Lo Spettacolare: L’arte Totale
The opera performance reaffirmed all I had heard about Le Nozze di Figaro in class and what I read about opera performances in our assigned texts. For me, reading Music and the Theater, An Introduction to Opera (Pauly 19-27) was particularly helpful in appreciating the live opera experience. I recognized its many elements – operatic singing, acting, orchestra, chorus, staging – both individually and in concert, their coalescence into an art form that, in its inherent state, is a most precarious balance between the five yet demands a flawlessness bordering the impossible. I thought we witnessed an excellent “coalescence” at the Met that night, not because of our own unfamiliarity, but because of the aptitude of the cast and their mastery of opera’s many facets.
The opera experience may have been a bit more unique to me in that at home and at school I have become very familiar with Italian. My “Nonna” spoke an Italian dialect (which is, as you know, very different from the language in its true form) to my sister and me as children, and I took 3 ½ years of Italian in high school. I was able to pick up on some words and phrases during the performance, but unfortunately I have forgotten much of what I learned already. This signaled to me not only that I should re-familiarize myself with my lingual heritage, but it also reminded me of just how difficult speaking and understanding a foreign language is. If I, an Italian language speaker, had difficulty with the opera’s content, I can only imagine how difficult it must be for the Figaros and Susannas of the world to speak, sing, and appreciate Italian during a live performance. Our cast, I thought, did an excellent job of “bringing the art form closer to its ideal as a seamless blend of drama and music,” critical to any opera’s success, as columnist Charles Isherwood would say. I would like to add to that definition “a seamless… incorporation of the emotional texture of a foreign language.” I appreciated all of their efforts to deliver a spectacular performance.
– Gia