An article in the Contra Costa (San Francisco area) Times caught my eye today. Sue Gilmore, the reviewer, gives a brief synopsis of some of the concerts around the City by the Bay that she has seen recently and a note about another event upcoming:
But, alas, when she gets to the SFO's Lucia production, she says that she will eschew the premiere at War Memorial Opera House on Tuesday night for a live simulcast of Friday night's performance broadcast on the 103-foot-wide "jumbotron" scoreboard at AT&T Park (stadium), home of SF Giants baseball.
What makes her flip-flop on the opera performance? She says, alliteratively, that it's the "dynamite, digitally delivered sound" which is every bit as good as that of the opera house and the fact that her viewing pleasure has been decided in advanced by a producer and videographer. The camera, she argues, can zoom in on a suitably perturbed character at their moment of truth and that the action on stage can be followed much more clearly by the multiple views cameras bring. As defense against "purists," she cites the recent success of the hi-def Met performances that have been delivered to digital theaters around the country which purportedly have amassed an audience of some 920,000.
But there's something else here that she hasn't mentioned, I think, that is the ultimate reason for her preference when it comes to operas. When describing Tuesday's premiere, she says that "when the bejewelled and well-heeled troop into War Memorial Opera House..." she will not be there. That description, to me, conjures up images of Margaret Dumont in the old classic Marx Brothers' comedies: stuffy, snobbish, removed from reality, every bit the socialite who carries on polite superficial prattle with other socialites whom she, secretly, cannot stand. Gilmore contrasts that image with the AT&T Park performances, where she says she's "happy to be rubbing elbows with folks in non-designer non-finery who are drawn by curiosity or determined love of opera itself. She also makes a point of mentioning that the simulcasts are free and open to the public, saying she's "thoroughly heartened by the decidedly democratic atmosphere of the free outdoor events..."
So, no pretentiousness, eh? I'll bet! To her, I'm guessing "non-designer non-finery" means Gap jeans and Aeropostale top. I'm sure she'd hardly associate with someone wearing generic J.C. Penney jeans and a well-weathered Giant's sweatshirt, especially when she mentions watching the SFO's big-screen simulcast production of Rigoletto downtown last fall while "sipping brandy-laced coffee... as the moon rose above the copper dome of City Hall." What, Ms. Gilmore? No Coors Light? And she fails to mention the party of five behind her that was almost surely there, talking and laughing so loudly as to nearly drown out her precious digital sound. Hey, girl! There's a reason it takes 100,000 watts of amplifiers and speakers--not to mention a plethora of digital equalizers, delays, companders, feedback squelchers, and a gigantic 64-channel control board--to deliver sound at a level to be heard over thousands of impolite boors! Not to say that something like that wouldn't happen in the theater, but at least the behavior of the vast majority of the audience would cause them to be, hopefully, slightly more circumspect.
So, what can we learn from this review?
First of all, the picture of aged biddies in furs and ill-fitting sequin dresses stepping out of their limos--or, for the poorer ones, Beamers--to go to the opera needs to be done away with... and with good reason. The idea that it takes a refined demeanor (memorize Amy Vanderbilt) and an aloof sensibility to appreciate opera is just shear poppycock. Wasn't Pavarotti produced from a family of humble bakers? Didn't Jessye Norman get her start singing gospel music at little Mount Calvary Baptist in Augusta? Yeah, highfalutin upbringings, they had. And isn't it odd that an opera chorus is almost always made up of a comprehensive range of people? Everything from poor students--not necessarily music majors--to heavy equipment salesmen and engineers to doctors and professors? Ridiculous! Opera is music; music is a key to the soul; all human beings have souls.
I, myself, though born from a musical background on one side of the family, was hardly groomed to be an opera lover. Oh, I remember on Saturday nights, dad would fire up his hi-fi (yes, long before stereo) and play an instrumental selection from Gotterdämerrung (I seriously doubt he even knew that it was an opera), but then would put on one of his favorite groups, Johnny Puleo and his Harmonica Gang, followed, at my brother's and my insistence, that he play one of our favorite fairy tale albums or something from Disney. Nobody laid any big guilt trip on me to go into music. As a matter of fact, my mom (whose side of the family was the musical one), if anything, discouraged it, having seen her brother go through tough times as a trumpet player. And yet, here I am.
Second, while I appreciate Ms. Gilmore's appreciation of opera as it is, I think she needs to come down off her high horse. The only reason that the SFO has such a snooty audience is because there are few of her generation (as she admits "child of the video generation") and younger that buy tickets and go to the opera. True, tickets are sometimes seem expensive, but don't kids plop down $40 or more to see Britney Spears? Wait! Bad example! Kanye West? I can't remember what the face value of Bonnaroo tickets, but I know that they sell from scalpers online for up to $1,000. Don't talk to me about tickets being too expensive! You won't see Pearl Jam giving free simulcast concerts anytime in this century, by the way!
I can't fault Ms. Gilmore too much. I mean, I absolutely love to listen to Devo, but I'm not sure that I, in my "advanced" age, would ever want to go to one of their concerts. (Of course, they're even older than I am!) That being said, I can't stand to watch any classical music on TV; I just feel like I'm missing most of the experience of the music. `A chaqu'un son gĂ´ut! But get your butt to live performances whenever you can. The very reason there are festivals like Bonnaroo is that there is nothing like what happens musically, socially, when a perform develops a rapport with the audience in front of him. It's a phenomenon.
- She was a newly resurrected mass by Renaissance composer Alessandro Striggio, noteworthy in that it required a force of 40 and 60 (separate) voices (five choirs), period brass at First Congregational Church in Berkeley. (She neglects to mention that the mass was performed as part of the Berkeley Early Music Festival sponsored by Early Music America.)
