Skip to main content

In Search of a Contemporary Definition of Opera

Having recently completed two works for percussion ensemble, video, and tape, I am now embarking on the quest to create a contemporary opera.

Several definitions of opera can be found:
"Opera is a drama set to mus. to be sung with instr. acc. by singers usually in costume." - Classical Archive.
"Opera is a story told through song." - Boston Lyric Opera
"Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and instead of bleeding, sings." - Ed Gardner (funny music quotes)

Traditionally, opera follows a libretto (text -a linear storyline), has extravagant costumes and scenery, and the music plays an integral part of the entire drama unfolding. The music can consist of arias, trios, duets, entire choruses, etc. Some famous traditional opera composers include Puccini, Bizet, Britten, Wagner, Verdi, Monteverdi...the list goes on (You can read more HERE.)

George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess:


However, with the advent of the late 20th century, the definition of opera was challenged or just outright abandoned. There are many nay-sayers that debunk contemporary music forms (you can read an example of a nay-sayer from the New York Times, lamenting Thea Musgraves, "Mary, Queen of Scots" in 1981 HERE.) Because of the financial nature of the opera house, or professional orchestra even, many music organizations find themselves performing the same works over and over and over again just to fill the house. Naturally, if a patient is used to treating a cold with leeches, taking some OTC meds will seem quite abnormal...but that is fodder for a different blog. (Nothing against leeches...)

Philip Glass's "Einstein on the Beach" is often categorized as an opera:


The MIT Lab came up with the Brain Opera , where the audience actively participates in an interactive musical work, while there are still contemporary artists performing a repertoire of avant-garde opera with both traditional and experimental elements, like the UK's Opera Circus.

In any case, composing an opera is a great musical achievement for any composer. It requires years (even decades) of hard work, involving more than music, involving story, text, costuming, scenery, etc. with the possibility of never enjoying a single performance in the composer's lifetime. What direction contemporary opera will take in the near and far future will most likely depend more and more on economics. Technology has already affected classical music, film music, chamber music, commercial music, etc, with its relative inexpensive cost compared to a hall full of live musicians. Whether that technology will adversely affect the opera, or will meld with it in a productive symbiotic way remains to be seen. As for now, I am readying my virtual singers and warming up my MIDI cables to create hopefully my next masterpiece.

You can read more about opera:
"Never say Die in Indie Opera"
Alice in Wonderland - The opera
Opera Blog.net
Center for Contemporary Opera
Greg Sandow on Contemporary Opera

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

EDGY New Film : Special Needs Revolt! A man with Down syndrome is on a mission to save America from a racist dictatorship

Special Needs Revolt!  Is an action-horror-comedy film. The film's hero, Billy Bates, who will be played by up-and-coming actor Samuel Dyer, is a young man with Down syndrome. Billy wakes up from a two-year coma and discovers that the United States has been turned into a brutal dictatorship thanks to President Kruger, to be played by award-winning veteran actor Bill Weeden ( Sgt. Kabukiman   N.Y.P.D. ). Kruger has put all people with disabilities into institutions. Billy becomes the leader of a diverse group of resistance fighters committed to ending Kruger's reign of terror. "Special Needs Revolt!" is also a satire on our current political situation, done in the style of Troma Entertainment. Lloyd Kaufman of Troma will appear in the film.  CHECK OUT THE INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN:  https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/special-needs-revolt#/ Adrian’s latest work  Special Needs Revolt!  may seem edgy and even shocking to some. However, it demonstrates that he is grow

Music Secrets: The Music School Survival Guide

Music Secrets: The Music School Survival Guide Don't have any time to balance rehearsals, exams, and a social life? Then read on!  So you find that between playing in orchestra, the school musical, a solo recital or two, joining Sigma Alpha Iota or Phi Mu Alpha , playing in the alternative band at night, pep band, and marching band that you can't keep your eyes open, let alone study for the music history midterm next week or even begin to write your term paper on Debussy? Then read on and learn to balance life in Music School. 1) Musicians DO need to Sleep   Yes, you need to sleep, even if it is only five hours a night plus catnaps. Your brain cannot function if you do not sleep. So sleep, even if that means that you can't play in that awesome alternative band that jams every other night till 5am at the local bar. 2) Eat right and exercise Okay, so I sound like your parents, or Oprah, but I am serious. My biggest mistake as an undergrad (well, one of my bigges

Percussion Instruments 101: How to Play the Concert Triangle

PHOTO"wikimedia.org Percussion Instruments 101: How to Play the Concert Triangle There are literally hundreds of concert percussion instruments in use every day throughout the world. Whether you are playing percussion in a drum circle in Ghana , a jazz band in New Orleans , or a symphony orchestra in Sweden, you are playing an instrument that has traveled and mutated throughout the globe. The percussion instrument the triangle , is a metal rod bent into the shape of a two dimensional geometric triangle with one of the bottom corners disconnected to allow sound waves to escape. The concert triangle often has a slight difference, in that it may have a hole in one corner to loop a piece of nylon to hang the concert triangle. If it is an Alan Abel triangle, it will have a slight difference in the open end. That angle will end in a different thickness, supposedly to help the triangle sound to escape better acoustically. The triangle may be struck near one of the closed an