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ART FACTS
A WORD ABOUT OPERA
By Paul Joseph Walkowski
...opera can be romantic, mystical, inspiring, provocative, bold, colorful, sublime, communicative -- and surround us in different mediums and yet we don’t even know it plays such an important role.
It is said that opera is not for everyone. True enough.
But opera should be enjoyed by far more people than those who currently enjoy it. Sadly, it is a misunderstood and truly under appreciated art form.Consider the typical opera: it is performed in languages that few Americans speak or understand, and is sung by artists whose names are largely unknown to a vast majority of young people, and whose unique signing styles, not necessarily what they sing, define their specialty: soprano, mezzo-soprano, bass, bass-baritone, tenor, contralto, and on and on. Do younger people, who are the future of opera, really care about such things? Should they?
The good news is this: in its contemporary form opera has made some inroads and has appealed to a new generation, and this is encouraging. Those who flocked to see, “Phantom of the Opera”, “Les Miserables”, or plan on seeing “A Street Car Named Desire”, glimpse only the periphery of what traditional opera is all about. However, those same people might shudder if invited to see Wagner’s four hour “Parsifal”, or any of the “the Ring” series, or Verdi’s, “LaTraviata”, or Puccini’s,” LaBohème”, to name a few.
Yet ask these same people if they saw the movie, “Fatal Attraction” and enjoyed the haunting music. Thank Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly” for that. And what of the wonderfully romantic soundtrack in the popular movie “Moonstruck”? Again, we offer a “tip of the hat” for Puccini’s, La Bohème. And who can forget the powerful images of the spectacular helicopter assault in “Apocalypse Now” or Robert Duval’s utterance: “God, I love the smell of napalm in the morning” from that very scene. Only Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” from “Die Walküre” could match Duval’s chutzpah and overcome it with sheer power in its own right. And while Robert DeNiro won an Oscar for his performance of middleweight champ, Jake LaMotta in “Raging Bull” it was Mascagi’s, haunting “Cavalleria Rusticana” that spiritualized the slow descent and eventual destruction of the human spirit. Music contributes significantly to the richness of a movie, and great music makes for unforgettable moments.
This is the power of opera!
I think you get the point: opera can be romantic, mystical, inspiring, provocative, bold, colorful, sublime, communicative -- and surround us in different mediums and yet we don’t even know it plays such an important role.
Interestingly, we seem to accept it in pieces, in other mediums, but shy away in its formal presentations on the stage. Sadly, far too may do this without giving it a try – and that is sad, especially now that more and more opera houses provide contemporaneous English surtitles so the audience can read from discreetly lit screens placed around the opera house, or as the New York Met provides, liquid crystal screens on the backrest of each seat to demystify what is being sung.
So, I've created a web page (OperaOnline.us) and will be publishing articles here that are going to make a determined effort to change all that by explaining and reviewing opera for that segment of the audience that is moved by story, music, and performance – performance that at times can be staggeringly powerful and at others sublimely reverent and inspiring.Through my web page and articles published here on the Artistic Forum, you can join me as I visit the opera houses of the northeast and tell you something about their accommodations, the seating, the atmosphere. I’ll comment on set design, the performances and the sound you can expect. You’ll get an encapsulated description of what goes on and where; the number of acts, how long each act lasts, and how the performers hold up. It will be frank, honest – and refreshingly unpretentious. In short, let’s take the mystery out of opera and experience the sound, the sights, the color, the passion, and hopefully, the enjoyment of an art form that is at once elegant and surprisingly common in its universal appeal.
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Our reviewer, Paul Walkowski, is the writer and publisher of OperaOnline.us. His online opera ezine covers topics that may not be found in the mainstream journals, and approaches those subjects perhaps a little differently. OperaOnline.us strives to give its readers a sense of what it was and is like to be a member of an opera audience.
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