We don't have to compromise

So I figured it was about time that I posted a cool video on my blog. I waited until the last two, but hey, better late than never. It's Simone Kermes singing a Vivaldi piece. What I love about it is that it has an appropriate group of period instruments, they play in a stylistically appropriate way, but Simone is dressed in a mix of punk rock and formal style. She also plays up the punk rock actions but also appropriately with the music making a fun, lively performance. This makes for a perfect example of how a classically trained singer can reach out to new audiences without completely changing styles using modern instruments and poppy/belty style. This is awesome. In class, as we've been looking at how our society views opera and how it uses opera to market, I also think about how we can market opera to the masses. This can be done through the similar means of using the fantastic, the beautiful, the outrageous and blurring genres a little bit to invite curiosity. I don't think that a production like Repo will gain interest from the crowds to go to an opera. However, we can learn from the production what is getting people interested to come to such a production. Perhaps the biggest criteria we must examine is the relevancy to modern day. At artists, we must always remember that the operas we are putting on are people and are still relate-able to us today. Simone does a fabulous job of taking an aria that is very old and finding meaning in it that would be enjoyable to a vast variety of peoples. So, we don't have to compromise the music of opera, we just have to remember that we are in the 21st century and find some way to surprise and interest people today, just as the operas of the last three centuries thrilled their audiences.