Is Opera Behind the Times?- Page 2

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 9/8/16 at 1:09pm

I'm certainly not a seasoned opera-goer. I own a few recordings, the more famous ones such as Freni, Harwood, and Pavarotti in "La Boheme", Sutherland in "Rigoletto", and a hour-long selection from the Solti "Ring" recording. I listen to them with varying regularity, often marveling at their voices and the gorgeous orchestrations (and those full orchestras!). I've only seen one opera live, last seasons "Tosca" at the Met. While it was thrilling to hear the orchestra and singers without any amplification, the entire experience was distancing. Even though I had a pretty good seat and could clearly see everything onstage, it was odd for me, a regular musical theatre-goer who does not speak Italian, French, or German to have to read the synopsis before each act (unless I wanted to read the translation, which I opted out of). I thought the lead was very good, but I'm not experienced enough to judge. All I know is I never got chills the way I do when listening to Nilsson in "Brunnhilde's Immolation".

While "Porgy and Bess" can thrill me regularly, a large part of opera is based on the voice and not the words, which is very odd when coming from the musical theatre world, where words are just as important as the music. While you might think that fans of opera and musical theatre should have some overlap, I think the fact that most operas are in different languages put off the young people who enjoy musicals. I'm not suggesting that operas should be translated, I'm just pointing out a reason why someone like me is put off by seeing operas, even though it might seem to be a natural fit.

Perhaps if my Tosca has enraptured and thrilled me, I would have instantly fallen in love with the opulent art form, but as of now, I still feel on the outside looking in when it comes to opera.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 9/8/16 at 1:11pm

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/14/theater/theater-i-sing-of-america-s-mongrel-culture.html?pagewanted=all

 

An interesting article on opera and musical theatre, written by composer Michael John LaChiusa in 1999.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 9/8/16 at 1:56pm

I think there is no doubt that early, uncritical exposure is the best way to ensnare a person in an art form. That doesn't mean that everyone who was taken to the opera, classical music and/or the theatre before they could read (as I was) would end up bound at the hip to all three but I do think it at least makes it possible. Interestingly, my grandmother, the last holdout in my family for what I'll call religiosity, made the same argument for going to church. I got kind of confused in the process and ended up thinking of the theatre as church.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/8/16 at 2:06pm

 

I love opera and I go to the Met as often as I can. I've also been to the opera in European houses, which are smaller and can show simpler and more intimate productions, without the large spectacle that a 3800-seat theater like the Met require. Also, European opera houses are subsidized by the government, which makes their economies a lot easier.

But the opera, like theater, is a perennial invalid. Neither can be saved.

And yet they will go on.

But Whizzer and MarkBear--you need to proceed carefully or you'll be wasting your money on dull old stagings with less-than-thrilling singers or new-fangled "concept" productions that are little more than the Emperor's New Clothes.

There are thrilling new(ish) opera singers-who-can-ACT like Nina Stemme and Sondra Radvanovsky. Had your friends asked me last season, Whizzer, I would have told them to rush to see Sondra playing the three queens in Donizetti's Tudor trilogy. They were tour-de-force performances on the level of a Patti LuPone or Glenda Jackson, the operatic equivalent to seeing Meryl Streep in repertoire.

Here she is in one of the many bravura coloratura arias as the aging Elizabeth in Roberto Devereux:

 

And here she in the dramatic final scene:

 

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/8/16 at 2:16pm

 

I'm RARELY a fan of modern-dress productions, but I would go see Kristine Opolais in anything, and British director Richard Eyre's production of Manon Lescaut could hardly distract from Opolais's acting and singing:

 

 

Her husband is Andris Nelsons, who was just made music director of the Boston Symphony. We saw them together in a concert at Tanglewood, and they were adorable together. Here they are in another concert, with opera HUNK Jonas Kaufman, singing a duet from that same opera:

 

 

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/8/16 at 2:22pm

 

Jonas Kaufmann is another singer I would recommend your friends go see--in anything. Not only is he eye-candy to gay men and straight women, his voice is world class. Here he is in a recording studio singing that great opera classic "Nessun Dorma":

 

And here he is with Russian soprano Anna Netrebko (who used to be one of my favorites) singing "Tonight" from West Side Story:

 

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/8/16 at 2:39pm

 

Sorry/not sorry to hijack this thread, but here are two more of my favorites--again, I would recommend seeing them in anything: Joyce DiDonato and Lawrence Brownlee in Rossini's Donna Del Lago:

 

 

She is just fabulous in both dramatic and comic roles, and it's been thrilling to watch his career, because he has been of the best examples of the opera world's ability to embrace color-blind casting. He's just one of the best bel canto tenors to come around in decades.

