ was never really planned, to be honest. I was working on getting the OperaAnna Youtube channel off the ground, and thought it would be a good idea to try and funnel traffic through Instagram as well. I didn’t want to use my professional account, because I didn’t want them to overlap. The logic behind this decision wasn’t exactly sound, since my face and name are both in OperaAnna and the link can be made in about ten seconds, but I thought this new project would be seen as unprofessional and possibly result in judgment from people in the industry, especially with casting power. In a way, I think I was just still so nervous to start this project, having already waited four years to get my ideas off the ground. The catalyst to actually start my Youtube channel and publish my first video was Covid combined with working with a life coach, (shoutout Jacinta Noonan from PlatformB!). 

OW: Having reached nearly 30,000 followers, how have the duties of the account therein changed overtime? 

AT: It’s funny you ask that, because as I was “going viral” for the reaction video I made, a creeping idea came into my brain of “but what do I do now? How do I show up on the platform knowing there are (at the time) 21K people watching?” And I simply hated this thought in my head; that I would have to change what I was doing before to somehow please a literal number. Instead of trying to think about what I should do or how much I should post or how to “be an influencer” (which I absolutely don’t think I am), I have types of content that I like to post, educational or not (reaction videos, carousel posts and reels commenting on the issues I experience in the industry, singer bios, niche-related lip-synced videos ie. trending audio), and I try to cycle through these types. Once I realized that people not only connected with being related to on the platform, but also learning more about singers and arias, I felt like the possibilities were endless, and funnily enough, it’s exactly what I do on Youtube. 

OW: As a performer, why is this account necessary for you? 

AT: My “mission statement” for OperaAnna from the beginning (thank you again, Jacinta!) was “OperaAnna was created out of the need to share a new perspective of opera and the people behind it. I’ve had many highs and lows as a student of opera, and in 2019, just as I started studying for my masters, I realized that a lot of my mental health could’ve been helped with perspective. I want this vlog to give perspective to other opera students as well as bring a fresh, fun vibe to the opera world. Too many people have never been exposed to opera, because it’s simply not being offered on the channels they frequent. On this channel, I promise to do my absolute best to show how beautiful, funny, heart-warming and inspiring opera can be.”

From the start, I mention that opera and opera education seemed to be lacking on popular platforms (Youtube, Instagram, etc), and OperaAnna, both as a Youtube channel and Instagram were meant to work towards filling that gap. I think that if opera has hope of really thriving again, we need to figure out how to meet people where they are, both out in the world in the ways we market the art form as well as how we relate to them in the concert hall. OperaAnna was created as a way to demystify both the art form we present to the public by means of giving much more context and presenting the music in a more approachable manner, as well as demystifying the people who sing and create it.

OW: Having found you thanks to your historical videos, how have you decided on the content of your account?

AT: It’s weird that the content, especially the historical videos, that is now forming my account is not where I started or what I thought Instagram could be used for at the time (partly my own misgivings, but perhaps indicative of the development of content on the platform as well). The OperaAnna Youtube is almost exclusively historical context and analysis of different arias, and after seeing how Tunde presented his #blackhistorywithtunde videos, I thought it would be an interesting format to try for the historical videos as you say. As I moved into the professional world after graduating, met different coaches and teachers and started to make my way in the world, there were a lot of things that really bothered me about how singers were being treated and the way different aspects of the industry worked.

I was definitely not the only person who felt this way, but no one was talking about the issues in a public space. Of course, no one wants to bite the hand that feeds them, but at the same time I didn’t want to participate in the space without doing something to create awareness and perhaps eventually a dialogue around the issues that singers face in the industry. I started to post carousels addressing issues (5 things conservatories don’t teach you – The one thing I would change about the singing industry) and I’ve seen an overwhelming amount of support from these posts. People want to talk about these things but don’t want to put their career on their line, and at a certain point I decided I didn’t mind, because at the end of the day I don’t want to work with companies or people who have an issue with me trying to make the industry healthier for the actual artists in it.

OW: How does social media influence the opera industry from your perspective? 

AT: That’s a really great question, and like I’ve implied earlier, it is really a double-edged sword. Reaching audiences already familiar and well-versed in opera, I think it can be a great way for unknown singers to potentially get their faces and voices in front of an enthusiastic audience and perhaps, hopefully boost their career. I also think it can “boost” questionable expertise, simply because people know how to package it well for social media.

This, however, is not really an issue of social media, but of marketing, and it’s been happening since commercial media was able to appeal to the masses. I don’t know if it has any effect on hiring practice as the people with large followings that I see are usually established singers anyway, so I would need to talk to more people in casting to be able to speak on that. The potential to reach new audiences is at an all-time high with social media, which I think everyone will agree is a good thing. The obstacle that I still see and am hoping to contribute to working with different musical organizations (and individual musicians), is how to best appeal to these audiences and convince them that they should come to an opera. I still think organizations can dare to do a lot more and experiment with content, be creative! Why not?