OnStage: As a new writer for Onstage, the first thing you should know about me is that I am a huge Kelli O’Hara fan. I don’t know how it happened or where it came from, but I’m certainly not complaining since she’s definitely ranked highly among the sopranos of my generation’s Broadway. Recently, I had the opportunity to see Ms. O’Hara in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow, where renowned opera greats, Renée Fleming, and Nathan Gunn accompanied her.
2 comments:
Opera and Musical Theatre are very different industries similar to theatre and film. That being said there are some crossover actors which make sense but it's a rare occurrence over all because they are separate. I think it is great though, that she is making the switch.
Class 54-102::A
This was lovely to read. I have mixed feelings about opera because I both respect it as a medium, but feel it has a certain amount of stagnancy in it's very nature. That is why i get so thrilled whenever I see opera stepping out of the normal routine. There are already so many barriers to a wider popularity of opera-- The languages, the strange pronunciations-- that save the presence of a truly incomparably transcendental performance, there can be a certain repetitive nature to the opera.
That said, I am very excited about Kelli O'Hara taking a turn on the opera stage. Musical theatre sound has entirely different tones, which especially when sung through the pipes of one of Broadway's biggest stars could make for a stunning performance and a welcome change of pace. Hopefully O'Hara's star power will also convince a fresh audience to the opera, and her stunning vocals along with those of the rest of the immensely talented cast will be able to convince them to stay.
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