Saturday, July 23, 2016
Shaping the Indie Opera Scene
NEA: There is modern dance and modern art, indie rock and experimental theater. Within the opera world however, tradition has maintained a firmer grip, and most of us still expect the grand themes, grand scale, and grand voices of the art form’s original 16th-century roots.
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3 comments:
I am a big fan of people stretching the boundaries of theatre, and to see this kind of experimentation in a field such as opera is amazing. Opera is seen by many as being an art form that is seen as very traditional in nature, but can house many new and interesting forms of music and storytelling that may not be explored in other art forms. Through the magic of the Internet, a couple of years ago I found an indie artist writing operas for all kinds of new and interesting subject material, with both his music and storyline creating a whole new world for me and other listeners who had never been exposed to anything outside of what is typically seen as true opera. I am still a fan of Paul Shapera, who goes by the name mochalab on bandcamp, and have kept up with all of his New Albion Operas (with subject matter from steampunk, dieselpunk, and atompunk styles to create a cohesive and wonderful 4 part series) to his latest work about Slenderman, and to see others doing the same kind of work makes me excited to see more and more. I live in New York and will definitely be checking this company out!
Personally I really love traditional, classic operas, and for years I've maintained the routine of watching three operas a year with my parents. That's such an enjoyment for me. The set, costume and sound design of operas are amazing, so grand is scale and delicate in details, that historians can dig into them as much as theatre people; and I really agree the definition in this article that opera is traditionally thought as a historical art form. However, innovations certainly exist in opera production, just not really in musical aspect. For example, the 2014 MET Opera House's production of La Traviata by CORINNE RAMEY moves an empty swimming pool on stage in which Violetta is confined, representing her bewilderment in worldly prejudice. This is an very interesting new approach to the traditional, lavish stage from 16th century, and quite a refreshing scene to watch. But meanwhile, the article does point out that although artists are trying to introduce another sphere into operas, there's little change to its music--the core of this art. Experiments in Opera interests me a lot in this degree. I've heard about some cafes in New York near Brooklyn Music School that have light opera performance, and I've never really seen one. I think is very brave for those people to challenge such an ancient, and prestige art form, and try to offer new blood into it, and introduce its beauty to more people. I would definitely love to see a production of theirs if I have the chance.
I think that opera, like any other type of performing art (film and television, theatre, etc.) is especially interesting and intriguing when the makers of whatever that performing art piece try to push the boundaries by thinking outside of the box of what is deemed "true" or "traditional". Modernizing something like opera, an art form that everyone sees in their head as something stuffy, rich, old people spend their money on and wear tiny little glasses to, takes a lot of work. It can be extremely hard to change people's perception of an art form that is so sort of stuck in history because of how long it has been a form of art. The problem with changing or modernizing opera though, is that there is no way to change the actual opera music without changing the true and/or original meaning that the writer and singers meant for the audience to take in. I think though, that Aaron Seigel brought up a really good point when asked how he would reset the popular definition for opera. He questions how people would look at opera if it was only an art form from the 21st century and had no historical background. This is such a fascinating way of looking at any type of art because it lets an audience look at a piece with a blank slate, not having any preconceived notions about the art form itself. This is one way that I think everyone should look at art, especially art like theatre, film, television, and opera because it allows an audience member to have a more individualized experience of the piece.
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