New York Diary

three operas in three days

Last week, I went to three operatic performances. That's right. Three.

Yeah, I'm young and hip.

I've posted about opera once before. I am firmly convinced that it's the next big thing, or at least, that it should be. We all think of opera as this staid and boring Classical Music experience, with the capital C and capital M and stuffy old men and fat singing ladies with horns and viking helmets (which, you've got to admit, is actually a pretty cool costume). Truth is, there is some "high" opera which you have to be a connosieur to appreciate--I'd put Wagner in this bunch--but most of it is very low-brow and rousingly populist when you actually get into the nitty-gritty of it. Mozart's best operas are comic love triangles full of infidelity, attempted affairs, and mistaken identities (Figaro, for example). He's got tales of a couple of men running around after the girls of their dreams (The Magic Flute), too, as well as the great Don Juan story in which, in high operatic form, we are regaled by a cataloque of the title character's many--2,065--conquests (that's Don Giovanni). Bizet's great opera Carmen is about a woman who seduces a military corporal, causing him to commit mutiny and ultimately to join a band of smugglers. Enter love interest # 2! Carmen leaves the former military man--now ruined--for a bullfighter. In a very soap-opera twist, man # 2 unknowingly tells man # 1 that his current girl had an affair with a soldier. Soldier-man is irate, and vows to kill Carmen, which he does. Nobody's happy! Yippee! End of opera. Or there's Verdi: Aida is about an Egyptian soldier who loves an Ethiopian slave and has to choose between her and his duties to the Pharaoh. Oh, and did I mention that, in the meantime, the Pharaoh's daughter is in love with him? Or take La Triviata, which is about a wild courtesan who--gasp!--falls in love with someone! This causes much difficulty, as his dad doesn't approve of the match (obviously). She leaves the guy ("to protect him"), he publicly shames her by throwing money at her ("for services rendered" while they lived together!), and then in the end he realizes she always loved him after all. But she dies anyhow.

As the World Turns, you've got nothing on me.

It's not just lurid plotlines and complicated relationships that should get anybody who watched The OC or One Tree Hill into an opera house, though. It's also the fact that the music really is rousing. I mean, we all hum opera music already, because it's in every car commercial ever invented. Do you need more of an indication that it's catchy and memorable?

And there's lighting, and staging, and all that other stuff, too.

It baffles me that we all pay $60 or $80 a pop to go see a show on Broadway--great fun, I agree--but nobody under 70 pays the exact same amount to see an equally awesome show at the Met or the New York City Opera. The opera is the musical of the 17th century. The two genres should really be in direct competition with each other, drawing from the same audience pool. But somehow, we've managed to make opera seem decidedly unfun. Um, that's silly.

To be sure, both the Met and the Opera NYC now have super-cheap tickets available for young folks. This is great. There's a concerted effort going on to get new people into opera, and I applaud that. But it is still the case that opera takes itself altogether too seriously. The marketing ploy shouldn't be, "Here I have this elite thing, and you too can learn about it and show off how cultured you are by talking about Aida and leaving your ticket stubs lying around your apartment." Most opera is very fun and often quite funny as well, surprisingly accessible, and quite catchy. The marketing ploy should be, "Nobody ever told you you'd like it, did they? Cuz you will." As it is, I think our opera production companies here in New York are appealing to young folks who want to appear a certain way, instead of to young folks who might actually, genuinely like opera.

posted by Skay @ 10:58 AM