A night at the opera

[Image courtesy Canadian Opera Company]

Last Saturday night was my first experience at a "real" opera. Not a rock opera, or a compilation of arias from different operas (see Luminato 2007), but a bona-fide opera. A modern one at that.

Thanks to the Canadian Opera Company's discounted ticket program for folks under 30, the four of us in the group paid a mere $22 each for a fine dose of culture.

I first became aware of this work through Alex Ross' amazing book The Rest is Noise - Listening to the Twentieth Century, which helped me realize how and why classical music is and always will be important.

There's not much I can write in terms of a review, as I lack the basis of comparison, this of course being my first trip to the opera.

Here are a few thoughts:
-Surtitles are excellent. The libretto (the lyrics to an opera) is shown above the stage as it's being sung. I imagine the idea first came about so people could understand operas in languages other than their native tongue. Here, the opera is in English, and I still found it very helpful. Great for when you miss a line, and sometimes just because of the nature of the performance, the melody can take a back seat to clarity of enunciation.
One small drawback is that sometimes humour was lost because the line would appear above the stage before the line was actually delivered, and the audience reacted to the timing of the display rather than it actually being sung. But, what are you gonna do.

-The production design was pretty awesome. The TVs (see above image) highlight that this was a news event experienced around the world simultaneously. They can also be manipulated to show different images that reflect character's moods and thoughts. Very cool. Also: flashbulbs. The chorus took pictures during some scenes, mimicking the real events. This was not the case for the premiere.

-The cheap seats aren't that bad. We sat up on the 5th circle, and got a great view of the stage and orchestra. Not bad at all, especially for $22.

-This version (TVs and all), which I believe premiered in 2004, compared to the original 1987 premiere (see video below), is a major improvement. The performances and set design are so vibrant and stimulating. Time has served this opera well, and it only figures to get better as fact fades further away and this modern myth takes over.

-I find the third act to be a bit of a drag, and the whole thing ends on a subdued note after such bombastic and spirited first two acts. There's nothing wrong with that, but it just feels like there could have been a bigger payoff at the end.

So yeah. I'm going to take advantage of the $22 tickets until I'm no longer able, by which time I'll probably be addicted, which I guess has been the COC's fiendish plot all along. More material like this please, though. As my friend Adam says, you can swing a dead rat and find a production of The Magic Flute, but Nixon in China is far less common.

If you're thinking about going to the opera, check it out, the COC certainly puts on a good show.

===

Here's the broadcast of the opera's premiere in 1987, with introduction by Walter Cronkite. Don't just watch the first five minutes then shut it off, watch at least the first two parts. Obviously YouTube isn't the best forum for opera, but it'll give you a pretty good sense of what Nixon in China is about, even if the 2011 version blows it completely out of the water.