Between Cruel Summer and opera festival summer: my double life as a Swiftie and opera fan

The summer of a typical opera fan usually revolves somewhere between Salzburg, Bayreuth and Verona; this year, however, my personal festival summer has been enriched by another chapter – in fact, by a few more “Eras”. And while it doesn't strike me as strange to be a Swiftie and Operafangirl in one person (the secret of my musical taste is very simple: what I like, I listen to!), my “double life” is met with a certain amount of astonishment. On both sides.

On the one hand, there are the classical music fans who wonder why you would voluntarily spend an evening with loud music and screaming neighbours in a packed stadium and, on the other, Swifties wonder how you can enjoy an evening where you are not allowed to either dance or sing along. As different as the two worlds may seem at first glance, there are more similarities than you may think. And this is not only because Taylor Swift's grandmother Marjorie Finlay (to whom, by the way, the beautiful song Marjorie on the album Evermore is dedicated) was a trained opera singer and inspired Swift musically from an early age, but also because of the surprising number of similarities that connect opera fans and Swifties.

Probably the most striking element is the enthusiasm – not to say fanaticism – of the audiences. Both Swifties and opera fans often travel long distances to attend a performance. Hotels and flights are booked months in advance and holidays are planned around the Zero Hour. Tickets, which have to be obtained well in advance and are traded on the black market for several times the original price, are in high demand, both for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour and for particularly sought-after performances at, for example, the Salzburg Festival. You will find people with lovingly home-made “Looking for tickets” signs in front of the Bavarian State Opera just as in front of Wembley Stadium in London. Here and there, desperate fans hope to get a ticket at the last minute so they can still be part of the show instead of just on the outside. 

Similarly, regular audiences in both opera houses and stadiums are known for their confidence in the lyrics and love of interpretation; just as you can spend hours discussing with a Wagnerian the subtle nuances of the libretto to Tristan und Isolde, you can talk to a Swiftie about Taylor's songs and their horizons of meaning. Unfortunately, what often remains hidden from the wider radio audience in Swift's hits is the eloquence, poetry and profundity of her lyrics – especially in the quieter albums such as Folklore and Evermore, but also in the current album The Tortured Poets Department, in which poetic text such as “Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I'll never see” or:

“Say it once again with feeling
How the death rattle breathing
Silenced as the soul was leaving
The deflation of our dreaming
Leaving me bereft and reeling” 

can be found, as well religious metaphors like:

“What if I roll the stone away?
They're gonna crucify me anyway.” 

With her talent for storytelling, Taylor Swift, who already won poetry competitions at primary school age, opens up a broad horizon of interpretation and, with the close connection between lyrics, music and staging, she also lives a modern version of Wagner's idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk, as she not only writes the music and the lyrics, but is often responsible for directing her visually stunning music videos.

Swifties prepare at least as meticulously and holistically for their performances in the audience, with outfits that are either modelled on one of Taylor's stage costumes, are a reference to a line of text or which stylistically match one of the Eras particularly well. The spectrum ranges from cowboy boots and fringed dresses (a reminiscence of the first two albums Debut and Fearless, which were stylistically still entirely dedicated to country pop) to colourful miniskirts from the time of the album 1989 (with which the change from country to pop was ultimately completed) to flowing dresses in muted colours to match the indie-inspired albums Folklore and Evermore.

An absolute must for (almost) every styling is a good dose of glitter and, of course, the typical friendship bracelets with song titles or quotes that are exchanged with one another. This approach is not entirely unfamiliar in the world of opera either, as prestigious premieres in particular are often characterised by great creativity when it comes to styling, true to the motto ‘see and be seen’. It is not uncommon for make-up or outfits to be specially tailored to the opera in question.

The personality cult that is typically associated with pop stars such as Taylor Swift is by no means a new phenomenon. In the Baroque era, it was reserved for the stars of the opera scene and Franz Liszt even kept a dog with the same hair colour as himself in order to meet his fans' demand for his curls. And if I had to judge today whether fans of Jonas Kaufmann or those of Taylor Swift are more fanatical, the Bavarian tenor would probably win the rating, even centuries after the era of the Baroque singer cult. Because even if the opera world now likes to emphasise the collective ensemble performance, it is of course still the big names that guarantee full houses and screams.

