Sitting in the Greektown Starbucks, waiting to leave for my 10:30 meeting at the Cultural Center with Melissa. The place was packed when I walked in, no tables available except for a rather large one with two chairs tucked into the corner by the door. I noticed as I sat down with my coffee and holiday gingerbread that it was designated as a handicapped table. There was really nowhere else to sit. So I opened up my New York Times and proceeded to read about the elections in Egypt. The place continued to get busier and busier. Every time someone new walked in I'd glance at the door to make sure no elderly person or someone with disabilities was coming in. The coast was clear but sitting there I felt guilty....uncomfortable...like I was doing something bad. It was very distracting. Eventually an able-bodied person at another table got up and left so I quickly made a bee-line for it and have felt much more comfortable ever since. In the thirty or so minutes since I vacated that table, a couple with a baby in a stroller have sat down, conducting what looks to be a Bible study. I notice that neither ordered a coffee and are drinking sodas that they picked up at the Walgreen's across the street. I don't feel so guilty now. At least I ordered coffee.
The opera last night was good. "Ariadne auf Naxos" by Richard Strauss. Strauss (not to be confused with Johann "The Waltz King" Strauss) emerged as one of the great German opera composers post-Wagner in the final decade of the 19th century and the first decade or so of the 20th. You can hear the Wagnerian influence in the long, lush melodic lines that creep dangerously close but never quite cross into the atonality that would soon dominate, courtesy of Berg and Webern. "Ariadne" was somewhat of a step-back for Strauss, whose previous operas, including "Salome" with its 'Dance of the Seven Veils' and "Elektra" pushed tonality into new territory. In contrast, "Ariadne"is a bit of a throwback to an earlier, perhaps more naive musical sensibility. The opera is divided into two parts: The Prologue and then The Opera. Set in a Viennese nobleman's house in the 17th century, it tells the story of an opera company charged to put on an evening of entertainment for said nobleman and his family/friends. Two contrasting productions are scheduled for the evening: the traditional 17th century mythology-based opera "Ariadne auf Naxos" written by an aspiring young composer and a comic pastoral opera "Zerbinetta and her Four Lovers." The Prologue introduces the backstage antics of the opera company who are informed fifteen minutes before the entertainment is set to begin that the nobleman has asked that both productions be performed simultaneously with cuts made to accommodate a 9pm fireworks display. The Opera then is the production mounted for the nobleman. Both productions are spliced together--the tragic and the comic--and essentially, everyone lives happily ever after.
I don't have the program in front of me so I can't identify the singers by name, but across the board, the performances were impressive. I preferred the Prologue with its witty repartee and comical backstage antics: the music was light and crisp though not particularly melodic. The Opera section was more musically lush, more exemplary of Strauss's compositional style. What made it rather long for me was that for long passages it fell into what I call the German operatic tradition of standing facing forward and belting one's lungs out without any real attempt at acting or interacting with the other singers on the stage. Again, the singing was impressive and the music itself quite beautiful but the staging at times in the second half was so static and stentorian with no end in sight that my butt began to hurt. I realize Strauss was attempting to satirize 18th century opera but unfortunately I feel in his attempt at satire, he became guilty of doing exactly that which he was satirizing.
I have to dash but I'll post more later...
Ciao.
No comments:
Post a Comment