- She saw Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1, performed by Alexander Barantschik, principal of the San Francisco Symphony, performed at Davies Hall.
- Next Tuesday night's premiere of Lucia di Lammermoor, with Natalie Dessay in the title role, performed by San Francisco Opera.
But, alas, when she gets to the SFO's Lucia production, she says that she will eschew the premiere at War Memorial Opera House on Tuesday night for a live simulcast of Friday night's performance broadcast on the 103-foot-wide "jumbotron" scoreboard at AT&T Park (stadium), home of SF Giants baseball.
What makes her flip-flop on the opera performance? She says, alliteratively, that it's the "dynamite, digitally delivered sound" which is every bit as good as that of the opera house and the fact that her viewing pleasure has been decided in advanced by a producer and videographer. The camera, she argues, can zoom in on a suitably perturbed character at their moment of truth and that the action on stage can be followed much more clearly by the multiple views cameras bring. As defense against "purists," she cites the recent success of the hi-def Met performances that have been delivered to digital theaters around the country which purportedly have amassed an audience of some 920,000.
But there's something else here that she hasn't mentioned, I think, that is the ultimate reason for her preference when it comes to operas. When describing Tuesday's premiere, she says that "when the bejewelled and well-heeled troop into War Memorial Opera House..." she will not be there. That description, to me, conjures up images of Margaret Dumont in the old classic Marx Brothers' comedies: stuffy, snobbish, removed from reality, every bit the socialite who carries on polite superficial prattle with other socialites whom she, secretly, cannot stand. Gilmore contrasts that image with the AT&T Park performances, where she says she's "happy to be rubbing elbows with folks in non-designer non-finery who are drawn by curiosity or determined love of opera itself. She also makes a point of mentioning that the simulcasts are free and open to the public, saying she's "thoroughly heartened by the decidedly democratic atmosphere of the free outdoor events..."
So, no pretentiousness, eh? I'll bet! To her, I'm guessing "non-designer non-finery" means Gap jeans and Aeropostale top. I'm sure she'd hardly associate with someone wearing generic J.C. Penney jeans and a well-weathered Giant's sweatshirt, especially when she mentions watching the SFO's big-screen simulcast production of Rigoletto downtown last fall while "sipping brandy-laced coffee... as the moon rose above the copper dome of City Hall." What, Ms. Gilmore? No Coors Light? And she fails to mention the party of five behind her that was almost surely there, talking and laughing so loudly as to nearly drown out her precious digital sound. Hey, girl! There's a reason it takes 100,000 watts of amplifiers and speakers--not to mention a plethora of digital equalizers, delays, companders, feedback squelchers, and a gigantic 64-channel control board--to deliver sound at a level to be heard over thousands of impolite boors! Not to say that something like that wouldn't happen in the theater, but at least the behavior of the vast majority of the audience would cause them to be, hopefully, slightly more circumspect.
So, what can we learn from this review?
First of all, the picture of aged biddies in furs and ill-fitting sequin dresses stepping out of their limos--or, for the poorer ones, Beamers--to go to the opera needs to be done away with... and with good reason. The idea that it takes a refined demeanor (memorize Amy Vanderbilt) and an aloof sensibility to appreciate opera is just shear poppycock. Wasn't Pavarotti produced from a family of humble bakers? Didn't Jessye Norman get her start singing gospel music at little Mount Calvary Baptist in Augusta? Yeah, highfalutin upbringings, they had. And isn't it odd that an opera chorus is almost always made up of a comprehensive range of people? Everything from poor students--not necessarily music majors--to heavy equipment salesmen and engineers to doctors and professors? Ridiculous! Opera is music; music is a key to the soul; all human beings have souls.
I, myself, though born from a musical background on one side of the family, was hardly groomed to be an opera lover. Oh, I remember on Saturday nights, dad would fire up his hi-fi (yes, long before stereo) and play an instrumental selection from Gotterdämerrung (I seriously doubt he even knew that it was an opera), but then would put on one of his favorite groups, Johnny Puleo and his Harmonica Gang, followed, at my brother's and my insistence, that he play one of our favorite fairy tale albums or something from Disney. Nobody laid any big guilt trip on me to go into music. As a matter of fact, my mom (whose side of the family was the musical one), if anything, discouraged it, having seen her brother go through tough times as a trumpet player. And yet, here I am.
Second, while I appreciate Ms. Gilmore's appreciation of opera as it is, I think she needs to come down off her high horse. The only reason that the SFO has such a snooty audience is because there are few of her generation (as she admits "child of the video generation") and younger that buy tickets and go to the opera. True, tickets are sometimes seem expensive, but don't kids plop down $40 or more to see Britney Spears? Wait! Bad example! Kanye West? I can't remember what the face value of Bonnaroo tickets, but I know that they sell from scalpers online for up to $1,000. Don't talk to me about tickets being too expensive! You won't see Pearl Jam giving free simulcast concerts anytime in this century, by the way!
I can't fault Ms. Gilmore too much. I mean, I absolutely love to listen to Devo, but I'm not sure that I, in my "advanced" age, would ever want to go to one of their concerts. (Of course, they're even older than I am!) That being said, I can't stand to watch any classical music on TV; I just feel like I'm missing most of the experience of the music. `A chaqu'un son gĂ´ut! But get your butt to live performances whenever you can. The very reason there are festivals like Bonnaroo is that there is nothing like what happens musically, socially, when a perform develops a rapport with the audience in front of him. It's a phenomenon.
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