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Commentary, July 2008
That little black dress.
In an interview with Reuters last month soprano Deborah Voigt acknowledged the changing dynamics of today’s opera singer. “I think it would be foolish to think that singers don’t have to be more conscious about their physique [today] than in the past.” Even so, she said she didn’t undergo stomach by-pass surgery in reaction to being fired because she couldn’t fit into the “little black dress,” the artistic director of Covent Garden’s planned for her in its 2004 version of Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos.” She had other, health reasons, she said.
Not everybody has figured things out yet, and we still see major companies casting overweight singers in lead romantic roles, thinking that “voice” is all that matters to an opera audience. Maybe that was the case years ago as Voigt explained, but it’s not the case today where television, movies, videos and cultural norms have changed and youth, beauty and physique do matter to the audience. As we have noted here in the past, there are many changes opera can easily incorporate into performances to appeal to a new audience -- and solid, classically-trained voices is certainly one of them. But equally important is the appeal of those who perform – and physical appearance should not be underestimated – even though it often is.
Puccini’s music magic.
The July edition of “Opera News” features a number of articles commemorating the occasion of Puccini’s 150 birthday celebration, coming in December. I was particularly struck by Barry Singer’s piece on what it is about Puccini’s music that seems to have universal and lasting appeal to audiences. He asked, “What did Puccini know and when did he know it”? The question, of course, referred to opera’s past and Puccini’s role in continuing that tradition in an era when a new sound was sweeping the elite of the opera world and its supportive critics. Yes, we’re talking about the “twelve-tone rows of Berg and Schoenberg,” that were “waylaying opera.”
In an era of “anti-opera,” popularizes by Benjamin Britten et. al., what was the core opera enthusiast to do? Good question. “The culprit is no longer the simple absence of melody,” Singer wrote, “many of these [new] operas have been ingratiatingly tonal.”
Since Puccini’s death, Singer noted, the absence of melody from much of new opera has been striking. We here at OperaOnline.us agree and on more than one occasion have railed against the glut of new opera that is bereft of arias, melody or anything memorable. Not to pick on the Met’s $3 million flop, “The First Emperor,” but it seems to us that the more critics get it right and complain about three hours of music without a melodic line or theme, the more the composer digs his heals in and refuses to budge lest any movement will destroy his or her artistic vision.
Singer summed it up nicely: “Dramatic, character-driven music that captures our emotions with its beauty and refuses to let go – could this be all that most audiences wish for from any new opera? Puccini knew.”
The Met’s contribution.
Opera America released some interesting statistics last month about the growth in opera audiences that has come about since the advent of high-definition theater broadcasts. The audience that may have rarely made it to the opera house, or if it did make it, made the visits infrequently, has shown up in droves at local movie theaters around the world thanks to high-definition broadcasts and digital sound. Over 920,000 people attended theater opera last year. According to a survey conducted by Shugall Research, the live broadcasts themselves were an attraction that caused a renewed interest in opera among attendees. Indeed, so successful were the broadcasts that 92% responded they were likely to attend a live performance because of their theater experience. The “Met Live in HD” series will expand its broadcasts in 2008-09 to 11 transmissions and will be seen in 800 theaters spanning 28 countries around the world. The broadcasts will be shown on Saturday’s, worldwide, beginning on May 9.
As noted on this site in the past, the Met isn’t the only house investing big in high-definition technology to reach outside opera house doors to attract a larger movie opera audience. We only hope the productions chosen to be performed attract and don’t drive audiences away or to the point of distraction with non-melodic offerings. The infatuation that attracts can quickly enough dissipate if the selections appeal to the elite, modern abstractionists who think atonality is superior to solid melody.
