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January 19th, 2006 admin

Mets Francisco

Opera With Popcorn

A major cultural war is raging as I write these words, a war over the future of one of the great art forms. That art form is opera, which the advertising-industrial complex seems to have adjudged unworthy of survival.

It is classist, they assert. It attracts fat singers, too—although for the life of me I don’t see why a fat opera singer is any more unattractive than a fat middle schooler, of whom we see droves every day. And the kids can’t even sing.

Fortunately, the opera companies and their supporters (including me) have decided not to go gentle into the bad night marketing experts have foreseen for this wonderful part of our cultural heritage. Led by the famed Metropolitan Opera and the distinguished San Francisco Opera, they have taken the war to selected cineplexes, both in America and abroad. Their secret weapon: HDTV productions of great operas, shown on the screen in your favorite movie complex.

I do not, by the way, exaggerate in calling this a “secret” weapon. At least in the Lehigh Valley, very little seems to be made of these presentations, either by the theaters that are carrying them or by arts journalists you would expect to take notice. There was at least one ad somewhere—I learned of it only by hearsay—and an announcement on a conscientious public radio station. Maybe there was notice on other public radio and television outlets; but where I live I can only receive one station.

A friend and I managed to learn that the San Francisco Opera HDTV series would be shown at the Carmike Cineplex, on Catasauqua Road. I hate to mention them by name, since they seem to have neglected their duty to advertise these offerings. On the other hand, at least they’ve been carrying them.

Having ascertained that the great French opera “Samson and Dalila” was about to be featured at Carmike, my friend and I decided to go and experience HDTV opera firsthand. And we did.

How was it different from going to the opera house in New York or Philadelphia?

In many ways, some good, some bad, some indifferent. It was, to begin with, a WHOLE lot cheaper than buying a ticket to the Met and rambling on down to New York City. Score one for the good side.

Then too, here you are allowed to buy popcorn and a drink, if you like, and munch and sip your way through the entire performance. We did not do that, but I found it a nice, egalitarian option. Call this another good thing. It’s not available at the Met.

On the negative side, we arrived early and were treated for a while to an outpouring of Led Zeppelin. That, actually, was the type of thing I had been hoping to get away from. When I complained about it afterward, an employee replied that they had had to do that to make up for the loss involved running the opera series. But in fact if the series were being promoted many more people would have come than the handful who showed up, and they could have run it at a profit.

As to the opera itself, we had never before seen it in this way. And there were, of course, some adjustments to be made. The lead singers, Olga Borodina and Clifton Forbis, are on the large side; so it was at first disconcerting to see them two or three times life size. And we can also bear witness to the fact that opera singers sweat, something I don’t suppose we had thought about before.

But the drama caught us up. By the time Samson brought down the Philistine temple at the end of Act III, we almost jumped back to avoid the falling column drums and bricks. It was, all in all, an amazing experience.

My advice? Force Carmike to run the rest of the series at a profit. Call them up to see what other operas are available. Pick one, pack up your friends, and show up for one.

Let’s win this culture war.

About the Author

JOAN CAMPION is a historian and memoirist whose works include “In The Lion’s Mouth: Gisi Fleischmann and the Jewish Fight for Survival.” Most recently she has published “Jerusalem Journal: Adventures In A Desert Landscape.” She is fond of cats and of all kinds of music, especially opera. More information can be found at http://authortree.com/joancampion

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