Opera Rock Superstar Two Thousand and Ten

Musical film and theater reached its rousing climax in the '60s. For fifty years since, American media consumers simply stopped feeling that people bursting into spirited song, or love expressed through plaintive duet, were as moving or meaningful as the realist's less exuberant alternative.

Musicals continued, but were more fun than anything else. A spectacle and a tradition, but not a particularly accurate expression of the human experience. Actors sing; humans don't.

Ah, but now, to sing is to be real and quite gloriously human: American Idol, an assortment of YouTube superstars, and of course Glee mean we have aesthetically realigned ourselves away from realism.

So far, the musical revolution has been reserved for humor, love, and light dramatics. My prediction: a return to opera within the decade. By opera I don't mean foreign languages or big fat voices, but Glee-style tragedy and dark drama. Glee for grown-ups - not just pretend grown-ups.