90.5 WESA: Like other traditional art forms – classical music, theater, ballet – opera is always seeking ways to attract new and younger audiences. While some critics argue radical reinvention is required, Pittsburgh Opera thinks it might have found another way: harnessing 21st-century technology to broaden the appeal of a genre whose masterworks are rooted in the 19th or earlier.
3 comments:
OR, OR, you invest that money in, oh, I don’t know, doing LITERALLY anything other than the, as the article says “handful of composers – Mozart, Verdi, Puccini – and 15 or 20 masterworks” that “dominate seasons around the world” and invest in, Hagen, Heggi, Catan (before he passed), or any of the other STILL LIVING COMPOSERS that are writing about, you know, RELEVANT things and there’s no baked in sexism and racism in the text. This is a hill I will die on. Technology doesn’t fix the “orientalism” in Puccini and his fixation on “Exotic” Asian women. Technology doesn’t fix the black face of Verdi’s Othello that CONTINUES to happen in opera companies around the world because they “Can’t find” black men with the appropriate voice type (to which I say: have you tried not being a racist institution and actually welcome performers of color, or do you continue to reject them as not good enough and hold yourself for the high class and white “elite”) Technology doesn’t fix everyone being just really uncomfortable with Mozart’s sexism and the “Masonic” principle of the Strong Enlightened Male who has his Strong Lady friend who is as enlightened as a lady can get because you know, ha, ladies. Invest in new composers. Invest in better marketing teams. Stop fussing with technology that the users have even said in this article distracted more than enhanced.
This article had a striking contrast to many articles that negatively considered the use of smartphones in theatres. In order to protect the rich cultural heritage, economical support not only from the organizations, but from the audience is indispensable. It must remain as a part of culture not as an old convention, which people try to do away with. I believe the mobile audio app was a necessary invention, due to the fact that the opera’s audience is declining as people age out. Although I am used to sitting down and staring at the stage, I am also the one of the young people, who struggle to understand the foreign operas. However, consideration of to what extent change is allowed becomes tougher as the article debates. Perhaps, if the seating is divided to the audience who wish to enjoy traditional ‘sacred’ opera and the audience who wish to try out new devices, watching performances would be comfortable for everyone.
I was surprised that the Opera is providing an alternative audio source. While I understand the impulse and need to include technology, I think I would be off put by a competing audio source at the Opera. In my opinion, technology shouldn’t compete in the same medium with the art. For example, when you go to the museums and they have apps to give context, they exhibit is typically visual and the context is typically audio. I loved the shout out to Brett Crawford, whose class I took last semester, however I don’t know LiveNote is the solution. I would be curious to see if producing more contemporary operas, maybe opera’s in English, or having the LiveNote app would bring in a bigger or younger audience. I’m curious to see how audience members in Pittsburgh to respond to these technology and if its successful in getting more people interested in Opera.
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