OPERA, BASEBALL OF THE ARTS

Along with opera, one of my great cultural loves is baseball. I particularly love the Chicago Cubs - in sport as in art, I am drawn to tragedy, though some might classify the Cubs as comedy. (I can assure you, their performances are not funny to me.) People who otherwise love sports often make a sour face when I tell them I love baseball, just as people who otherwise love the arts often make a sour face when I tell them I love opera. "But (baseball/opera) is so (slow/boring/repetitive)," they will say.

I was once a sportswriter, at a big daily newspaper, in the days when big daily newspapers roamed and terrorized the earth like the dinosaurs they turned out to be. In those days, from my elevated vantage point, I got to watch a lot of baseball, and I got to watch a lot of people watching baseball. It occurred to me then that many sports fans who don't like baseball don't know how to watch it. And it occurs to me now that many arts lovers who don't like opera don't know how to attend it.

Unlike continuous-action sports like hockey and basketball and soccer, baseball doesn't reward a spectator's unswerving attention. The frequent breaks and uneven pace are what build suspense and supercharge the high points. If you train your eyes for three straight hours on a baseball game, the slow parts will tire you out for the fast parts. Also, you might go mad. But if you relax and give yourself to the game - pausing with it to chat with a friend, sip an adult beverage, feel the sunshine, crack a peanut - you'll discover the seductive rhythm that accounts for baseball's durability and popularity. And you'll find that the exciting moments, when they happen, can be more intense in comparison than skating-skating-skating or basket-basket-basket.

Now, if you chat with friends or crack peanuts during an opera, you are not likely to leave the house alive. But the general principle is the same. Opera doesn't reward steady focus the way theater or the symphony do. Like baseball, most operas in the historic repertoire have slow stretches, known to many opera fans by the French term longueurs. Unlike baseball, though, in opera even the longueurs are accompanied by beautiful music. Rest your attention, admire the darkened house, and bathe in the sound rather than training your mind on it. If you stay even barely connected to the story, the climax will be intensified by your earlier repose - just like in baseball.

Because the opera house is much darker and quieter than a baseball park, some opera fans, even dedicated ones, sleep through the longueurs, which has done serious damage to opera's reputation. I believe the sleepers are more exhausted from the rest of their day than bored by the show. Nap before, not during. Come to the house rested and not too full from dinner, and you won't sleep - opera is not dull. Also - this is critical - get to the house early, and promise yourself to enjoy the surroundings before the curtain and during intermissions. (As with baseball, an occasional adult beverage can help.) It's not merely a show, it's an experience, and one that can transcend everyday cares and responsibilities. When the lobby of the Civic Opera House unfolds before me in all its fine appointment on a blustery Chicago evening, I know I am fortunate, and my life is well lived.

Similarly, when I was finally able to write and teach full-time, I vowed never again to have a job that kept me from spending a sun-soaked day at a baseball game instead of cooped in a cubicle or office. Sitting at Wrigley Field, sometimes I feel like I might burst from gratitude. That doesn't happen during a basketball game. I have fun, sure. But baseball allows a spectator time and space for profound appreciation of the artistry taking place. Just like opera.

Comments

[Gale Martin]

Fine post on the intersection of America's game and Europe's art form. I have to tell you, whenever I watch baseball, the great play--the pickoff at first capping a double play, etc.--always happens. So, you like the Cubbies, huh? You and Wilbon!

[Gale Martin]

That was supposed to say, the great things happen when I'm watching the Philly Phanatic or going for a beer.

[Mark Schubin]

You'll find more on baseball & opera in this National Opera Week lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKlzay9AbLI

Or, for the background info, try here: http://bit.ly/Baseball-and-Opera