Opera Mythconception #4: They’re too long

From Viking helmets to bank-breaking ticket prices, preconceived notions about opera have long deterred large swaths of the public from going anywhere near the art form. It’s a shame, since most of these myths and misconceptions—these “mythconceptions,” if you will—couldn’t be further from the truth. In this series, we debunk five of the most persistent ones and show why opera today is as comprehensible, delectable, accessible, and affordable as it’s ever been in its 400-year history. 

This is part 4 of a 5-part series. We're also debunking other mythconceptions, from opera being hard to understand, to it being boring, stuffy, and too expensive.

OK, this one has a grain of truth. Operas can be long. The longest work in the standard repertoire, Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, clocks in at around four-and-a-half hours. There’s also his massive, four-opera Ring cycle, which totals about 15 hours of music! In these cases, you can’t go in expecting a fast-paced blockbuster. You have to slow down your internal rhythm and allow yourself to go with the flow of the music. And it’s alright to drift off a little bit every now and then—everyone does (especially during Wagner...). 

But the genre isn’t a monolith. Operas of a more reasonable length are regularly programmed. There’s even a sizable list of one-hour works, though these are usually combined into double or triple bills. For the most part, operas last on average about the same length as a Hollywood movie: between an hour-and-a-half and three hours. In fact, some of your favorite films are likely longer than a typical opera. Schindler’s List, Titanic, The Green Mile, and Return of the King are each longer than most of HGO’s 2026-27 operas, if you don’t count intermission. 

But in the end, it’s best to resign yourself to the fact that you won’t be getting out of the theater until about 10 p.m. Opera is music, and music takes time to unfold. Rather than resent how long it takes, why not bask in every intoxicating minute of it? It’s rare to get an opportunity like this, where you and your fellow humans are sharing a live experience together, without a single glowing screen in sight.