I'm not an opera buff. The only opera I had ever appreciated was Bugs Bunny’s Barber of Seville. I didn’t and probably will not ever completely understand the true lovers of this medium. But after meeting Holland and Christina from the Fort Worth Opera, their enthusiasm for this upcoming Festival Season is so contagious that I decided to thoroughly investigate how to appreciate opera… I Googled it.
I noticed while on my investigation is that many who love opera also feel they are the experts. From the guy declaring that there are only sixteen great operas in the entire history of the genre, written by five composers and of those, only two are perfect, to the author that stated Andrea Bocelli was laughed off the stage in Werther at Detroit's Michigan Opera Theater. Neither statement seems very likely.
One good bit of advice I did happen upon was “read the libretto.” What's a libretto? Well, it's the text of the opera – the actual words not just the synopsis. Since Mr. “only two are perfect” revealed which ones he thought they were, I checked out Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi and Tosca by Giacomo Puccini. Very interesting tales and after reading a couple other libretti, it seemed that the charm of opera must be gratuitous amounts of sex and violence – a win, win in this day and age.
But wait – Holland mentioned that one of the operas that will be performed during this festival is funny. Funny? Oh yeah. I saw Amadeus – loved it – it did portray that he wrote comic operas for the general public to pay his bills. But I didn’t think that what was thought of as funny in the 18th century would be thought funny today. So since the FW Opera is going to do Cosi Fan Tutti by Mozart, I read it to see if it was funny.
It's a story of two young officers who are in love with two sisters. An old philosopher questions the fidelity of any woman, and of course the officers declare their women would always be true, which leads to a bet. The officers agree to pretend they are going off to battle then disguise themselves and try to seduce each other's girlfriends. You can tell where this is going…more gratuitous sex and violence.
But the observations of the old philosopher about women as well as the girl's maid about men is funny and relevant:
“Woman's constancy is like the Arabian Phoenix; everyone swears it exists, but no one knows where.”
“You look for fidelity in men? In soldiers? Don't tell me that, for pity's sake! All of them are made of the same stuff; the quivering leaves, the inconstant breezes have more stability than men.”
The great thing about Cosi Fan Tutti is the director decides the ending! So opera can be fun.
A real coup for the Fort Worth Opera is they nabbed tenor Sean Panikkar of “Forte” to kick off the 2014 season with Bizet's romance, The Pearl Fishers, which hasn’t shown here since 1983 and never in Dallas.
As we talked about appreciating opera with Holland and Christina, they mentioned that different operas appeal to different audiences. For example, With Blood, With Ink is a story about a nun but it is really about women’s rights. For this, the FW Opera selected a female director, Dona D. Vaughn. Nice move.
The Pulitzer Prize award-winning Silent Night is more so a man’s opera. It’s about French, German, and Scottish soldiers during World War I who take a brief respite from trench warfare when they agree to a cease-fire for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.
The FW Opera has all new costumes by fabulous designer Austin Scarlett of New York and the ticket prices are very reasonable. The Opera has really been making a big effort to get noticed in very modern ways. They selected mostly contemporary works for this festival season, are hosting free “Opera Shots” at local bars, and even having Tweet nights during dress rehearsals.
If you are put off about what to wear to the opera, don't be. General Director Darren K. Woods' motto is, “As long as you're wearing clothes, you are welcome in the opera.” I went to one once several years ago. People were wearing everything from black tie to jeans and boots.
So the Festival begins with the March 25 performance of With Blood, With Ink and by the 3rd weekend you can see all 4 operas within that weekend. Go to fwopera.org to see all the fun things they have planned. I am definitely planning on seeing Cosi Fan Tutti… after all, I have to find out how it ends!
