Tag: opera

Not that kind of Queen . . .

Taylor 1 Comment

I be on my suit and tie. Benjamin in hand. Nails painted. This is what I call dressed to the nines. In fact I’m the nines: a cat. Manx? Marx.


I get to my $14 dollar seat and the aisle is worth the price, let me tell you. I get to stretch my feet, bend my legs broken doll style, and stare up and the ceiling that will probably astound me for years to come. What if a lightbulb burns out? A ladder from the balcony does not seem practical. A cherry picker? At Hill?


?


The Oresteia is a trilogy by Aeschylus. Good plays. Amazing plays. Or so my freshman year self said to myself as I bought the tickets and waited weeks filled with anticipation. Each day I had flashbacks to Great Books 191 at 9 am with all of the “honors freshman.” To 2 am nights at the Law Quad while I furiously read Greek tragedy after Greek tragedy–like Gilmore Girls episodes.


I take my seat and gawk at the stage as it filled up with 400+ musicians. Orchestras, choirs, opera stars, conductors all pile onto the wooden floor and I think, “of course Hill Auditorium would break on its 100 year anniversary.” Alas, it proves me wrong. Similar to the audience of which I am a part. I think that I am the only person under 50 in the whole room. Magic. This is my type of crowd, that is, until people weeble and wobble on the stairs and I imagine person after person accidentally flinging themselves off the balcony and onto the main floor: performance art. I mean, I am performing so why wouldn’t others?


The downbeat slashes and strings go flying, lips go buzzing, throats go vibrato-ing, and I am hit head-on with French at its finest: rolled r’s. Catching glimpses of words and hearing the words projected onto the screen I am thrown into the environment every white gay male could dream of: the opera. I mean if I am to be a true queen then this should be my element. My niche. My passion.


What I love about the whole thing is that it is all a staged performance. Or rather trapped-to-the-stage. Everyone is stationary while the air is filled with movement. Easier to focus. The main singers wear outfits of sequins, blue satin, black tuxes, and they stand out of the crowd of students. My favorite part though is when this “avant-garde” opera goes spoken word and the, perhaps, oracle figure starts rapping and screaming in French about blood, and flesh, and murder, and hatred, and gods. Who doesn’t like Greek Tragedy?


*raises hand*


Let me explain: the man behind me erupts during the intermission: “Opera. Is like eggs. Today they’re scrambled. Some like them scrambled. Others like them fried. I like them sunny side up.”


I love Greek Tragedy. Give me a play and I’ll swoon. Give me a book and I’ll faint. Give me a 3.5 hour opera and my knee will start to ache and my eyes will start to get tired and my ears will start to close the world out. There is only so many times I can hear “Praise Athena” before I think about that beautiful ceiling. Or the Benjamin in my bag.


Would I have given this experience up? Hell no! This is probably one of my favorite events I have gone to because not only did I get to listen (and critique) amazing music, see talented individuals, people watch, gaze at architecture, but I was able to feel a part of an audience that I’ve always wanted to.


However.


Today I confess, sadly, that I am not an opera queen. I thought I was a renaissance queen but perhaps I’m just medieval.

Opera Splashes and Sparkles in ‘Ariadne auf Naxos’

Sarah Ogar Leave a comment

I went to the opening night of ‘Ariadne auf Naxos’ and without reading about the libretto beforehand, I expected something that was stuffy, long-winded, and probably involved corsets or women dressed like this….

Boy was I wrong. What I saw on Thursday night more closely resembled this…

For those unfamiliar with the Greek mythology behind the Strauss opera, Ariadne was a human abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos, who spent her days bemoaning his loss and refusing all company except that of Death.

But contrary to my initial impression, this was not the only storyline.  In fact, it served more as a story within a story.

In the prologue of the play, two troupes (a dramatic opera cast and a burlesque show) prepare to entertain a duke and his guests.  However, amidst the hustle and bustle that comes before any performance, both troupes are informed that due to time constraints, they will no longer be performing one after another.  Instead, the duke demands that they combine their arts into one cohesive performance.

What results and forms the bulk of the opera, is the tragic tale of lonely Ariadne on the desert tale of Naxos who is greeted by the funny and flirtacious Zerbinetta and her fellow comedians, who show Ariadne how to pick herself up, dust herself off, and start all over again when the Greek God Bacchus shows up.

The set design closely resembled 1920s Art Deco, with simple, clean lines and flashy costumes.  Most of the men wore suits or tuxedos apart from the comedians, who donned bathing suits and flippers upon learning that they were going to a desert island.

Although every piece was eloquently executed (I was very impressed by the performer’s elocution with the German libretto) my favorite piece by far was Zerbinetta’s operatic version of ‘All the Single Ladies’ aka ‘Grossmachtige Prinzessin!’.  In this rendition, Zerbinetta wore a glimmering red flapper dress and sang about how every time a new ‘god’ comes along in her life, she is dumbstruck.  It wouldn’t be a burlesque show without a parade of tuxedo-ed men who each got their chance to dance with Zerbinetta before she changed her tune and moved on to the next one.  This number made me realize just well-trained opera singers are.  Apart from dancing and interacting with the other performers on stage, Zerbinetta made her laugh sound absolutely melodious, like a group of bells trilling underwater.

When I laugh, it either sounds like a horse or a dying moose.  But never like bells trilling underwater.

I left the performance feeling like I had gotten my money’s worth and to top it off, I was handed a pamphlet for one of the performer’s senior recitals coming up in Kerrytown.  This performance gave me every reason to see more great vocal performances and to continue my support for one of the oldest performing arts still in business.

Go opera!

Image credits: http://wodumedia.com/chicago-2002/catherine-zeta-jones-in-miramaxs-chicago-2002/ and http://www.music.umich.edu/ContainerBridge.php?path=%2Ffmi%2Fxml%2Fcnt%2Fdata.jpg%3F-db%3DRecital_Form%26amp%3B-lay%3DCOE_Fall_2008_Layout%26amp%3B-recid%3D7499%26amp%3B-field%3Dimage(1)