Empirical Evidence of a Decline in Repertory Diversity among American Opera Companies 1991/92 to 1997/98

Using data published by Opera America, this paper examines the aggregate repertory of U.S. companies by calculating the total number of companies and productions at six dates; the number of 20th century operas produced; the DiMaggio–Stenberg Index of conformity; and the Herfindahl index of concentration. It is shown that opera is a growth industry, but changes in the character of repertory over time suggest that since the early 1990s U.S. companies have been shifting their programming toward a more popular, less demanding repertory. Presumably, this is done to ward off financial pressure.