I woke last week to the Facebook status of a mezzo soprano wishing that Oscar-nominated actor Timothee Chalamet choke on a ping pong ball. (The ping pong is a reference to Timothee’s role of table tennis player in the movie Marty Supreme.)
Even the even-tempered pianist Najib Ismail was provoked to correct the actor that it wasn’t right to dismiss two art forms, ballet and opera, that have been around for centuries.
The video that has gone viral and served as lightning rod for Timothée can be seen here:
Najib’s dramatic response, although I imagined him quietly seething, was to share a video of him accompanying the soprano Irma Ponce Enrile Potenciano singing the opera singer’s anthem, Vissi d’arte (I lived for art), from the Puccini opera Tosca. He added, “This is what I have to say. We live for our art. It consumes us, it embodies us, it is us, and no one can invalidate that! Just my 14 cents worth.”
The country’s foremost tenor, Arthur Espiritu, weighed in, saying, “First, I had no clue who he was. Honestly! He just seemed to be very confident and wanted to exercise his hubris. But sadly, he was very ignorant, unfortunately. I felt bad for him. I just thought that he did not know any better.”
It was indeed saddening considering Chalamet’s background—he wasn’t entirely a Philistine plucked from the gutter, but he studied in a high school for the arts, and has three generations of women in his family who were in the New York City Ballet.
Arthur defended opera and ballet: “These art forms transcended the years because people have dedicated their lives to doing them. They require the highest level of skill, and it takes a long time to even come close to perfection. Being a pop star—that’s a fad right now. It pales in comparison with what opera and ballet have gone through over the decades. What makes them endure are the artists who sacrifice their blood, sweat, and tears to be able to perform. People watch opera and ballet to search for that magical moment in live theater. This is the major difference. Opera and ballet (unlike film) are not recorded often and repeated in an almost robotic manner. Live theater offers flexibility. Anything can happen in live theater. The freshness of almost life-like moments mirrors the actual experience of a real person’s experiences. Therefore, live performance gives that freedom the art form needs.”
The president of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Kaye Tinga herself, said during the launch of Ballet Philippines’ new production designed by Leeroy New: “In all honesty, thank you Timothee Chalamet for your words. The performing arts have survived far greater skeptics. But in all seriousness, I am grateful to Timothee Chalamet for sparking this conversation because any moment that turns public attention toward ballet and opera, even a skeptical one, is a moment that serves these art forms. The best response to the question of relevance is not an argument. It is an invitation. Come to the theater. See for yourself,”
Music impresario Joseph Uy said, “Chalamet is just grandstanding a la Darryl Yap and Marcoleta! What a stupid remark from a servant of the arts. In 50 years, no one will remember him, yet Puccini and Verdi will still be the pillars of Italian opera.”
He continued, “His remark was simply meant to get people’s attention. It’s a form of power tripping. How stupid to think that the classics are going to be extinct. All art forms today came from the classics. Opera, ballet existed for more than four centuries, and they’re still here.”
He agreed that “the appreciation may have dwindled down. Why? Classical art is high art. People attending do not simply sit down and even doze off, their brains not functioning. That is not the case. Watching opera, the music alone perks up the brain and enhances the emotions.”
He attributed the decline in audience to “young people today who are lazy to think. They like the quick thrills from watching horror and nonsensical films. We need to bring these arts to the people and not wait for them to appreciate these by simply sitting on the sofa. I never heard of Timothée Chalamet until now. In 20 years, no one will remember him, but true art will always go down in history. Maria Callas died over 50 years ago and is still considered and remembered as the finest singer of all time. The same with Enrico Caruso, Mario Lanza, Vladimir Horowitz, Puccini, Verdi, Mozart, etc. Opera and ballet will go on forever. In every generation, someone will support true art.”
Dr. Rene Luis Limjoco, another classical music presenter and producer, said, “Chalamet’s statement evidently struck a raw nerve. I will attribute his remarks in part to the naivete of youth. Regardless of what he says, adherents of the classical arts will remain so. These recent expressions of personal opinion may hurt and the response to them have put the young actor in the public eye, but I do not see them influencing the behavior of the classical audience. Perhaps best to ignore what he said so it all just goes away.”
