FYEAH OPERA SINGERS

By Laura Petrarcha 

In December 1850, a few months before Verdi’s Rigoletto was set to premiere at La Fenice, Verdi received a letter from the Austrian censors. At the time, Venice was a part of the Austrian Empire, and the Austrian government censors plundered all public art (especially opera) for material that was politically or morally suspect. Rigoletto, which was then called La Maledizione, enraged them. They made several demands of Verdi and his librettist Francesco Maria Piave: they wanted to remove Rigoletto’s hump, make the Duke more sympathetic, deemphasize the curse, and get rid of the sack in the final scene.  An extremely angry Verdi wrote a letter to the president of La Fenice theater explaining why he couldn’t make the revisions. Here is an excerpt:  

BUT.

I wrote this thing for Opera21 (you are all reading this magazine, yes? okay, good). It's about sexual violence in Rigoletto and how we might be able to put opera in the context of the current political climate. And since THAT made no sense, you now have to read it to know what I'm talking about!

Also seriously read all the other stuff in this issue because lots of great people hit it out of the park this month.

xxxx viva la opera!

Secondly, I’m sure a ton of you read the article about how the Met casts productions five years in advance. This Onegin has probably been in the planning stages since BEFORE 2008. BEFORE any of Putin’s legislation. Why should the Met feel bad for a bad timing overlap? Why should the Met have to make a political statement? Oh, right, IT SHOULDN’T. If people are going to demand a performance dedication from anyone, start barking up the Gergiev or Netrebko tree, sort of like the way that DiDonato dedicated her DDL performance to the teenager who committed suicide (Excpet nobody asked her to do that.). The Met shouldn’t have to “apologize" for producing a work in the public domain.

Someone find me Thomas Hampson so I can give him a hug.

Let me start off by saying that the interviewer's tone is pretty inexcusable. She intends to have a debate with two clear sides, but trying to provoke her opponent like this is just bad form. And Thomas Hampson, much to his credit, remains calm, argues well, and advocates beautifully for the opera.

I wouldn't say opera is the most expensive entertainment (see: Broadway, sports games, the list goes on), but my local house (The Met) is not making it easy on middle class patrons. This year, the Met is raising Family Circle prices and lowering Orchestra prices; essentially it's following the model of a Republican tax plan. This strategy welcomes those who can pay $100+ per performance and forces those who can only pay $25-36 per performance to make compromises. Those making less money who want to go to the opera must take time off work (you need to be on line before 5pm to get a ticket) or be very choosy about the performances they can attend (popular operas, new productions, and weekend performances often cost more). The Live in HD program is a great help, but as Hampson points out, the magic really happens in the opera house.

Yes, we do have a lot of problematic attitudes surrounding the opera. As we know, plenty of young people love it, as do plenty of people outside the wealthy and uber-educated elite. But if we truly want to say opera is not elitist, having Thomas Hampson talk eloquently on the subject is not enough. Companies have to reflect the philosophy in their pricing models.

Leontyne Price on “What’s My Line."  This was a panel game show from the 50’s where celebrities would come on as guests, and a blind-folded panel had to ask questions to try and guess who the guest was.  They were only allowed to ask “yes" or “no" questions, and if they got ten “no" answers, they lost.  

The look on Arlene Francis’ face at 6:30 - she looks so starstruck!!

Opera Singer Becomes (Soprano) Voice Of Protest In Portugal

Anti-austerity protesters throw Molotov cocktails in Greece and blockade parliament in Spain. The Portuguese are a bit more mellow. Ana Maria Pinto shot to fame for drowning out the country’s president in song. She’s now a regular at street protests, leading choirs of ordinary people venting against Portugal’s conservative fiscal policy and its soaring unemployment rate.