So, like the car crash we just can’t peel our eyes from, The Palin Family Feud was the opera we’d most like to see. I think it works. So many plot lines, so many potential wacky duet pairings. Any takers, composer-readers?
I was thinking more about opera this week, and specifically what keeps me from really embracing it. At root, I think it mostly has to do with how over-the-top the delivery is (awesome, in-and-of itself), yet how slow and plodding the action is often paced. I’m not sure even Brando could clear that hurdle, acting-wise. And, like StoryCorp and This American Life, I guess I’m looking for smaller, weirder, more life-sized stories in the face of the immensity of the world. My artistic interests tend toward the spectacularly intimate over the bombastic stadium-sized variety, and probably they always have.
But I can also perhaps attribute my failure to connect to the fact that I have mostly seen by-the-book, same-as-it-ever-was opera productions. I might be fantasizing that I’m Cher when I go to the opera, but I still appreciate that it’s 2009. Maybe my attitude would get an adjustment if I lived in Europe with their wacky concepts? If you see an opera out there that you think might shift me into gear, do let me know about it.
I don’t know about the weather in your neighborhood, but things are heating up here on my home turf. And that means the tomatoes are going into the ground and summer orchestra seasons are coming! Which brings us to this week’s question: