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For easy reference, there's a page of plot summaries - admittedly not complete - here.
Inca: I agree that Mozart's operas (particularly the daPointe (?) ones) are comic gems, I really would hesitate to place Don Giovanni in there. It's really a dark piece of work, pretty much driven by Mozart's guilt over his father's death; in a lot of ways, I think it prefigures his requiem mass; a big, black truckload of woe. That said, it's one of my favourite operas.
I've always been kinda hooked on opera; on the fact that it's about, usually, grandiose statement. I don't have much time for Puccini (though I imagine that'll come) or overly-romantic (musically, not emotionally) stuff, but rather dark and sly. Favourites? Don Giovanni, as mentioned, but also Gounod's Faust and Weber's Die Freischütz. Some of Wagner I have an affection for, also. The Magic Flute, precisely for the Masonic imagery, is also fine; but the Papageno/Papagena duet is also heartbreakingly sweet.
Really, for me, it's the fact that there's such a combination of story and raw emotive power (in music) in one place that makes opera work. Recordings work very well on their own, even if I do have to follow the libretto to know what's going on- but seeing an opera performed well onstage is something that's just incredible; I feel more involved in opera performances than in theatre, sometimes... I put it down to the music.
I also think that Operetta (which is what things like The Merry Widow and all Gilbert & Sullivan works are) is something that's overlooked and would make a great introduction to opera for people who think the big guns are too much to get into at once. 'Cos they're kinda one-step-away-from-panto but have charming tunes, I'd plump for the G&S: you cannot claim piracy without having ever heard The Pirates Of Penzance. Honest.
I think the problem that opera has, in addition, is that it suffers from the image of being particulary old or stuffy, which isn't the case at all. P to the Aleface has mentioned John Adams' operas: The Death Of Klinghoffer (working without a net, no guarantees of name correctness) created a shitstorm because of its subject matter. Robert Wilson still hammers together a couple of jawdroppers a year, but most people who diss opera out of hand probably wouldn't be aware of them. There are requisite fucked-up-music operas, too: Dallapiccola's The Prisoner or Ligeti's Le Grande Macabre being two that rarely get out. Tom Waits has produced a shitload of stuff that heads towards opera and away from musical; in my mind, the two are quite closely linked. Things like The Black Rider came out of Weber's Der Freuschutz, and both Waits' last albums were comprised of music written for the stage. Likewise, one of my favourite Australian composers, Elena Kats-Chernin has one or two written; I've just not seen them performed, possibly because they're not as seat-filling as a Mostly Mozart season.
It could be, perhaps, that the genre is still seen as monolithic and shambolic, Hildas in horn-hats and breastplates. In fact, I think it *is*. And it's seen as something people have to *work* at overmuch. Despite liking opera, I'd never gone to see one until about eight years ago. And I went because I'd always had a thing about the Faust myth, and because they plugged it on TV in a very sort of Se7en stylee. Which is hackneyed and crap, but worked. It broke it out of the stuffy mould, for a lot of people. The biggest problems still to overcome? Ticket price - these things cost a fuckload to put on - and the audience themselves. I paid for A res seats (and yeah, I was working in the mailroom at this point, so it was a pretty fucking big deal to me) which were second-best; only the premium were better, and you end up with a bassoon player on your lap if you pick 'em. But anyway - the audience consisted largely of fucking rude stereotypical gray-rinsers who seemed more interested in who was there than what was on stage. Admittedly, this is what opera facilitated, initially, but it was really disturbing. I had to tap a particularly garrulous crone on the back several times, eventually telling her that despite the fact that this was as routine to her as a blow-dry, it was a big deal to me, and that I certainly hadn't come to hear her wank on about who was making the lunches at the local bowling club. For which my reward was silence - yes! But it really coloured my view, you know? I was the youngest person there, and definitely got looked down on as not good enough for being there.
So yeah - I guess the audience sometimes seems to consist of monied people who go to the opera because that's what people in their socioeconomic position do, not because they actually enjoy it. Fuck them. Make it more about people who are passionate or want to actually pay attention, and I think opera companies will experience reversals in fortune, and find a clientele who is willing to embrace things other than the old warhorses.
Pricewise, I don't know what can be done, unless there's more government funding of opera, some kind of subsidising of tickets. Strangely, even though I'd forked out a shitload of money for Faust, I didn't begrudge the company one cent. It was an immersive experience; hidden angel choirs, about fifty people on stage at times, sumptuous costuming, and not too shabby music; the attention to detail that went into things was phenomenal, and I did feel like I was getting what I'd paid for.
But yeah, I still think the bad press of opera is what's dogging it. And there's so much there if you look. Opera. It's the new country. And you watch: someday, alt.opera will rise up, and it'll wipe those goddamned "here's a lot of arias with no context" best-ofs off the fucking planet.
Fuck. All mixed up - was going to reedit but have to surrender the phone line now. More later, maybe. |
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