Lost in the Excitement of PucciniPalooza

Saturday's La Bohème performance by the Metropolitan Opera was the most fun I've had at the opera in a long time. I've blogged about attending their performances broadcast Live in HD at my local movie theater before, here at the regular blog and here in this music blog. They are Saturday afternoon fantasylands, the best escapist entertainment ever, and I don't have to worry about train schedules, parking, or uncomfortable seats as I snack on popcorn or contraband snacks brought from home. Since I teach (music classes) on some Saturday mornings and run from that to the theater, I sometimes end up in what I refer to as the "opera slums," the first few rows in front of the giant screen where casual and curious end up because they are unaware that you must arrive at the theater an hour before curtain to get a good seat. I've noticed that these folks do a lot more chatting and candy-wrapper rustling during the performance than the hard-core audience in the upper rows. The La Bohème crowd was proving me wrong until that guy's ringtone went off obnoxiously, and he answered it!

Nevertheless, I was expecting to land in the front seats and I didn't much mind this time because friends of mine were attending the same performance in New York and I was going to entertain myself before the show trying to find them. The HD cameras sweep around the New York audience and usually focus on younger folks (as if to prove opera is cool!). My friends qualify for this label in this context (it is all relative) but it turned out they had an even younger person seated in front of them that the camera really liked. I found them once, twice, 3, 4, and 5 times, even from the back once I triangulated their seat location. So that was fun, but what I'm really interested in is what accommodations the New York Met performance has to make for the Live in HD transmission. My friends were warned that the lighting would be different, and I wondered if the intermissions were extra long for them because we in the movie theater are treated to interviews of key singers and backstage secrets.

Vittorio Grigolo and Kristine Opolais as Rodolfo and Mimi in La Bohème April 5, 2014

What I wasn't expecting was the drama that had played out Saturday morning in New York. Our Mimi, Anita Hartig, fell ill and the Met management had to scramble to come up with a replacement. You'll never guess who they asked: Kristine Opolais who had sung the title role in Madame Butterfly the evening before! Well, she did a bellissimo job in my humble opinion, and yes she was interviewed in the first intermission with her Rodolfo, Vittorio Grigolo. She was so wired after singing Puccini's other showstopper Madame Butterfly the evening before FOR THE FIRST TIME AT THE MET, that she didn't go to sleep until 5:30am. Then she got the call asking her to sing Mimi FOR THE FIRST TIME AT THE MET at 7:30am. Imagine that! And so a career and a legend are made. Funny story: in their interview, Grigolo and Opolais told host Joyce DiDonato that they had met earlier in the week and agreed it would be fun to perform together.

It's all really quite dramatic and exciting, but beyond that, the performance was terrific, too. The sets were gorgeous, and we got to see backstage where workers were employing all three "stage trains." Each scene, Rodolfo's garret, Cafe Momus, and the snow scene, were put together on huge floors that wheel out during intermissions. Usually operas don't use all three of these "stage trains," but this Franco Zeffirelli production is especially lavish.

Puccini is emerging as my favorite opera creator. (The above book sits on my shelf beckoning  to be read.) He led a dramatic life and wrote dramatic, heart-wrenching operas. I cannot even imagine how Ms. Opolais turned on the Madame Butterfly performance, died a violent and dramatic Butterfly death, snoozed for a couple of hours, transformed into Mimi, and died again as a tubercular Mimi! I wonder, are those fabulous Puccini melodies still swimming around in Ms. Opolais's head as they are in mine?

What DO we talk about when we talk about opera?

I didn’t always love opera. As a young college music student I dutifully studied Bizet’s Carmen and Berg’s Wozzeck. I attended opera performances with interest, but mainly because I felt I was supposed to: Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, Mussorgsky’s Boris Gudenov, and Puccini’s La Bohème. I nod knowingly when movie characters go to the opera, my all-time favorite being Nicolas Cage and Cher in “Moonstruck.”

Then something unexpected happened. As an older person attending the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD broadcasts at my local theater, I fell in love. My eyes were opened to a world full of beauty, charm, adventure, and melody. A renowned opera singer hosts each broadcast, interviewing singers as they step off the stage. They give the viewer fascinating behind-the-scenes peeks at scenery costumes, stage food preparation, and animal trainers. As a more mature person I bring my life’s baggage to a performance. I can relate to the characters’ pain, joy, and passion. It is sublime experience aurally, visually, and emotionally.

What do we talk about when we talk about opera? 

Here’s what:

·   Composer: Who wrote the music? Did he or she write other kinds of music, too?

·   Arias, Recitatives, and Interludes: Is there any famous music that you will recognize or that the opera is known for, like “Musetta’s Waltz” from La Bohème?

·    Story/Libretto: What is the story and where did it come from? Is it from mythology, the Bible, history, literature, or a modern story? What motivates the characters? Look online, in a bookstore, or in your library for a libretto or synopsis. Reading up on the story before attending the performance will enhance your enjoyment. Find Met summaries here: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/.

·    Librettist: Who wrote the words? Did they partner often with the composer? Did they get along? Mozart had two main librettists, Lorenzo da Ponte who he did not get along with, and Emanuel Schikeneder who was his friend and favorite collaborator.

·    First Performance: Where and under what circumstances was the opera first performed? Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo was performed for an Italian count at a private affair and not again until the twentieth century.

·    Contemporary Singers: Who is singing? I’ve never been a baseball fan, but I find myself wishing for baseball-style cards of opera singers telling me their specialties and previous roles.

·    Contemporary Productions: Sometimes musical theater and movie directors try their hand at opera and bring a new perspective. Sometimes more traditional directors have control. What is unique about any production?

·    Scenery and Costumes: Are they traditional, set in the time that the composer and librettist intended? Are they set in a different time period like the Met’s Rigoletto in Las Vegas? Are the costumes creative in some way like Julie Taymor’s irresistible puppet costumes for the Met’s production of The Magic Flute?

Grab a synopsis or a libretto and go experience an opera performance at an opera house, auditorium, or movie theater. Then, tell me what you think.