Time is ageless. How? Well, think about it. Age is just a factor that helps us keep track of a living being’s lifespan. It doesn’t necessarily hold time’s powers. Time only moves forward; it is an entity in and of itself. Because time is it’s own entity, it doesn’t hold power over opera nor does it hold a drape of doddery over it. So all operas are open to interpretation and change. Opera cannot only be for the rich and older generations. Age is not a boundary for this generation only money and the impression of the opera keeps the younger generation away. But this is changing. The opera is starting to open up for the younger audience. It’s slowly donning a new wardrobe that will appeal to younger audiences. Opera has to adapt and, through peoples’ innovations, it can. One such opera is Les Contes D’Hoffmann.

Les Contes D’Hoffmann transports us into a different time period, but it still strikes us. The aura, air, and ambience of the stage and its actors envelope the audience. The stage is dim, but the actors and actresses bring out their voices. The singing is melodic, rhythmic, and memorable. The clothing accentuates the characters’ personalities. The background is simple, yet regal and superb. Nothing is taken for granted. Everything works together. It cannot be easily forgotten nor will the audience be dulled by this production.

The beginning is a slow spark that lights the gunpowder of the keg. The stage is empty, yet it is filled with people. Suddenly, a person talks, or rather, sings. At one point a doll-like figure (I believe to be Olympia) falls when the muse says something like, “I will break away your chains,” and this subtle fall alerted me to the entire stage. Our eyes cannot rest. They have to continuously be moving to capture the entire set. If they do rest, we risk missing a part of a whole. Also, if our eyes rest, they may rest too much and fall into a deep slumber. But, alas! there is no fear for our eyes and mind to delve into slumber because the next scene is in a harem (I believe) and, personally, I was surprised. I don’t think anyone would be sleeping or distracted by anything else if they saw the scene. All this changing and bright-colored costumes keeps the audience wanting more. We are drinking in the opera: the sounds, colors, and eye-catching wardrobe.

The second act is the simplest set of the opera with its tree backdrop, chair, and piano. All the silhouettes cast an ominous hue on the stage and crowd. The trees amplify it with their sharp, outstretching branches. There is no color. There is sound; there is movement. The constant motion of the actors and actresses makes up for the simplistic setting. Nothing is overpowered by one aspect. This act moves swiftly and death befalls Hoffmann’s beloved. Time did not stop. It continues to move on. Dr. Miracle and Antonia’s mother exit – their silhouettes growing larger as they do so. It is grim. The spark has trickled down, but will be revived.

The last act is gaudy and lecherous because of the outfits and performance. The spark is rekindled and stage filled with props and more people. This act has less movement yet there is a quarrel between Giuletta’s lovers: Hoffmann and Schlémil, but it is sudden and swift. The entire stage was consumed with people. There was even a gondola. The props were strewn all over, but they had a place that brought everything together. Even that partial stone wall didn’t seem out of the ordinary. The people brought the set together. It was dark yet it was lively. The act finished suddenly and it moved onto the epilogue.

In the prologue, Hoffmann sang about Kleinzach and again it ends with Kleinzach. This lively song makes everything seems young again. It made me feel like a young child listening to nursery rhymes. But this simple, fun song completes the spark that doesn’t go out with a bang. It slowly fizzles out into the dark keg never reaching its destination. Instead, Hoffmann will have his muse and find a different way to get there.

Time didn’t affect this piece. Current impressions of the opera will. The mindset of the current generation has to change. Opera is not only for the regal, rich, and silver – it has become an event for everyone. People of all ages take advantage of the summer HD festival because they want to watch an opera and it’s free. That’s another factor that needs to change: the price. It can be difficult to afford a good seat. Some things may have to change in order to bring in a new audience. It’s not that they don’t want to watch, it’s that they can’t watch. Because an opera is long, doesn’t mean that people will sit to watch it. People sit for hours watching reruns or marathons on TV. It’s, I believe, the mindset of today’s current generation. I feel that the majority is closed-minded so much that they cannot even see themselves doing things that happened only a century ago. Maybe it’s that or maybe it’s a different reason. Time changes everything, but it cannot choose what it changes.

Play while you read if you’d like 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWC8v-evDyQ&feature=related

No?…Well that’s ok because we’ve got subtitles…

Say whaaa???

You heard me! You can now go to an Opera and ACTUALLY understand it! YAY for technology.

I am so happy I got a chance to see an Opera for the first time. Although I found myself dozing off a couple of times in the first act I have to say I really enjoyed it and had a blast. I’m blaming my sleepiness on the fact that I stayed up late doing HW the night before. I think this production was really adorable. I loved the storyline. It was so interesting how they created 3 different girls for one girl: Stella. The opera was just like I imagined it and more. It was so grande and magnificent. It was almost like being in a sophisticated circus.

The scenery and props were just simply gorgeous. Even the way the curtain went up was so elegant. Everything was so breathtakingly beautiful that I found myself wishing I was sitting in the front row just so I could be closer to it. I also noticed that they had all 3 girls wearing different shades of pink, sort of connecting them together to show that they were actually one person.

One thing that I think could have made it more enjoyable for a younger audience was the music. Don’t get me wrong I loved the music, but if all the songs were like Kleinzach and Barcarolle I would have loved it even more. Kleinzach was funny and upbeat whereas Barcarolle was very romantic and sweet. For me the other songs didn’t really grab my attention.

This work can easily speak to our generation because I think that everyone has gone through a time in their lives where they’ve fallen in and out of love with that one special person. Les Contes D’Hoffmann teaches it’s audience that although it is hard, life does go on and it is possible for you to move on from that person. I think that if you look at the story in a different light you could also say that it teaches us how we ourselves love one person after another recklessly like Hoffmann who went from Olympia to Antonia to Giulietta. Now, is that a bad thing? Who knows….I mean we only live once right so why not have fun and enjoy ourselves?

I always thought the opera was for the rich and for the old but when I heard we were going I got really excited because I know that in my life I’d probably never go to see an opera by my own will. Now that I’ve been exposed to it though I want to go again and like Vanessa stated, next time we are going all out. We are going in gowns and we are buying golden binoculars and we are going to be fancy shmancy. :p

interesting tidbit…isn’t it cool that this song was used in La Vita E` Bella?…it’s one of my favorite movies 🙂

When I heard that we were going to be going to an opera for this class I immediately pictured a large person standing still on a stage with the spotlight on them singing. I thought it would basically be exactly like this Tom and Jerry episode I had seen ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD9sFPvyw3I&feature=related )…. but it wasn’t. There was so much more to it than just a single person standing there singing ridiculous notes that I would never be able to sing.

As the opera was about to begin all I could think about was how ridiculously tired I was from not getting enough sleep before and having an 8 o’clock class that morning. When the music first started playing and the opera began i wasn’t sure what to expect and I thought that just maybe if it was dark enough in the theater I could get away with closing my eyes just for a little and take a quick nap. However as tired as I was I just couldn’t do this. There was just so much going on at once that all my attention was focused on the stage. From the costumes to the scenery to the music, I was truly mesmerized. What I thought was going to be extremely boring was actually full of excitement and energy.

There were so many things that I enjoyed about this opera. The scenery I felt was so exciting and there was always something for me to have my eyes on. This was especially seen with the scene where they were at Olympia’s house and there was a sun with an eye on it just going back and forth in the air, and a dragon staircase that was constantly twirling during the entire scene. I’m still not entirely sure what the purpose of these things were, but they did a great job of catching my attention! My favorite part of the opera however had to have been the music. The beautiful thing about music is that it’s a universal language. Even though most of the members of the audience that night were probably not fluent in French, just from listening to the passion within the music you could somewhat figure out what exactly was going on. The music definitely wasn’t what i was expecting. I thought it was going to be unappealing to our generation. However a lot of the music was actually really fun and exciting and I found myself later on singing certain parts, for example “Frick Frack”. This exciting energy made everything so much more appealing.

When I told all of my friends that I saw an opera for one of my classes they all said “I’m so sorry, how bad was it”. They were all really surprised when i told them that it actually was really good and heck, I loved it! They all thought how could you possibly love opera? When i tried explaining to them how mesmerizing the experience was they kind of understood, but still weren’t convinced that it could have been that amazing. I guess it’s just one of those things that you have to experience to fully know.

So does the Opera appeal to people of our age? I would most definitely say it does! I never in a million years thought that I would ever sit through an opera, let alone actually enjoy it, but it happened! This opera did a great job of appealing to the youth through all the energy that was filling the audience that night. I have a feeling that if my friends that thought I was from a different planet for actually loving an opera were in that audience that night then they too would have the same reaction. I can definitely see myself going to an opera again in the near future and definitely dragging along some of my friends as well. Hopefully they’ll end up feeling the same way I felt.