North Carolina Radio Station Reverses Decision to Ban Opera Broadcasts

The station’s decision to withhold the Metropolitan’s newer operas has been reversed following widespread criticism and audience feedback

North Carolina’s nonprofit WCPE, The Classical Station had recently decided to withhold the broadcasts of six contemporary operas this season from the Metropolitan Opera, stating that they are unsuitable because of their “difficult music” and adult themes. 

On August 31, 2023, a letter with a survey was sent to listeners on the matter, signed by WPCE’s general manager Deborah S. Proctor.

“This coming season, the Metropolitan Opera has chosen several operas which are written in a nonclassical music style, have adult themes and language, and are in English,” she wrote in the letter. “I feel they aren’t suitable for broadcast on our station.”

According to The New York Times, Proctor’s letter described the violence in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, the death row opera that opened the season; she cited the “non-Biblical” sources of the libretto of John Adams’s El Niño; and the suicidal themes in Kevin Puts’s The Hours, which is based on the Michael Cunningham novel and the Oscar-winning film it inspired. 

Additionally, she wrote that composer Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazona, was “simply outside of the bounds of our musical format guidelines,” and that both Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X and Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones contain “offensive language plainly audible to everyone.”

“We want parents to know that they can leave our station playing for their children because our broadcasts are without mature themes or foul language,” Proctor added. “We must maintain the trust of listeners.”

Within days, the WCPE’s decision drew public outcry from artists including Pulitzer Prize-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens and author and journalist Celeste Headlee.

“As a North Carolina native with more than a few connections to the wonderful world of opera, I was appalled to hear of your perplexing decision to not broadcast certain of the Met’s season this year,” Giddens posted on Instagram at the time. 

“The Met broadcasts are the only way many people get to hear the productions, which are situated in New York and priced way out of many people’s budgets,” Giddens added. “Radio is supposed to be egalitarian and an equalizer, not used as a weapon, as you are doing.”

The station changed course after receiving feedback from the public and holding internal conversations.

“After careful deliberation, due consideration, and hearing from our supporters, listeners and the public, The Classical Station has decided to broadcast the entire 2023-2024 season of the New York Metropolitan Opera,” the station wrote, according to NPR.

“We really value being safe for a general audience, especially children,” added Emily Moss, WCPE’s music director. “But one of our core values is that we are a refuge from the political and troubles of the world and we are returning to that value.”

A leading opera company, the Met has been staging more contemporary work in recent seasons as part of an aim to attract new and diverse audiences; the company has found that newer works draw more first-time ticket buyers than the classics do.

“We’re pleased that opera fans in North Carolina will be able to hear all 27 of our scheduled broadcasts this season,” the Met said in a statement.