For various reasons, I’ve started looking a bit into opera, and so far, nothing has really changed my previous impression of it all: That, contemporary opera has become more theater and less concert, and the kind of magical, powerful arias we know and love from the older works are very rare these days… While the classical orchestra, often with the addition of ethnic instruments, electric instruments, synths and all that, traditional bel canto is left behind, and only occasionally do we have solo vocals of a more modern, amplified nature.
Or is it just that arias like Nessun dorma, O mio babbino caro, or Habanera, only happen a few times in a century, almost by accident, just like modern day pop/rock/EDM megahits, so we can only expect one or two of that magnitude to be written in our lifetime…?