What the two fan groups have in common are habits that may seem rather strange to outsiders: not applauding after Act 1 of Parsifal is just as natural for experienced opera-goers as shouting “One, two, three, let's go bitch” as soon as Taylor Swift sings the line “But you can make me a drink” for the first time during the song Delicate. And while at the opera you express your enthusiasm with shouts of bravo, on the Eras Tour you cheer as loudly and as long as you physically can after Champagne Problems, because the audience in every city has the ambition to create the longest applause.

Despite all the similarities, opera fans could learn a thing or two from Swifties – namely openness and tolerance. While the audience at Taylor Swift's concerts is wonderfully uncomplicated and accepts everyone who wears even a tiny bit of glitter on their body without prejudice as part of the community, despite the increasing diversity and relaxed atmosphere in opera houses you still sometimes come across mansplaining older gentlemen and pretentious ladies who turn up their noses as soon as someone in jeans enters the hallowed halls or dares to talk a little louder than a whisper.

A bit more of a “shake-it-off” mentality wouldn't hurt some of these suits, because – let's face it – it's about being moved and carried away emotionally. This is possible regardless of whether you visit the Arena di Verona or a stop on the Eras Tour, because the themes and topics dealt with in both the classics of opera literature and Taylor Swift's songs are surprisingly similar.

Love, with its positive and negative aspects, disappointment, friendship, death and hope – all of this existential content can be found both in Taylor Swift's songs and in operatic arias composed hundreds of years ago. If opera characters had to express their feelings with Swift's song lyrics, Don Giovanni would probably boldly say “I've got a long list of ex lovers, they'll tell you I'm insane. But I've got a blank space baby, and I'll write your name”; the Principessa di Bouillon could threaten Adriana Lecouvreur with “she should keep in mind there's nothing I do better than revenge” and Des Grieux from Puccini's Manon Lescaut would sing “I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home. I'll spend forever wondering if you knew I was enchanted to meet you!”

Violetta, meanwhile, would mourn her involuntarily failed relationship with Alfredo with “I didn't have it in myself to go with grace. And you're the hero flying around, saving face. And if I'm dead to you, why are you at the wake? Cursing my name, wishing I stayed.” And Gilda would probably take thieving pleasure in adding the lines “But Daddy I love him! I'm having his baby. No, I'm not, but you should see your faces” to utterly shock her father Rigoletto. 

From the parallels in content between operatic arias and Taylor Swift songs, my thoughts then turned to the question of how opera characters would actually act as Swifties. And so it was that in the middle of the concert in Milan's San Siro stadium, I imagined Donna Elvira mentally cursing Don Giovanni during All too well and The smallest man who ever lived or Carmen celebrating “We are never ever getting back together”.

And, after visualising in the Italian summer heat how enthusiastically some operatic heroines in their best glitter outfits would shout “Fuck the patriarchy” together with Taylor into the evening, I was finally struck by the idea of how wonderfully one could actually combine both worlds. After all, Taylor Swift's Eras Tour would certainly benefit from an interval given the three-and-a-half hour duration of the show – keyword: a visit to the toilet without having to miss a single note! – and what's wrong with swapping colourful friendship bracelets with your favourite lyrics with like-minded people at a summer opera festival?

At the time of writing this article, I actually still had two dates in my diary for the Eras Tour at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna – in a way, these evenings were supposed to be the highlight of my Taylor Swift summer before the subsequent opera trip to the Salzburg Festival. As an opera fan, you are used to cancellations and cast changes, and with every booking there is always the risk of having paid for the flight, hotel and ticket but not being able to see the singer you wanted. However, I was not prepared for my tears and shock after the cancellation of Taylor Swift's concerts due to a suspected terrorist attack – this cancellation felt far more brutal than any email from the Vienna State Opera about a cast change. In opera, even if a singer cancels, at least you can still hear the work and, in the best case, even discover an interesting new voice; with a cancelled pop concert, there is usually no such consolation.

But Vienna is different, so a wonderful dynamic quickly developed in the city. Disappointed Swifties were cheered up everywhere – there were free burgers, cushions and jewellery, museums could be visited free of charge and a Protestant church opened its doors to listen to music together. There was spontaneous singing on Stephansplatz, and in Corneliusgasse (which became a veritable pilgrimage town due to the similarity in name to Swift's song Cornelia Street), two families provided the assembled Swifties with music, drinks and chocolate for an entire Saturday. Even ORF had a surprise in store and, together with Disney+, showed the completely unexpected free TV premiere of the concert film – for which, incidentally, I also received messages from my opera bubble from people who had previously had no contact with Taylor Swift, but were thoroughly taken with her music and show!