It’s the middle of opera weekend. The economics of opera production plus the fact that the principals need to have a day off prior to a performance so that their voices will be able to deliver for an audience mean that we only have two performances – Friday night and Sunday matinee. Friday night went relatively well. From my point of view, Pagliacci was stronger and more sure musically than Cavalleria. There were a few wonky moments in the latter, nothing that most audience members would notice and nothing that derailed the show to any major extent. The audience reception was rapturous. I put this down to two things – first, we hadn’t produced a full scale grand opera since 2019 due to a few minor hiccups like a pandemic and associated economic fall out. Second, almost everyone involved is local. The only imports were three of nine principal singers and the maestro (who is busy playing Tommy’s piano in my living room at the moment – I think he’s getting ready for his next gig).
We’re certainly living in operatic times. When the Trump era is over, and it will end as all historical epochs must, the only art form that can truly encapsulate the hubris and fury within the man is going to be opera. I haven’t quite figured out if he’s a Verdi baritone or a Rossini basso buffo. I’m going to go with the former. Anyone who, at this point, writes him and his impulses off as some sort of joke is clearly not paying attention. I can see some future singer blasting out rage and delusion in something akin to Rigoletto’s Cortiagani and it hitting the audience with all the force of Mike Tyson on one of his better days. Speaking of Rigoletto, that’s Opera Birmingham’s grand opera for next season. It’s one of my favorite scores and I love the chorus part.
Our present Duca di Mantua and his court have been all over the airwaves again this week with comments so farcical that they would be considered uproariously funny were the consequences not so serious. What all is going on? Various ceasefires and peace agreements don’t appear to be worth the paper upon which they are inscribed as there appears to be absolutely no coherence within the administration as to messaging to either enemies or allies, diplomatic unity, or military plans that make any sense. The rapid change in the government from a cadre of individuals chosen for ability and expertise to a group of toadies willing to implement the whims of the day no questions asked has had an entirely predictable result.
I play the village priest in Cavalleria Rusticana and, as it takes place on Easter Sunday, I’m in a costume that makes me look something like the pope and something like the Pillsbury Doughboy. We did a little viral marketing video in which I took ‘confession’ from my friend Holly who is the wig and makeup person for the opera, falling out of my chair with a scream when she confesses to not having purchased her opera tickets. Our little bit of satire fit right in with the Secretary of Defense quoting the screenplay of Pulp Fiction thinking it was the Bible, the vice president stating that the pope’s antiwar stance was theologically in error, and the president’s now infamous ‘doctor’ meme. It takes a special kind of chutzpah to tell the pope that you know more about his religion than he does, especially when you only converted seven years ago. Why Vance did this is a bit of a mystery to me. I’m assuming it was politically motivated as a way to get chummier with the Opus Dei crowd. The current pope is a kid from the South Side of Chicago. He’ll have no trouble taking care of himself and the Catholic Church from any additional buffoonery
Due to the peculiarities of the opera schedule, I had Thursday night and today off from responsibilities so I did what I usually do when I have unexpected free time, I went to the theater. On Thursday, I saw Samford University’s production of Oklahoma! and today I saw the Virginia Samford Theatre’s production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. I hadn’t intended to take in two seminal works of American theatre on the same weekend. It’s just the way it worked out. And it got me thinking a bit. I went to see Oklahoma! as I knew Samford would do it with the full orchestra and Rodgers and Hammerstein always sounds better with the full instrumentation. I’ve seen a Broadway revival, semi-pro productions, cheap community theater productions, and high school productions in my time. The younger generations like to belittle Oklahoma! as they only really know it through way to many Yee Haw cornpone (or is it corn puddin’?) versions done in school auditoriums and church basements.
In its day, it was seen as revolutionary. It was the first American musical that fully integrated book, music, lyric, design and dance into an integrated whole. There had been steps in this direction earlier (most notably Showboat which predated it by sixteen years) but mor most of the first half of the 20th centuries, musicals were star driven vehicles built around particular talents and things like plot were an afterthought and half the songs had nothing to do with the show. It’s why so few shows prior to Oklahoma! are consistently performed. I caught the movie Blue Moon on Netflix the other night. It follows Lorenz Hart, Rodger’s previous writing partner, as he proceeds to get drunk at Sardi’s during the opening night party for Oklahoma! as he begins to understand that he is the past and is going to be left behind as the art form moves forward without him. The movie is predominantly one long monologue by Ethan Hawke as Hart. It’s a great performance and there’s a lot of subtext about the changes coming to America as a result of World War II. These are the people that built post war America – the society that the current administration is rapidly trying to dismantle.
A lot of people think Oklahoma! is about who gets to take a girl to a picnic. But it’s much more than that or it would not have resonated with the World War II audience who first saw it and become a phenomenon. It’s about the poor (Curly and Laurey are basically Ma and Pa Joad earlier in their lives). It’s about community. It’s about the power of belonging and ostracism. A lot of people hated Daniel Fish’s recent reworking of the material but I think he got a lot of the dynamics around Jud, the ostensible villain, correct. It’s about sexual awakening and the battle of agape and eros. It’s a tragedy in the Greek sense of the word with a happy ending tacked on (invented by Hammerstein – it’s not in the original play Green Grow the Lilacs on which it’s based). Seeing it with a college cast was nice as it meant that most of the performers were the correct age for their parts. Laurey and Ado Annie are about fifteen or sixteen. Curly and Will are probably about twenty.
But most importantly, it’s about what’s really important in life. Human relationships. Community. Family. Not triumphal arches that will be seven stories taller than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Our Town, which, like Oklahoma!, has been a staple for every community and high school theatre since it was first produced in 1938, reinforced that message in my head. The story of George and Emily in turn of the last century Grover’s Corners is an everyman tale of ordinary people. The various theatrical conceits such as the bare stage without props, the breaking of the fourth wall, and the character of the stage manager, makes you concentrate on the human elements. As I was watching it, I kept thinking back on my life, my parents, my family and also forward to my eventual death and reflecting on life patterns and what’s really important in the long run.
I’ve been watching the unfolding changing of the guard in Hungary with some interest. Magyar is moving quickly. He’s hardly a progressive. He’s fairly right wing (but to the left of Orban which isn’t difficult). I’ll be interested in seeing how he undoes Orban’s autocratic rules or if he does. I think we could take a lesson from him as we head toward our midterms and how he was able to overcome all of the rules changes that should have made ousting Orban impossible. He went from town to town all over the country, into various public institutions in various states of disrepair and asked a simple question. Where did the money go? Everyone knew it had gone to Orban’s cronies and that simple message was one which allowed him to prevail. We can and should do that here. The Federal government, when under the control of the Republican party, has been selling off the commons to private enterprise for decades and our public works and infrastructure are dilapidated. Most of our public buildings look stuck in the 70s because they are. The money began to be siphoned out in earnest under the Reagan administration. If the Democrats would run candidates that continually ask where are your tax dollars? people might start putting two and two together. It will require centrist candidates and the more progressive wing of the party will need to understand that this is not the time to make the perfect the enemy of the good.
Must get up and get dressed for this event I’m going to this evening. The theme is LGBTQ prom – I’ll look through my various formals and find something.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 