'SHOW BOAT': NOT ON BOARD

I'm big on democratizing opera, not just for opera, but for the world, which could use a lot more of what opera offers. By that I mean an emotional connection with the essential drama of life, as opposed to days filled with clicking and friending and liking and updating. So if putting on a musical can help people come to opera, I'm down with that.

But I'm not sure my beloved Lyric Opera of Chicago, or its new creative consultant, Renee Fleming, have picked the right musical in next season's recently announced "Show Boat." Nor am I sure the next musical on their radar, "Oklahoma!", is right either. I don't think either choice addresses what's keeping people from opera in the first place.

My non-operagoing friends think opera is musty - a bunch of old, overblown productions without any relevance to life today. Whereas new opera is all experimental, atonal, "not music." So I find myself wishing, if the Lyric is going to do musicals, that they'd pick something that wasn't written when new opera was still vital, and hasn't been done by every community theater in the country since. I find myself wishing they would pick a newer production to feed the audience's hunger for modern music with melody.

"Show Boat" and "Oklahoma!" are great theater - the advance publicity calls "Show Boat" operatic - and I won't be surprised if the Lyric hits them out of the park. But I fear the audience won't look much different than the one in the Civic Opera House on any other evening. Then, what has the Lyric gained? What has opera gained?

This will sound crazy, but if I could pick a musical for the Lyric, it would be "Avenue Q." But that's not operatic, right? Precisely the point. If a company could make a show like "Avenue Q" operatic - if it could raise a modern, relevant-to-today hit to the heights of Verdi, Wagner, Puccini - the opera skeptics might open their minds to those musty old composers too. And once those minds are open, look out. Opera will knock 'em silly.

That's how musicals can help save opera. And the world.

 

Comments

[Gale Martin]

Sounds like they're trying to save their balance sheet more than opera. And you're right--are young people going to flock to Showboat? Not too likely. As you wisely mentioned they'll be attracting the same demographic.

[Tiffany Jewelry]

In modern phase of social advancement, the theme about "serve others" is really worth talking about.