Relevancy

For my last blog entry for the semester, I would like to talk about the key things that I learned from this class. Obviously this class was taught more in the form of an honors seminar, where the students get to discuss ideas about American Opera. This can become frustrating. A more straight forward class, where we would be given direct information and then be expected to regurgitate, would require us to actually think less. In this format, we are encouraged to go learn on our own, discover things that might not be covered in a typical literature or history class. This class was exciting, because we covered topics that could really stir up the blood, both pushing our political, musical, and conceptual ideas to the max. Again, this is very similar purpose to the honors classes that I took at my undergraduate college. We have not been necessarily been shown the great works of American Opera, but rather examples of what American Opera can be. We have examined what makes an opera successful, or unsuccessful, how they can influence political thought, and we have examined how our own culture views opera and how companies market their products by using this genre. It has been eye opening and inspiring. This class would honestly be the most useful for those who produce, market, and stage opera. Just by looking outside of the box, which is never comfortable, we can glean new ideas to continue the dissemination of our wonderful art form. Let's face it, the conservative opera lovers are going to be dead soon. Then what? Opera has always until recently been derived from the resources of the day and influenced by the trends in political thought, literature, and popular music. Let's continue to make our art form relevant. I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't get angry. Listen, think, and learn. For my last blog entry for the semester, I would like to talk about the key things that I learned from this class. Obviously this class was taught more in the form of an honors seminar, where the students get to discuss ideas about American Opera. This can become frustrating. A more straight forward class, where we would be given direct information and then be expected to regurgitate, would require us to actually think less. In this format, we are encouraged to go learn on our own, discover things that might not be covered in a typical literature or history class. This class was exciting, because we covered topics that could really stir up the blood, both pushing our political, musical, and conceptual ideas to the max. Again, this is very similar purpose to the honors classes that I took at my undergraduate college. We have not been necessarily been shown the great works of American Opera, but rather examples of what American Opera can be. We have examined what makes an opera successful, or unsuccessful, how they can influence political thought, and we have examined how our own culture views opera and how companies market their products by using this genre. It has been eye opening and inspiring. This class would honestly be the most useful for those who produce, market, and stage opera. Just by looking outside of the box, which is never comfortable, we can glean new ideas to continue the dissemination of our wonderful art form. Let's face it, the conservative opera lovers are going to be dead soon. Then what? Opera has always until recently been derived from the resources of the day and influenced by the trends in political thought, literature, and popular music. Let's continue to make our art form relevant. I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't get angry. Listen, think, and learn.

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.

Vivaldi: Agitata da due venti (Griselda)

Why even bother?

First of all, I must say, that I have only seen a few videos about American Idiot, which have included a preview and a discussion with the director. It is therefore really difficult to make my own final pronouncement about whether or not it's great or art and whether I think it will last or only be a footnote in weird stuff people tried at one point. I will say that it sounds like a freaking awesome way to present the music of Green Day. As I listen to the videos, my blood get stirred up, but it's also the in the same way I get excited when I see Met previews for their productions. I think there is a similarity here, in that American Idiot has a grandiosity to it that is similar to opera. American Idiot seems to be the kind of work that is cool on its own, however, and getting hyped up about whether or not it should be called an opera is unimportant at this point. Only time will tell. What I do have a problem with, are those people who think that this is a good way to introduce people to the more conservative and/or older types of opera. I don't think that will work. Most people who have never been to an opera will still continue to be stuck in their precepts of thinking because American Idiot is so different. They themselves will think, “oh this isn't really opera.” Not us, the ones arguing about whether it is an opera or not. In my experience, most people just need to be shown a good production of an opera, with surtitles, and they're hooked. We don't need help from rock stars. There's a cliché saying about how we like what we know; well, how can we learn to like something we don't? Someone must teach us.

New endeavors

It was really great to have Kaya come and talk to our class about her compositions. There were several things that she said that really stood out to me. The first was that she composes for what's available or needed. I really think this is where ingenuity comes in. I talked before about how Barber had unlimited resources granted to him when composing Anthony and Cleopatra, and this is one of the reasons it was such a big flop. When you have limitations such as staging and even what type of performers are available, you have to be creative about how to overcome those issues. We see examples of this all throughout Western music history. Entire new genres of music were created based on one person's or even a group's particular need. This is why we must be open minded to composers like Kaya, who are willing to step out of the bounds simply to be able to make a living at composing. It is a worthwhile endeavor and extremely important to our culture if we are to continue the creative process without depending solely on the cinema for our entertainment (something I fear is the future for our civilization). The other concept I really enjoyed was her mixing of genres. As we live in a society today that is becoming more global, and more resources than ever are becoming available to us, we must try to make some sense to the sensory overload that is ever present. While I will always be a fan of older operatic styles and feel it is very much worthwhile to see these productions and educate others so that they might also enjoy, I feel like it is still important to always be creating. Finding new ways to say things that is also accessible to others is a worthwhile endeavor.

More ideas

I've been thinking more about what I would like to do for my opera presentation. I mentioned earlier that I would really like to emphasize the educational aspect of the opera, with all of its possibilities. One of Alice Parker's activities is that she travels around to different churches and takes their hymnals and teaches them new hymns that they probably have never heard before. She does this with a call and response format. She emphasizes the aural communication of music over teaching how to read notes. So I was thinking maybe I could do a similar thing where I teach a class one of the choral sections in a similar manner and then do an interactive reading with some other students. It would be a great way to get everyone involved! The only problem is that I only have fifteen minutes so I might not have enough time. There is a section near the beginning that includes a Gregorian chant; perhaps I could teach this quickly and talk about other aspects of the opera as well. There's just such a variety of styles and ideas in the opera that it's difficult to just pick one aspect for fear of misrepresenting the entire opera. Perhaps I could do both the Gregorian chant teaching and sing one of the arias. This would give a better idea of the variety. It would show how Parker incorporates quotations of music as well as compose her own melodies and such.
I've also been thinking of one other idea. The opera incorporates a harmonium in the score. I didn't realize what a harmonium was until I looked it up online. My parents actually have one in their living room! We just always referred to it as a pipe organ. It might be interesting to get a recording of my mom playing it so I could have the class listen to it and give a better idea of how the scores sounds “American.” I think that might be worth while.

Opera Education

For my opera project I decided to look at Alice Parker's opera Martyr's Mirror. It's really interesting because it's written mainly for amateurs in a church setting. But it's extremely adaptable, so it could really work practically anywhere except for a large opera house. I've been scraping my mind as to what to do for my presentation. I haven't quite put my finger on what I would like to do. Of course, there's an aria or two that might be fun and it would be interesting to show Parker's composition style outside of arrangement. However, they are short and do not fully give an idea of what the opera is like or how it incorporates popular tunes from the time period in which it is set. What I would really like to focus on is the education aspect of the opera. I have been very interested, for a while now, in education in opera for people who wouldn't typically go to see opera (which is very nearly everyone, let's be honest). Interesting, is that Alice Parker is also interested in music education and certainly uses the amateur opera to educate, not only about opera, but also about various forms of music. This is not to mention the benefit of a community coming together to work towards the production. I think her opera is a perfect way to get new people in the doors who wouldn't ever step foot into an opera house otherwise. It gives them something they can connect to which would hopefully lead them to making connections to more types of music in their future. So, all this is to say, I would like to present something about the educational aspect of this opera, but I am not quite sure about how to go about that. More about this later.