We Can Has Culture?

[oakenguy]

Last night Deb and I went to our first-ever opera. It was La Boheme, which I think is Italian for "Rent".

Yeah, that joke was killing them in Balcony, Row L, If You Lived in the Ceiling You'd Be Home By Now. I'd call them the cheap seats but oh, "cheap" in this case is a relative term. Let's just say that if you cared more about seeing if the tenor had male pattern baldness than his facial expressions, these were the seats for you.

Anyhow, the opera itself. I liked it. How can I not like it? After a lifetime in community "we need a play with four actors or less because that's all that can fit on our stage" theater, how can I not like a show that throws in 30 non-singing cast members, a marching band and a dog FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER?

I *did* find myself totally misled by my own silly expectations. Like, if an Act began with ten minutes of menacing-looking police making a big deal out of searching womens' baskets at a gate, I was foolish enough to wait to see how either the police, the women, or the contraband the cops were looking for figured into the plot. This was an utterly ridiculous leap of logic on my part, and I apologize to Puccini and the entire opera world for making it.

And again, if a character happens to mention in four different songs that her name isn't Mimi but everyone calls her Mimi and she doesn't know why? I should obviously just roll with it because a) I'm never going to get an explanation; and b) this is someone so clueless that she has to learn she has a serious medical condition by hiding behind a tree and eavesdropping while her lover discusses it with his best friend, so of *course* things like proper nouns would give her trouble.

As additional proof of how awesome this entire genre is, may I just mention that the program contained an ad for the upcoming production of Englebert Humperdink's 'Hansel & Gretel'? I am SO THERE.

Comments

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Wot! No spear and magic helmet?

[bluestocking.livejournal.com]

Oh god, that made me laugh. You get a cookie.

[coscaram.livejournal.com]

yeah...


but it's not that Engelbert Humperdinck.

[flopart.livejournal.com]

Omg can you, me, Deb, and someone I bring along do a double date to Hansel and Gretel? That'd be sweet. I've never been to a real opera, either, and I'd love, love, love to fix that.

[ngakmafaery.livejournal.com]

...yup, the bad and maybe good news about the EH is that it's the guy he was named after...so, maybe the original completely inspired his style too...

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

I’ve had people say things to me like “I wouldn’t enjoy it because I don’t know Italian and wouldn’t know what’s going on.”
I’ve always replied, “What’s that got to do with it?”
Thank you for confirming that.

[rigel.livejournal.com]

Spear and ma-gic HELLLLLLLLL-met!

[rigel.livejournal.com]

Your posts are made of giggle.

[stanharding.livejournal.com]

Hee hee hee.

Actually, Boheme is a great starter opera. It's funny, it's tuneful, it's short (despite four acts), and it's pathetic in the good sense of the word. I assume they had sub/surtitles.

Hansel & Gretel is actually surprisingly dull.

[bluestocking.livejournal.com]

One of the things I love about opera at the Met in New York is that the chair in front of you has running digital subtitles. It winds up not being distracting at all (or no more so than in a foreign film), and is completely ignorable if you want.

Some opera houses have a running subtitle sign above the stage.

There are also operas in English (though I find them to be funny in a non-intentional way, for some reason), if language is really a problem for someone.

Even in Italian, though, and even without subtitles, I've never had a problem knowing what's going on.

[sairisse.livejournal.com]

The funny thing about that is, I've seen opera in English, and I still couldn't understand what they were singing without the help of the subtitles. You don't really need to know the words to understand what's going on.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

The 50s puppet version is good. It has Anna Russell as the witch, and she manages to stick in a "Ho-yo-to-ho!" when she's riding on her broom.

ROFL

[parisbaby-2003.livejournal.com]

This post is officially made of win and Lucky Charms (TM).

[veroniquec.livejournal.com]

Bwwwwahahahaha! This is so HE-larious. Thank you so much for the reminder that contemporary music snobs seem to so handily develop amnesia about: Opera was the popular culture of its day. The 18th & 19th Century equivalents to movies, TV, and clubbing.

Back in the day, before the culture snoots took over, folks pretty much blabbed, got plastered and people-watched their way through opera performances.

Oh, and don't forget the claques. Those were the people hired by the agents of the various opera stars to basically disrupt performances of their rivals with jeers, stomping, food fights, whatever, and to enhance their own with cheering, prolonged standing ovations and the like.

And then, of course, there were the panderers, who formed a steady stream, between audience and the back stage. These were the folks who brokered deals between the wealthy male patrons in the crowd, and the opera divas and ballet dancers in the shows.

The idea was to drive the prices up for the after-performance "favors" of the stars. The lady in question would grant a private audience only to the highest gentleman bidders.

Back in those earlier eras, a stage career for most women was pretty much synonymous with prostitution, because theatre owners could get away with paying them little, to no salary, so they had to fend for themselves as best they could. There were some exceptions, such as women who had actual art patrons or came from wealthy families, but they were few.

And finally, the great Danish choreographer August Bourneville can be credited to turning the tide for this appalling lot for theatrical performers, especially the ballet dancers, by lobbying for change in how theatres were run, and insisting that performers be paid as the trained professionals that they truly were.

So, all in all, opera was a lot more fun for audiences back then, but not so good for the performers.

There always seems to be a price for progress, alas...