Tenor Arthur Espiritu
But it won’t go away. Even Liza Macuja Elizalde, the country’s prima ballerina, took to her Instagram to air her sentiments, saying: “Dear Timothée Chalamet, plie. I just want to thank you for renewing the fighting spirit in me and the fighting spirit in all of us ballet dancers. Ballet Manila has always been dedicated to bringing ballet to the people and more people to the ballet. It took you just one statement to wake us all up to the fact that what we are doing is very relevant and that we really care.” She invited him, if he is ever in Manila, to watch her production of Sleeping Beauty.
‘I just want to thank you for renewing the fighting spirit in me and the fighting spirit in all of us ballet dancers,’ said Liza Macuja Elizalde
Author Jessica Mason wrote a warning in Threads: “I love how Timothée Chalamet has pissed off THE ENTIRE opera, ballet, and classical music community. Don’t stand under any chandeliers, my dude.” The Ballet Educator at Instagram said, “Respecting an art form should never require dismissing the other.”
Timothée Chalamet on the red carpet of the 94th Oscars at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA, on March 27, 2022
Alex Budd, chief executive officer of Opera Australia, wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald: “It was quite the achievement. In a single sentence, he managed to do what our marketing team spends weeks trying to achieve: getting the world talking about opera.
“Opera, after all, has been pronounced dead so often it should qualify for frequent-flyer points to the underworld. And yet the corpse keeps selling tickets. Across Europe alone, more than 13 million people attend opera each year, filling tens of thousands of performances. Opera Australia has more than a million tickets on sale this year—with many performances already sold out. A curious way for society to show a complete lack of care for an art form.
“The deeper misunderstanding, though, is not about numbers. It is about relevance.
“Opera survives because it tells uncomfortable truths about human behavior, and often the parts we would rather not talk about.”
Classical music presentors Dr. Rene Limjoco and Joseph Uy
StrangeTenor on IG vocalized by singing: “Chalamet, opera’s the way, so is ballet, please go away.”
Medici TV declared with an accompanying video showing scenes from opera and ballet: “We do care, and we see that so do you: thank you.”
Another Instagrammer, Herbert.Music, wrote: “No one cares about ping pong. Very wrong about art forms dying. Actually, the reality is completely opposite. Never have I seen so many opera singers and ballet dancers and troupes work towards evolving these art forms and making them incredibly exciting, rewarding and relevant experiences for us.”
Herbert.Music challenged Timothée: “If you can get half million people to Central Park to watch you sing, I’ll take this back.”
In a funny video showing her arranging her hair into a ballerina bun while speaking forcefully, motivational speaker and former Boardway showgirl Sarrah Strimel Bentley told Timothée, “You’ve gone and pissed off the wrong people.”
She said ballerinas are the strongest people she knows, “some of the fiercest and most terrifying people I’ve ever met. Because they have the strength of an NFL linebacker, the grace of a butterfly, the tenacity and the drive of someone who wants to be President of the United States, and the discipline of a frontline soldier.”
She reminded him, “You don’t get good without mastering these things first. We can all take a page out of a ballerina’s handbook—it’s discipline, commitment to your craft that will make you succeed in this world.”
The 30-year-old actor is getting invitations from ballet and opera companies all over the world to watch their shows in hopes that he may change his still young mind, except the Los Angeles Opera’s production of Akhnaten whose tickets have nearly sold out this early. The company advised him to queue for a possible ticket which he can very well afford.
To me, comedian Nathan Lane, in the talk show The View, really got it right when he said people would still be going to see Swan Lake or La Traviata long before they had forgotten the actor. He called Timothee a “schmuck” for displaying his “kaleidoscopic stupidity and insensitivity.”
Bet takers have even reduced Timothee’s chances in the 2026 Oscars. Let’s see where his hubris takes him.
