The opening night was crowded for the art show, Painting on the Edge. Nice, but not a great way to view the art displayed. It was a relatively small space for so many. In fact, that friends I'd hoped to see there and I never connected. They wrote saying "sorry I missed you", but I'd been there all the time they were. We must have just turned different corners at the same time, missing sight of each other. Beat that! Well, the show's on through Sept. 4th, if you're in town. Thanks so much to far-away friends who wrote with congrats about this.
That weekend we drove to Seattle to see another great show: music this time. It was the Seattle Opera's production of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. It was wonderfully good! Everyone in it was a fine actor and dramatic singer and so with-it. It all fit so well together: the set tableau-design, the dance, the impeccable orchestra that is part of this opera house. Wow! The programme termed it an "American Folk Opera". Of course, like Cavalleria Rusticana is an "Italian Folk Opera".
What's the difference between an opera-opera and a folk-opera? We're not talking "operetta" here with a lighter commitment to libretto and music: a divertissement. We're talking full-scale dramatic and musical range, with vocal acoustics that demand operatic training to hold and sustain the highs and lows. The cast was up to it. And also up to the jazzy element that makes this so much an American opera.
I thought it might feel a bit dated to see Porgy and Bess now. I'd seen it at least three different times throughout my adult years, so thought it might have become a bit worn by now. I'd bet many of us could have sung-along with every song in the opera (so glad we didn't!!), .... that's how well-known its tunes are. Though the rhythm and music hit such familiar chords, the only impetus was to LISTEN to this "new-again" work. I tell you, when real artistry and feeling go into a work.... and into performing a work... wow, it comes alive again, no matter how familiar you think it is.
That's how it is with art, I think. Not only does art make something special (as I've said before), but here's the added flavour: it does so in a way you can keep coming back to again and again, finding nuances you didn't find before, savouring and appreciating things you missed all those other times.
That weekend we drove to Seattle to see another great show: music this time. It was the Seattle Opera's production of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. It was wonderfully good! Everyone in it was a fine actor and dramatic singer and so with-it. It all fit so well together: the set tableau-design, the dance, the impeccable orchestra that is part of this opera house. Wow! The programme termed it an "American Folk Opera". Of course, like Cavalleria Rusticana is an "Italian Folk Opera".
What's the difference between an opera-opera and a folk-opera? We're not talking "operetta" here with a lighter commitment to libretto and music: a divertissement. We're talking full-scale dramatic and musical range, with vocal acoustics that demand operatic training to hold and sustain the highs and lows. The cast was up to it. And also up to the jazzy element that makes this so much an American opera.
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| Seattle Opera: Porgy and Bess
You know how awful some very good opera singers sound when they try to leave their own element and sing jazz or blues or pop? Well, these singers could do it. Even Sportin' Life, whose voice was the least 'operatic' among them, had the jazz and jive to make up for it....and, besides he hit the operatic money-notes too. All the principals were outstandingly good. This is real opera. No acoustic-boosts in McCaw Opera Hall: it's the voices that penetrate right through the rafters!
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We were sitting in front of Speight Jenkins, the long-time director of the Seattle Opera. It was fun during breaks in the performance to listen in on his sotto-voce comments about what a particular performer was like in real life, or how he happened to find just the right person for a role. Well, aside from the in-talk, I'd say Speight knows a thing or two about putting on a good show. The Seattle Opera manages the entire Ring Cycle every four years (though I can't bear to sit through it all)! Still, we've seen such great performances there, done in such a fresh way. It's such an extraordinary opera venue that we travel to Seattle regularly to catch the productions we can.
I thought it might feel a bit dated to see Porgy and Bess now. I'd seen it at least three different times throughout my adult years, so thought it might have become a bit worn by now. I'd bet many of us could have sung-along with every song in the opera (so glad we didn't!!), .... that's how well-known its tunes are. Though the rhythm and music hit such familiar chords, the only impetus was to LISTEN to this "new-again" work. I tell you, when real artistry and feeling go into a work.... and into performing a work... wow, it comes alive again, no matter how familiar you think it is.
That's how it is with art, I think. Not only does art make something special (as I've said before), but here's the added flavour: it does so in a way you can keep coming back to again and again, finding nuances you didn't find before, savouring and appreciating things you missed all those other times.
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