 

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/8/16 at 2:53pm

 

Anyway, my point is yeah-yeah-yeah opera is dying, theater is dying, reading is dying, New York is dying, San Francisco is dying, culture is dying, whatever happened to class and all that...but there are still talented performers doing good work. The people running the show might be idiots--but that's true in every commercial and non-commercial enterprise.

If you like opera, there's plenty of good opera around. If you don't like it, no big deal. It will go on dying for decades.

But wait--one more! Jamie Barton, the young American mezzo who won last year's Richard Tucker award--this is her at the beginning of what is sure to be a very exciting career.

 

Updated On: 9/9/16 at 02:53 PM

[RockyRoad]

Posted: 9/8/16 at 2:56pm

Opera today is completely out of touch with today's society.

And this is from someone who works for one of the world's biggest operas companies.

In the US, opera is regarded as an aging relic. The sad things is that opera companies do very little to counter this perception. "Oh...let's have a group for young professionals! Oh...let's have a pre show wine reception." And then they're done.  This is not audience development...it's audience suicide.

So many other art forms (theatre and museums in particular) are doing new and exciting things to bring in new audiences. Opera has not done that.

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 9/8/16 at 3:13pm

LarryD2 said: " The holy grail for opera companies is to tap into some heretofore undiscovered wellspring of young, educated, and financially comfortable opera fans in waiting."

I couldn't say what their strategy should be. But I agree with Whizzer that there are people who would be receptive to opera if given the opportunity. I am one of them. I can't remember what motivated me but I saw a Met Live in HD broadcast, enjoyed it thoroughly, and now this is my second year of having a subscription at the Met proper. Granted, I am not "financially comfortable" enough to spring for the expensive seats. But I think there must be better ways of stoking interest in the medium itself, at least among people who already enjoy theatre.

Also, I'm sorry PalJoey but I though Opolais' acting was very flat and dull in Manon Lescaut. I wonder if she would have been better if Jonas Kaufmann had been able to perform with her.

Again, speaking for myself, I like good work. New work can be interesting. I've seen smaller opera companies try things. But when I go to the Met I don't mind seeing a classic production I haven't seen before. Actually, I favor the lavish sets and not the "modern" interpretations. I don't think it's necessarily about spending money but about design and concept and effort. The cardboard cutout look of Die Entführung aus dem Serail last season comes to mind. Of course, the thing that's key for me is the voices.

Updated On: 9/8/16 at 03:13 PM

[Islander_fan]

Posted: 9/8/16 at 3:17pm

I honestly think that at places like The Met, they are at a crossroads regarding getting younger audience members interested in seeing an opera. Opera, like any other performing art changes over time. Nature of the beast, nothing wrong with that. However, I honestly feel that when The Met tries to show something more modern (take the new opera Two Boys that was done a couple of season ago as an example) they may get younger audiences in for that, but at the same time they would alienate the elderly audience who make up most of their profit with ticket sales. They are a group that tends to be more traditional with what they want to see. I feel that it ends up being a damned if you do damned if you don't situation. If they continue to put on more traditional works, the attract seasoned opera goers with the kind of money that they are looking for. However, should they put on a more modern opera that could entice younger folks to to give opera a try, they end up turning off the interest of those with the money that they need. 

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 9/8/16 at 7:07pm

I have no idea how to keep opera alive. I don't know if anyone does, it's probably only the kind of thing known by future historians who'll look back and say "thank god for ______". I do think that it's way, way too expensive for the new, not dying audience (the Seattle Opera has a handful of 25-dollar tickets per performance, which sell out immediately), but I think that of theater in general. The highest seats should be the cost of a movie ticket, and no more.

As someone who enjoys a lot of opera, despises some of it, and wishes I could see way more, here's what I'd do if I were king of theater:

-Cheaper seats. Rack up the premium seats if you have to, just make that whole upper back balcony affordable. A person should be able to have the choice between seeing Captain America and La Cenerentola.

