The proposed book highlights two areas of study of musical culture, mainly the art of opera, which inevitably interact: understanding the classical heritage from the point of view of the eternal problems of human existence contained in it, making the great works of the past interesting and important for any era and for any sociocultural the situation, on the one hand, and the specifics of the existence of these works as part of the living fabric of the culture of our time, which wants to see in them meanings that are relevant to our contemporaries, transmitted in those forms that have become decisive for the cultural practices of the early 20th century! century. The author of the book is Ekaterina Nikolaevna Shapinskaya - Doctor of Philosophy, professor, author of more than 150 scientific publications, including a number of monographs and textbooks. Explores the problems of modern culture and art, the fate of the classical heritage in modern culture, artistic practices of mass culture and postmodernism.