Opera of the Week: It’s not just the Met that’s opening with minorities
OperaSlipped Disc’s latest Opera of the Week from OperaVision is The Time of our Singing – live from La Monnaie Brussels tomorrow, September 24.
The curtain opens on images of African-American contralto Marian Anderson’s historic concert at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939. More than eighty years later, we are treated tomorrow night to another memorable musical milestone: the world premiere of Belgian avant-garde jazz pianist and composer Kris Defoort’s new opera, The Time of Our Singing at La Monnaie / De Munt under the baton of Kwamé Ryan.
Based on Richard Powers’ epic novel of the same name, it tells the story of a mixed-race family against the backdrop of racial hatred in the USA. On stage, director Ted Huffman intertwines history with a capital H and personal histories to a thrilling hybrid score mixing classical music and jazz. Look no further for an opera that strikes a chord with the times.
See below interview with conductor Kwamé Ryan
Watch for timings and link tomorrow.
The prospect is not very inviting. Music = diverse (everything thrown-in), plot = identity mongering, minority wokism in the foreground, it is all about the wrapping paper. The snippets of music suggest the worst.
Great to know beforehand what you definitely won’t want to see/hear.
Opera is about the human condition in an universalist way, not simply copying actuality and hoping to surf on the social justice mood of today which is so much carried by ignorance and nonsense when art is concerned.
It makes one think of the Soviet communists requiring the ‘right’ music and opera ‘for the people’, or the Chinese cultural revolution with its desastrous indoctrination of suicidal nonsense, or the nazi’s with their paranoid instructions of Deutsche Kunst. The shocking difference is, that in cases like this one, it is the people themselves who create the nonsense. They don’t need a totalitarian state to instruct them, they are happy to embarrass themselves in front of the world.
Of course you don’t want to see it. You’d feel threatened by it. The Time Of Our Singing, which you obviously don’t know because you don’t want to know anything that doesn’t fit your mental ready-mades, is the most acclaimed novel of one of the most acclaimed American novelists. Of course you dismiss it without knowing anything about it. Because that’s what you do, post after post after post after post after post.
Oh, there’s another thing… wait for it… it deals with the whiteness of classical music. The horror… The horror…
It’s worth mentioning that in a comment that has for some reason since been removed from this thread, Borstlap quoted one of Elton John’s greatest songs in a correct Mandarin translation, and he evidently knows something about classical Chinese culture. So… don’t assume he’s smaller and narrower than he really is.
Too true. The MET is not the place for “debut” politically correct pieces. TWO operas, however good they may be — and Porgy and Bess is mediocre at best– which refuse casting other than “Black” singers is racism in reverse. The great MET chorus itself is condemned after a silence of silence to still more reduced pay and performance time. There are GREAT opera singers of all races, but in the interests of “diversity” the Chinese, Japanese, and various European and South American stars are excluded. WRONG. Opera is about the HUMAN condition; limiting it to “blackness” says that either only blacks have “real” lives — or that they are inhuman. Which is it?
You’re absolutely right. Cancel Othello and Nabucco! Away with The Merchant of Venice!
“Against stupidity
the Gods themselves
contend in vain”
(Heinrich Heine)
Soviets! Chinese indoctrination! Nazis! Mein Kampf! And all that hysterical weaponry for an opera you haven’t seen based on a book you haven’t read. How pathetic can comments get?
It is really a little bit more complex than you think.
Just try again!
In the end, you may get there.
PS:
About opera and the contemporary surrounding world:
Think of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. The plot is based upon the play by De Beaumarchais who attacked the nobility, a dangerously contemporary theme, shortly before the French Revolution. The libretto of the opera has been adapted in such a way, that political/social components almost completely disappeared, and the conflict between the master and his servs is presented as a human conflict between characters who find themselves in a fixed social situation. This humanization of the plot turns it into something that can easily be understood by audiences in entirely different places and times, because it has been universalized, without turning the happenings into abstraction. This, and carried by superb music, makes the work timeless – i.e. always accessible.
And then, for instance: Wagner’s Ring. It was inspired by all the political and social upheavels of 19C Europe, but turned into a universal story about love versus power, human conflicts, etc. etc. so that the substance becomes a commentary on the human condition. Verdi’s operas are full of this transformation of the political and social into a human, universal story.
The more opera is instrumentalized for something temporary, the less chance it will survive its own time and place. And if the music is bad, chances will even be less.
You are making all these comments before having listened to the piece and giving it a chance. This is not about the “right music” or a woke/politically correct statement.
I am one of the orchestra musicians who play in this opera. It’s a very well written piece that we all enjoy playing. It is also an honour for us to play alongside this brilliant jazz quartet.
The response of the public has been very enthusiastic and before making any further comments, I suggest you first listen to it before criticizing it.
