New York’s newest operas: Porn and transgender
UncategorizedGordon Beeferman’s The Enchanted Organ: A Porn Opera is a send up of the flesh trade.
Laura Kaminsky’s opera “As One is a close examination of cross-gender line.
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Another take on the transgender opera, fyi…
http://www.wqxr.org/story/opera-one-explores-gender-change-identity-struggles
I’m sure Sir Bufton Tufton will be quotably outraged.
Not, of course, that he ever takes the memsahib to any of that catterwauling nonsense anyhow…
One can’t judge works by reviews, but for me, the porn opera and the above photo hardly speak of depth which is disappointing considering the importance of the issues addressed. I wonder if a good way to measure the quality of a new opera would be that it has depth and impact without resort to spectacle, camp, and contrived transgression. Or is that something inherent to the genre?
It seems to be an old problem. I think of how opera seria in the 18th century too often used spectacle as a replacement for dramatic substance. Have hollow representations of transgression become the 21st century’s form of operatic spectacle? Amusingly, even the theme of cannibalism has been resorted to in a couple new operas of late. Oh, shock me…
The Enchanted Organ IS deep, and if you haven’t actually seen it, you don’t have any idea of its real impact. You should have been there, with the rest of the sold-out house laughing and applauding like crazy the whole time. It’s very interesting that you think that depth and thoughtfulness can only be achieved in one way. In fact, I fear you’re the one with the shallow viewpoint. Most new opera these days has fallen victim to that classic American vice, Puritanism, and that’s why the new works being churned out are usually so dry, turgid, and utterly un-interesting — and unpopular. Spectacle draws the viewer in and can be a subversive foil for real depth. Just look a bit closer. Otherwise, I’d like to see your photo too, so we can just you by your outward appearance.