OPERA invitation to contribute your blog entry
NEEDED by TUESDAY 27th at the latest, so what we can have a discussion in class.
Please prepare a comment on our recent event, the performance of THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, in the form of a thoughtful (but of course, personal and expressive) statement.
I would like to focus on ONE among these three issues I single out below OR, possibly, to identify a new one.
1) Opera is high art, isn’t it, but, having seen this performance do you think it still has a future for younger generations. What got you involved, where did you have difficulties?
Note that, for the “cognoscenti” (i.e. those in the know), this particular opera is rated extremely high, and thus your critique might lose in relevance if you argue too closely about the piece. This question invites you to think about the genre of opera itself.
2) Where do you stand on the question I asked you to think about, i.e. is this an opera about LOVE or about EROS (lust or “libido” as Freud would have said).
Was I right to suggest that there links to be made between SPRING AWAKENING and THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO?
3) Having now seen a live and full performance, do you think I am right in claiming that opera is, like film, “a universal language” (picking up on what you may have heard at the movie theater, provided you don’t only go for Hollywood blockbusters)? Was I right that, in the end, it does not matter that we do not get every word in an opera? Was I right when I suggested that in this art form the message is not delivered only as a story-line or theater? What impressed you, what spoke to you in the opera, thinking of its combination of musical score, singing, drama, staging, lighting design etc.?
4) INVENT your own question…
I look forward to reading your comments
November 18th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
I enjoyed the opera La Nozze de Figaro much more than I expected to. I thought the costumes were elegant and beautiful, the singers’ voices very loud, clear and impressive, and the sets powerful yet not overwhelming. I enjoyed the story, and the audience seemed to be as into the story as I was. I liked the fact that everyone laughed, cheered and gasped together, as corny as that sounds; it’s something that happens rarely on Broadway and even less frequently in movies.
I thought it was interesting to notice how, because most of the audience doesn’t understand what is being said, the singers have to act out their parts even more; if I couldn’t read what the characters were saying, to each other and aloud, I would have been quite confused. I think that had I seen an opera before this addition to the Met I would not have enjoyed it, and it wouldn’t have even been able to keep my attention. There were parts in the first act when I had to struggle to stay awake as it was. Between the synopsis (conveniently broken down by act) in the Playbill, “subtitles,” the singers acting and emoting while they sang, and my knowledge of Spanish, I was able to make out enough of the story to keep me interested.
Overall, I’m glad I had the opportunity to see such a famous opera with our class, because it’s probably not something I would have decided to go see on my own, and I would have missed out on a great experience.
~Stephanie
November 28th, 2007 at 6:17 am
I was blown away by THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO before even a note was sung. Never, in any performance of any kind I have attended, have I ever seen such a realistic and elaborate set design. What caught me the most about the set was how realistic the sunlight appeared and evolved from scene to scene. In the first act, the sun was full and vibrant and unapologetic, much like the beginning of the opera. Towards the end of the play, as the sun set, we as an audience felt/took advantage of the need/opportunity to reflect and contemplate and react to the masterpiece that had been presented before us.
Because the performers seemed so distant from us (role specifically), it might have been hard for us as students to come to terms with the fact that the performers are actual human beings like we. I know this was difficult for me at first just because of how talented they were: they could sing (and roll the r’s like the dickens), act, dance, and transmit emotion so clearly and (seemingly) effortlessly, even to us up in the nosebleed section. I was doing as much admiring and adulating as I was viewing and thinking throughout the course of the four-hour opera, which was not a second too long. How many opportunities am I going to get to see such an acclaimed opera like THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO for no charge?
As to whether the opera can survive the gadgetry and incessantly decreasing attention spans of future generation, I believe that question to be quite silly. The answer is of course yes. As painting survived even with the advent of cameras/photographs, opera has and will continue to survive in spite of the popularity of other forms of entertainment like film and theatre (realism). Why? How many film actors can sing like the performers in FIGARO? Probably not many. How many opera stars can act like those same movie stars? Almost all; it’s part of their job, remember?
Luke
December 6th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Now that I have seen a live and full performance, I understand how you can refer to opera as a “universal language”. Even though we had subtitles, sometimes it was more important to pay attention to the stage, in order to notice the changes in facial expression, music, scene, lighting, and performers. You don’t need to understand all of the dialogue because you can get an impression of what the words mean or what the plot is about from observing the aforementioned things that all make up “opera”.
I was really impressed by the Marriage of Figaro. I thought I would have been bored, and operas are usually thought to be boring and repetitive. Instead, the singing really impressed me, from the range of the singers to their ability project in such a huge theater. I was also impressed by the stage, because the sets were intricate and the lighting seemed so real. In different scenes, there was different lighting that sometimes appeared to be like just like sunlight and created realistic shadows. Overall, seeing the opera was quite an experience and I wouldn’t mind seeing another.