Opera is good. I dunno why, but many people I talk to are highly annoyed with bel canto style, but I love it.
I'm really more eclectic in my tastes, to be honest. It bothers me that there seems to be only ONE way to do opera, and modern/post-modern opera comes off to me as being very pretentious, maybe even lampoonish, in the way it is sung. Composers and singers of opera need to relax.
That said, here are my faves and raves: Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber; Richard Wagner's "Ring" cycle, ALL of it (operas for REAL men); Turandot by Puccini; pretty much Puccini's and Rossini's entire catalog; John Adams's Nixon in China; and Philip Glass's portrait trilogy. I like Mozart's Magic Flute, although TECHNICALLY it's not an opera (nor is it supposed to be). I'm not a big Mozart fan, except for a few of the keyboard sonatas, string quartets, and some of the symphonies, but LOVE the B minor Requiem. His music is a bit too "fluffy" for my taste. Oh, and I almost forgot: Stravinsky's Rake's Progress. YEAH!
If you DON'T dig opera, those are the one's worth checking out. If you're prone to narcolepsy, skip Adams and Glass. The "Ring" cycle is great, but it's BEST if you stay drunk the whole time and keep the popcorn coming. Take plenty of bathroom breaks. You're gonna be there a while!! !
If you're trying to impress a girl and you wanna get laid, you GOTTA see La bohéme by Puccini, the most heart-wrenching of all the operas. Bring plenty of Kleenex. Be prepared, though, because it's gonna bring out your "sensitive" side. If you're a grown man and this one doesn't make you cry, YOU HAVE NO SOUL. Yeah, this one happens to be my favorite opera of all of 'em.
Peter Sellars... Hmmmmm.... That's a good question. I'm not sure if he's an aspie or just an attention-whore. The problem with opera and theater is a matter of context. PERSONALLY if I were to compose an opera, which I may do one day, I'd leave staging to the experts because that isn't my job. These guys know what they're doing, so I'd trust them. I read on the wikipedia article that Sellars REALLY upset Ligeti, who obviously had something specific in mind that Sellars failed to honor. As a theater director, you can't get away with stuff like that. If it's too much of a problem, just don't produce it. If I were doing a theater piece and was well-connected with Sellars, I'd say "heck yeah, you can direct it!" That kind of artistic philosophy goes beyond artistic integrity, though. There's a fine line between innovative vision and pure shock value. If your purpose is merely to shock the audience into submission or draw attention to yourself, then I don't think that the work itself is really very effective. You shouldn't be weird for the sake of being weird. Composers and librettists are servants of their audiences--the director ought to be the servant of the composers.
08 Jun 2010, 11:47 pm
