19thC Opera (at the Movies, in the Movies)
The Metropolitan Opera Company’s website
has to be one of the best websites for opera around. It has so much more than just the directions on how to order tickets online and
the current season.
In the top banner you can see those links, and it’s worth
it to check out the live HD link. Why? Because you can actually find out which
operas will be broadcasting live on Saturday afternoons at either the Westmount Mall movie theatres which has two different theatres reserved for the opera,
one of which is the VIP so you can order a champagne and pretend you’re in NYC. Or, you can go to Silver City movie theatres, though that one is open seating and you need
to compete with the white-haired crowd who show up at least an hour early to
get good seats. This is one of the savviest moves the Met has made since it
first started its live radio broadcasts. Opera is so much more interesting when
you can see it. It’s as much a visual experience as an aural one and the movie
theatre broadcasts are so amazing. Your $21 at the movie theatre gets you a
much better seat than the partial view nosebleeds at Lincoln Centre. It’s also a smart move on their part
because they’re building an audience for the future. When I go to the
opera, I’m still one of the only ones with brown hair, and mine has more than a
few threads of grey in it now. If something doesn't happen soon, opera will be come culturally obsolete. Opera at the movies makes it far more accessible to teenagers and younger adults who have grown up in a visual culture. It helps erase the stereotype that opera is only for elitist snobs too.
Besides CBC's "Saturday Afternoon at the Met," like most kids growing up in London, ON, I had little exposure to opera. Or, so it seemed. It wasn’t until music school when I had to
listen to opera for music history listening quizzes (and ours were drop the
needle) that I discovered how much opera I already knew and that some of the
tunes were ones I genuinely loved. So where does someone who turned off the
radio on Saturday afternoon hear this music? As I became more familiar with the major operas that we studied in music history, I started to pick it out in commercials, t.v. and movie soundtracks,
figure-skating programmes, and orchestral suites or arrangements. Now there's actually a growing field in musicology that studies opera on/in film. Marcia Citron has done
a lot to further the respectability of this kind of research—see her books Opera on Screen (2000) and When Opera Meets Film (2010). I even came across a blog entry recently that lists the Top Ten Best Uses of Opera in the Movies . Personally, I love the Bugs Bunny opera cartoons.
"What's Opera Doc?"
And "The Rabbit of Seville"
One movie that didn't make it onto the Top Ten Uses of Opera in the Movies was the 1993 movie Philadelphia with Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington. In one of the last scenes, the Tom Hanks character, a lawyer dying from aids, explains the meaning of his favourite aria to the Denzel Washington character, a lawyer helping Tom Hanks's character sue his firm for wrongful dismissal.
I think that this scene from Philadelphia
captures the aesthetic of opera and shows a good way to listen to it, even if
it doesn’t reflect how people actually listened to it in the nineteenth
century. I love how Hanks's character tries to get Washington's to experience the music in the way that he does, but until the end of the scene when you see Washington at home with his kids, there's no real indication that he "gets it." There's a lot more going on in that scene too, of course. It ties into the concept of the opera Queen and there's been a lot of work on that end of opera reception too. The intertextuality really works in this scene. Tom Hanks looses everything because of his difference, as does the character singing the aria he loves so much.
The music in nineteenth century opera, especially late nineteenth century opera, underpins the drama in such away that it reveals how the
characters are feeling and can evoke that feeling in the audience. That’s where experiencing opera
live, or at least watching a whole opera from beginning to the end, makes all
the difference. As an audience member you experience the story with the characters
and are gradually prepared for the music to have its meaning. The more operas you see live, the more your appreciation for the genre will grow and your understanding of it will deepen.
I agree. There is nothing like a live performance. Especially since we have been learning that many of these 19/20th century pieces require large orchestras etc. While watching it in on TV or listening to a recording gives you a sense of what the music is like, the full power of the music would not be felt in the way that the composer intended it. I agree that live is best.
ReplyDeleteAmanda Kelly
When opera music is used in cartoons or commercials it gives the viewer a visual that they can associate to the music, which makes it easy to remember. For example, Bugs Bunny massaging Elmer Fudd’s head to the Barber of Seville is etched in my memory forever (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j97EJQ1z7nY). I also remember Sesame Street using opera music multiple ways in a fun, entertaining and educational way. Where people may not have the opportunity to listen to opera in a concert hall, they may get exposure though other venues such as these.
ReplyDeleteSarah Robertson
By incorporating opera and other genres of music in cartoons and movies, the audience will get a sense of hearing music of an older culture and be exposed to this style that most people are not accustomed to. When I was very young one of the ways that I got introduced to opera, or classical music was through watching Tom and Jerry, The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show, and Arthur. Although they incorporate these well-known pieces in different contexts, children and/ or the audience are being exposed to these sounds without having to switch to a radio channel exclusively for classical music, or buy a CD, etc. All of these images and sounds stayed with me until now, and inspired me to learn an instrument, join high school music bands, go to the classical radio channel to try to hear these pieces again, but in the long run I gained even more exposure to classical music.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that although most people that I speak with outside of music tell me that they rarely hear or are acquainted with classical music, have actually been well exposed to classical music in commercials and in movies as well. Whenever I am watching television and there is a commercial break the Rogers Cellphone commercial comes on and immediately I anticipate the Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75S5HaW5-Bs), or the Lexus car commercial where a family is driving through a downtown city while Clair De Lune by Claude Debussy is playing in the background (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=536L-IdpXg0). All of these commercials are constantly giving attention to classical music while advertising their products.
Another movie that had opened my eyes to classical music was Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator". The famous scene where he is in his barber shop and a customer comes in to have his beard cleanly shaved and Chaplin tends to his client while listening to the Hungarian Dance No. 5 by Johannes Brahms. For everyone watching this scene, not only will they enjoy Chaplin dancing and shaving at the same time, but also enjoy this beautiful music composed by Brahms. Luckily, the audience will not have to ponder long as to who the artist is or what the name of the piece is, since both composer and piece are it clearly stated in the scene as Chaplin is listening to the radio. Here is the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=monaXOpmH1U .
As Sarah had mentioned above of people not always gavin the access to listen to opera music live in a concert hall, we certainly can get access to both Opera and classical music through movies, cartoons, shows, commercials, and the best of all internet. With a click of a button we can easily get access to hundreds of interpretations, video recordings of concerts while not leaving our house. Of course there is another thrill and joy of watching Opera live, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 live, and even Shostakovich's The Rite of Spring live, often times we are able to get a little teaser clips through youtube that will influence and inspire us later to watch these productions in a live concert hall, or in Silver City.
Niloufar Barazesh