Creativity Quote by James Levine

Anxious understatement is doing a lot of work here. James Levine’s “We do not seem to be finding tomorrow’s Toscas” sounds like a mild program note, but it carries the quiet panic of an institution built on succession. “Tosca” isn’t just a role; it’s a stress test for a certain kind of operatic stardom: vocal stamina, dramatic intelligence, and the charisma to make Puccini’s high-gloss melodrama feel like life-or-death rather than museum theater. To say we’re not finding “tomorrow’s” Toscas is to suggest a pipeline problem, not a single bad season.

The phrasing matters. “Do not seem” is a hedge that functions as a warning flare. Levine isn’t accusing any one singer; he’s diagnosing a system that may be failing to produce (or recognize, or properly train) big-voice artists who can inhabit repertory at the Met scale. Subtext: the economics and ecology of opera are shifting. Young singers are pushed toward faster visibility, lighter repertoire, and safer choices; houses favor short rehearsal periods and marketable names; audiences and donors expect prestige without always funding the slow cultivation that prestige requires.

Contextually, Levine spoke from the nerve center of American opera, where casting is culture. Worrying about “tomorrow’s Toscas” is also worrying about opera’s ability to regenerate its own mythology: the diva as event, the performance as once-in-a-lifetime. Without that next Tosca, the art form risks feeling less like a living tradition and more like a beautifully lit revival.