"Renee Fleming stars as the Egyptian courtesan, Thais, in search of spiritual sustenance. Thomas Hampson is the monk who falls from grace. Massenet's sensual opera is presented in a new production by John Cox."
Conductor: Jesus Lopez-Cobos
Production: John Cox
Starring: Renee Fleming, Thomas Hampson, Michael Schade
I am extremely fortunate to have a theater close to my home that has been broadcasting the Metropolitan Opera's current season in high definition. This is the third season of these broadcasts and the first season that I've been attending them. I've enjoyed four or five live operas in the past and seen a couple or three that I didn't particularly enjoy. These transmissions have been amazing. I'm finding that I enjoy these movie house presentations even more than the live productions that I've seen. Even when I've managed to snag the best seats in the house, I've never been able to see the subtleties of facial expressions that I've seen in these filmed performances. Behind the scenes action and interviews with the performers are included in these presentations. They add a sense of connection to the opera that I hadn't experienced before.
It's been interesting to me to see how popular these presentations have become. I think that technology and the efforts of opera's movers and shakers have made opera much more accessible both in terms of the cost of tickets and the ease of getting to a nearby theater. People have responded enthusiastically. Up until this past performance, the theater that I've gone to has been presenting the opera live on its premiere night with two rebroadcasts. This time around, and faced with virtually sold-out screenings, a third rebroadcast has been added. In the past, I've thought of opera as appealing to a primarily "high-brow" crowd. Now I see that it appeals to all sorts of people, though I have to note that there have been a disproportionate number of gray hairs, myself included, in the audience.
This Wednesday, I saw a rebroadcast of Thais by Massenet. This is the story of one person, a monk, who loses his soul in trying to save the soul of another person, the Egyptian prostitute/"kept"woman" Thais. The plot line is simple; the characters, who definitely change over the course of the opera, seem (to me) pretty much one dimensional. The appeal, besides the beautiful music, is in its stark choices, good vs. evil, and the decisions that we all experience though usually (and hopefully) in much less dramatic form. In Thais, the spirituality and the worldliness with which the characters wrestle is alien to me, yet not entirely. In the starkness of their struggle, I see the blurred faint muddle which is my own. Their lives touch and even pierce my own. And I am enriched.
8 comments:
I never had any music education past the "music teacher" coming to sing with us up to the sixth grade in our little elementary school, so I never was introduced to opera until my older daughter was in a magnate program for high school students where she studied piano. She wanted to attend operas and I accompanied her thinking I would be bored silly but they were beautiful! Attending them also opened my ears to the fact that I had been hearing portions of operas for years and had never recognized that they were the source of so many musical arrangements I had enjoyed in the past. We are all so fortunate now to have access to so many programs that we would never have had before. Have a great time!
I've enjoyed your read-up on this very, very much, I went to see The Phantom of the Opera in San Francisco, no less...totally amazing! The music though often has me closing my eyes so all in all while a live performance is special, I think I could get more as a video...you can always rewind lol also love Les miserables...
i used to listen when mother turned them on the radio, as a kid
when older, i watched the whole of wagner's ring of the niebelung series on tv, and enjoyed others as well :)
Kathy: You're right about the popularity of portions of operas. The piece in Thais that is identified as the meditation and that repeats throughout the performance is something that I have heard for years without knowing that it was from an opera. I find that the operas that I most enjoy have such melodies in them.
Lorraine: I love Les Miserables and could see it over and over again. I also saw Phantom in SF. It amuses me to think that we could have been in the same audience, even in the same row. :)
Laughingwolf: I haven't seen The Ring Series as yet and would do so if it was easily available.
Well if you were in the audience while I was there, you would have seen a brown long-haired pretty woman get up and leave...if you saw then we not only shared the opera but you also saw me ;)
(long, long story lol)
Lorraine: I'd like to hear that story some time. To tell you the truth, Phantom was a bit of a disappointment to me.
the ring is some 14 hours or so, arlene, i watched it over three or four days... well worth it D
Laughingwolf: I'd probably fall asleep with 14 hours over 3 or 4 days, but next time it's local, I may go to at least one of the showings.
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