Don’t take it personally. I’ve noticed that Borstlap never has anything positive to say about other living composers or their work. (Actually I think he might have, once; but it was so long ago I can’t be sure.)
Thank you, I won’t. This is the first time I made a comment on this blog, because I believe that dismissing a piece, daring to write about it whilst uninformed and putting it down before listening to it is simply rude, whatever subject it may deal with. I am not a keyboard warrior, nor do I have any interest to debate and spread negativity. And yes, maybe Borstlap fits the cliché of the composer who is envious of what other living composers write…
Well well! This is simply not true. I am a great fan of a number of contemporary composers and many of them are successful. It is just that I have a deep contempt for the would-be composers who sell their stuff to nitwits in music life and pretend to contribute something of value and meaning to a fragile cultural tradition that is under attack by other nitwits.
There is an unspoken taboo on real criticism of contemporary music, and a refusal to really listen what is there, and what the intentions of composers are. New music has written itself out of the central performance culture. Being critical is a positive value in such situation. And it is plain stupid to think that criticism can only be something personal.
I could give a list of living composers who keep the flame alive, and who are entirely admirable and very gifted, but much better is to buy my book, it’s all explained in there for people who have no idea what’s going-on in contemporary music and merely want to throw mud when they don’t understahnd something.
OK, if the wrapping paper be removed.
Do I have to read Mein Kampf to be sure it is what it looks like? I don’t know. I often lay awake at night, pondering these kind of questions.
Sally
I take it you must be black as only one race is represented in both the piece and who is allowed to conduct it.
If not, when this piece and all others like it are performed, every player should follow the same discriminatory standards and recuse themselves from playing or be denied access just as singers do.
No doubt liberals will downvote and fire back at this yet they must confront what beliefs they hold as THEY are indeed RACIST!!!!
Cheers!
No, I am a white musician. There are also white singers among the soloists. There is no exclusivity among the players either, we are mixed. I hope that is not a problem for you.
Well, that’s fair. People can write operas about whatever they like and other people can attend or not as they wish.
Realistically though we can’t attend everything so it is necessary to decide in advance.
One hopes that decision is not based on prejudice.
Oh no. Hell no. A white European composer appropriating jazz and rap to write an opera based on a white novelist’s book depicting racial hate in the US to be premiered in Europe.
Following the same logic, Gershwin should have never written Porgy and Bess because he was a white composer. He wrote an opera about black people, based on a white author’s novel, DuBose Heyward’s “Porgy”.
Should Gershwin have been cancelled as well?
Bingo (about Gershwin).
I am curious as to how many actual tickets will be sold to productions such as this one and the horrid token piece used to open the Met this season. I know that neither I nor any of my opera going friends will ever bother attending these, even if given free seats in the Director’s Box.
The house was full every evening. If neither you or your opera going friends wanted to attend this, it’s ok. Other people did and we got standing ovations. Everyone is free to choose what they want to attend.
The Brussels production nearly sold out. You can check for yourself here for the two remaining performances:
https://tickets.demunt.be/nl/saleflow/event/aba62e33-41ff-eb11-80c5-005056844c98/manual/area/9c258fa5-6e0e-4eb0-afae-b74c48c475a9/select
and
https://tickets.demunt.be/nl/saleflow/event/7a29d64d-41ff-eb11-80c5-005056844c98/manual/area/9c258fa5-6e0e-4eb0-afae-b74c48c475a9/select
Of course you and your opera going friends would never want to see this. You would have decried every innovative work you now adore when it was premiered.
Perhaps there were marks to fill the seats for the first nights, but for future performances? Would they return after hearing and seeing that schlock? It is good to give new things a chance, but sometimes you know in advance that it is going to stink- for example, anything by Glass.
We have to stop talking about Gershwin and Porgy and Bess as the White Savior’s Opera Gift to Blacks,, because implicit in your question is your assumption that:
1) Black people actually like Porgy and Bess
2) Blacks like Porgy and Bess as much as Whites like Porgy and Bess
3) Blacks hold a place for Porgy and Bess in their hearts and minds as Whites do
The reality is more like this: Japanese people don’t particularly care, one way or another, for Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, as much as White people are enthralled with it.
Thus to answer your question: Gershwin should not be cancelled because, honestly, most Blacks don’t think about Gershwin (as Whites think about Gershwin).
I like Porgy (Bess not so much) but I’m always irritated by the obvious grammer mistakes, you is instead of you are etc. etc., I would be fired if I did not correct them in my letters.
Sally
You forget to mention that one of the themes of this work is your favorite theme of late: the whiteness of classical music and how black artists deal with it. It’s not just about a mixed-black family, it’s about a mixed-black family of musicians. With the greatest talent of the family fleeing the suffocating all-white classical music scene in the USA for Europe.
Kwame Ryan is a brilliant conductor with whom I had the privilege of going to Cambridge many years ago. He has totally and completely earned his international career and I send him every good wish on this fascinating production.