-New, or at least modern, works. The repertoire is great but new shows are where the blood is. New music, new voices, new writing. I think a lot of new operas are different from the classics in a way that's appealing to modern theatergoers - less offputting melodrama, a different kind of focus on events.

-Smaller shows. Opera doesn't have to be eighty feet tall and ten million dollars. For every megafeature, there could be a more intimate production of a smaller show. These could be earthier, with less flighty singing (I know a lot of people hate how opera singers sing) and more creative, out-of-the-box staging, possibly even using local, new talent.

[RockyRoad]

Posted: 9/9/16 at 1:24am

To answer some of the suggestions:

- Cheaper seats: Opera already has them. $30 for the Met. Cheaper than a concert, right? But the cost of the seat isn't the driving factor for new audience. It's the show, the length, the foreign language, the (most likely) traditional 18th century staging, the "I don't fit in" concept, the "it's not cool" factor...all those keep people away ore than cost.

-New, or at least modern, works. 90% of new opera works fail. Why? The old/traditional audience doesn't want to see new works....the new audience has never been developed. So, who's going to see these productions? A fully staged new production (in larger opera houses) can cost millions. Why risk millions when you can put on La boheme every year and sell tickets?

-Smaller shows. Yes, opera doesn't have to be eighty feet tall and ten million dollars. But just like paying $150 for a Broadway show, people are paying just as much for opera and want to see their money's worth. For instance, the SF Opera presented the premiere of Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire. This small 6 person cast with one set was swallowed alive in the 3,000+ opera house.

This idea is similar to the staging of Dames at Sea on Broadway. A six person cast on a big Broadway stage.

Sure smaller opera companies can and do smaller sized productions. And that's great. Just don't expect that concept to go over in bigger houses.

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 9/9/16 at 3:04am

Many independent cinemas and theaters have a black box, and it'd be nice to see larger opera companies do something similar. Maybe they do, and I'm just not familiar, but I can imagine smaller, newer works being put on for much cheaper in more intimate settings. I'd go to the opera if I could get a ticket for fifteen dollars. I won't go for thirty. I'll gladly sit on a folding chair in a black space to see a modern production done in an intimate, engaging style for fifteen dollars, but I'm less likely to pay twice that to sit in the nosebleeds to squint at a dusty, stagey (or awkwardly "updated" production of a classic.

[After Eight]

Posted: 9/9/16 at 7:19am

You either connect with it on an immediate, emotional level, or you don't. Neither cheap seats, nor smaller theatres and/or productions can create that connection. Nor can productions that actually do the works justice, or even great singers. You either feel it or you don't. And considering the coarse, dumbed-down state of our "culture," it's very hard for a younger person to come to the opera house with the sensibility necessary to appreciate and enjoy what opera has to offer.

If opera companies didn't wreck every opera in sight in their misguided embrace of "rethinking" works that were perfectly wrought by their creators, then at least they wouldn't alienate the fans they already have. And certainly Rigoletto set in Las Vegas is not going to attract young people to make up for the irritation felt by the diehard opera fans who like this opera, as well as every other opera, performed as they should be.

[Islander_fan]

Posted: 9/9/16 at 10:00am

After Eight said: "You either connect with it on an immediate, emotional level, or you don't. Neither cheap seats, nor smaller theatres and/or productions can create that connection. Nor can productions that actually do the works justice, or even great singers. You either feel it or you don't. And considering the coarse, dumbed-down state of our "culture," it's very hard for a younger person to come to the opera house with the sensibility necessary to appreciate and enjoy what opera has to offer.

If opera companies didn't wreck every opera in sight in their misguided embrace of "rethinking" works that were perfectly wrought by their creators, then at least they wouldn't alienate the fans they already have. And certainly Rigoletto set in Las Vegas is not going to attract young people to make up for the irritation felt by the diehard opera fans who like this opera, as well as every other opera, performed as they should be.

 

After Eight, 

 

Thanks for so much for finally confirming what I thought of you as. You're clearly either one of three things ( or maybe all three, who knows.) Either you're, old, scared of change, or holier than thou. My dream would be for you to be all three. This, your mindset, is exactly what is wrong with opera today and even theatre. You're too pompous or maybe scared as well to accept change. And, just because people don't like what you like or the way it should be enjoyed as you feel it should brings out the same old tune every close minded/elderly person sings. "The world is going to hell in a hand basket because things are changing and not what I remembered them to be." Things change, get off your pompous high horse for just once and see how that feels. 

[After Eight]

Posted: 9/9/16 at 10:09am

"Things change,"

Islander Fan,

 

Yes, they most certainly do. And some people are lucid and honest enough to know and say when that change is for the worse. All you have to do is look around to see it.

"get off your pompous high horse for just once and see how that feels."

Take your own advice on that score. And open up your eyes, as well, while you're at it.

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 9/9/16 at 10:18am

Is this the"mad scene" I've heard so much about?

[Islander_fan]

Posted: 9/9/16 at 10:30am

After Eight said: ""Things change,"

Islander Fan,

 

Yes, they most certainly do. And some people are lucid and honest enough to know and say when that change is for the worse. All you have to do is look around to see it.

"get off your pompous high horse for just once and see how that feels."

Take your own advice on that score. And open up your eyes, as well, while you're at it.

 

Thanks for proving my point. It makes things so much easier when someone does the work for me.

 

[After Eight]

Posted: 9/9/16 at 10:39am

Islander Fan,

They say that ignorance is bliss. If so, then you must be the happiest person in the universe.

Keep smiling ---- while you can!

[Islander_fan]

Posted: 9/9/16 at 10:48am

After Eight said: "Islander Fan,

They say that ignorance is bliss. If so, then you must be the happiest person in the universe.

Keep smiling ---- while you can!

 

Oh I am smiling. I am because, unlike you I think that any and all things arts related today are as beautiful as ever. And, because I am not living in the past and welcome and love any and all change in the arts that happens. Believe me I am far from ignorant.

 

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 9/9/16 at 2:14pm

Charley Kringas Inc said: " -New, or at least modern, works. The repertoire is great but new shows are where the blood is. New music, new voices, new writing. I think a lot of new operas are different from the classics in a way that's appealing to modern theatergoers - less offputting melodrama, a different kind of focus on events."

I'm open to seeing new/modern work but generally from smaller companies and for cheaper ticket prices. I have the (possibly misguided) impression that new/modern operas tend to be less melodic. I'm fine with Sondheim and LaChuisa. I just don't want to sit through hours of discordant notes and weird phrasing... in English.

[darquegk]

Posted: 9/9/16 at 3:08pm

After Eight, I've used you as part of the inspiration for the ethos of a character I am writing. Congratulations: you've become part of one of those ugly, nihilistic modern shows you hate so much!

[MarkBearSF]

Posted: 9/9/16 at 6:48pm

I'm wondering if the best strategy might be to make sure that opera is available. Especially via events like simulcasts to ballparks and the like. For the few within the masses who hear the siren's call and find it irresistible, it's a success. Time and again (not unlike those of us in love with musical theater) the individual stories highlight that first exposure when the switch clicks and the person falls in love. Likewise, making blocks of tickets at reduced price and similar programs that increase the accessibility of opera makes sense.

Looking to new form opera and attempting to pull in younger fans by including rock arrangements or edgy themes misses the point. The related issues of progressing the art form or keeping a company from getting hidebound may be good arguments for such programming, but I believe is secondary to attracting and keeping a new generation of fans. Again, I think there is a certain subset who will see an opera, be entranced by the power of the sound coming from those throats and will be hooked. For these people, it doesn't matter if it's a classic staging of an old warhorse or an avant-garde experiment. (probably better for the former.)

Finally, removing barriers to accessibility is a good thing. Perhaps the most important was undertaken a few decades ago, adding surtitles for translation. Likewise, for many in GenX and earlier, dress codes are prohibitive. Knowing that one needn't wear a tie is a big thing. (Hopefully prohibition against using mobile devices during the performance continues, though!)

[wonkit]

Posted: 9/10/16 at 11:42am

Now that we don't teach music in schools, how are young people supposed to try something and see if they like it? I didn't like string quartets until I got a chance to hear excellent performances, and the same should be true of opera.

I say "should" because the live telecasts of the MET into movie theaters around the world seemed like such a  good idea, making opera more accessible. But apparently the profits on that venture are also shrinking, suggesting that it did not really build devoted audiences, even when the productions were nearby and not expensive.