Classical music is dying. (Or may already be dead; just depends on who you talk to.) And so is opera. At least that’s what some people would have you believe. Brendan Cooke, the General Director of the Baltimore Concert Opera, an organization that rose from the ashes of the Baltimore Opera Company, believes it’s dying and will be giving a presentation on that subject at the next Ignite Baltitmore. There was, however, an interesting comment on Brendan’s Ignite proposal from a user named “Figaro”:
Just because the Baltimore Opera went under doesn’t mean the artform is dying. Surely you saw all the press—both good and bad—about Luc Bondy’s staging of Tosca at the Met? To me, this demonstrates how much life there is in opera at the present time. Good work starting the BCO but I think the premise of your proposal—that opera is dying—is completely false. No other form of fine arts has generated the amount of discussion and buzz as opera right now; and people aren’t talking about it because they think it’s dying.
I would tend to agree with that statement. Wait a second. Who am I kidding? I wouldn’t tend to agree with that statement, I do agree with that statement. I also agree with the tenet that any press is good press. Q: What’s the best way to get a child to do something? A: Tell them they can’t. So the same-old, same-old productions aren’t going to generate a buzz like a cracked-out new production that takes some risks and exercises perhaps more than its fair share of artistic license. I don’t claim to know the ins and outs of what’s up in the opera world, but it seems to me that far from sounding opera’s death knell, risky productions are doing far more for the art form’s visibility than would be possible with a business-as-usual model. The only harm being done seems to be in the minds of purists, who want to preserve tradition even if that leads to opera’s demise. I mean, it’s not pissing the composers off. They’re dead, after all.
Enter the news last week that new-indie-alt-post-un-pop classical darling Nico Muhly, along with playwright Craig Lucas, was awarded the first joint Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater commission. As news of this landmark commission rippled throughout the blogosphere—sorry, I’m making this dramatic cuz it’s about opera—it touched off a veritable shitstorm in the comments section of a post at operablogsite Parterre Box. Here’s a particularly intelligent, thoughtful, and articulate one:
Terrible, indeed. The comment, that is. Who writes shit like that?! Oh wait, anonymous people! But anyway, unlike Luc Bondy’s Tosca, some people bitchy anonymous commenters think this thing is scandalous already! (Again with the kid metaphor. Parent: “You’re not going to listen to that devil worship music! I won’t allow it!” And guess what’s on that kid’s iPod?) As you might expect, other commenters ganged up on schweigundtanze, which prompted him/her to clarify his/her position:
Uhhhhhh . . .
For the record, I happen to be a big fan of Nico’s music. He’s one of a handful of young composers who’s actually doing what everyone has been talking about. Maybe I’ll even go out on an limb and call him the effing new music Jesus. I mean, you see the way he’s being crucified by some people, right? Maybe nowadays, when media is king, it’s good to have scandals around the operas themselves and not just in them?
[mouth image from the cover of Nico Muhly's Mothertongue album]
