Journal articles on the topic 'Ariadne auf Naxos= Ariadne on Naxos'

El presente estudio realiza un análisis mitocrítico de Ariadna en Naxos (Ariadne auf Naxos) de Richard Strauss (1916), con un doble objetivo. El primero, comprobar la pertinencia de la tesis de Gilbert Durand sobre la permanencia, derivación y usura del mito cuando se aplica a textos literarios, libretos musicales, textos fundamentales de la cultura, de la ciencia y del arte, así como en soporte iconográfico, fílmico y musical. Nuestro segundo objetivo es reflexionar, desde el punto de vista de la hermenéutica simbólica, sobre el mensaje antropológico, psicológico y espiritual contenido en la ópera de Strauss.

Aquest article examina com un cas de «mythopoiesis» l’ús creatiu del mite de l’abandonament d’Ariadna a Naxos i de la seva unió posterior amb el déu Dionís-Bacchus a l’òpera Ariadne auf Naxos de Hugo von Hofmannsthal i Richard Strauss. Amb la introducció del personatge de Circe com a pretendent amorosa prèvia del jove déu, Hofmannsthal converteix el «deus ex machina» de la faula original en el subjecte d’un procés mutu d’enamorament amb Ariadne presentat com una «allomatische Verwandlung», una metamorfosi recíproca.

Recognition and reflection of the radially structured semantic intertextual raster in the opera Ariadne auf Naxos Op. 60 by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, are the goals of this paper, with the awareness that ‘reading’ of this complex textual amalgam cannot be comprehensive and that this is only one of the possible ways of looking at different languages, their texts, and relationships in which they come in, with the emphasis on the connection between the music and architectural texts. The focus is to spot some of the paths in this specific music-scenic maze. The recognition of the ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ opera house implies the withdrawal of the parallels between the music-dramatic and the architectural level. The concept of ‘opera within the opera’ is simultaneously present in the musical-dramatic sphere (opera Ariadne in opera Ariadne auf Naxos) and in the architectural sphere (opera/residential house in the opera house). By concurring with the different meaning of the word ‘opera’ which it has in the music-drama (opera as a musical-drama work) and architectural language (opera as an architectural object), we carry out the terms meta-opera ‘per square’ (‘metaopera’) and meta-opera ‘per cube’ (‘metaopera’).

The subject of the article is the problem of the synthesis of arts in the creative collaboration of Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss. А special turn of the problem «music and word» is analyzed, when a musical performance arises in close cooperation between a composer, who is responsible for correcting the text and a writer dealing with the musical palette of their common creation. R. Strauss and G. Hofmannsthal were united by the very concept of the philosophical and aesthetic inheritance of F. Nietzsche, whose research predetermined the theoretical and philosophical basis of their cooperation. The creation of the play «Ariadne on Naxos» was based on the principles, in many respects similar to the Nietzsche's concept of the relationship between music and word. It also made it possible to turn to mythological operas «Helena of Egypt». It is concluded, the work on the opera «Ariadne on Naxos» has become a long-awaited synthesis of opposing views on antiquity and the deep origins of ancient Greek art for its creators.

The theme of transformation (Verwandlung) plays a significant role in the work of Richard Strauss, from his Tod und Verklärung (1889) to his Metamorphosen (1945). This article examines two Strauss operas where transformation is a central aspect of the libretto: Ariadne auf Naxos (1912/16), libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and Daphne (1937), libretto by Joseph Gregor. Though each opera focuses on transformation, this concept is interpreted and realized in entirely different ways. For Hofmannsthal, Verwandlung is a journey outward to a new level of existence, attaining a new sense of humanity. For Gregor, transformation is an inward movement, joining nature, and becoming divine in the German-Romantic sense of the term.

Abstract Georg Benda’s Ariadne auf Naxos (1775) was an immediate success. By the end of the century, not only was it in the repertory of nearly every German theatre, but it was also one of the few German-language pieces translated for performances across Europe. Central to this melodrama—traditionally defined as an alternation of emotional declamation and pantomime with instrumental music—is its evocation of the sublime. Though scholars have posited Ariadne and its defining aesthetics as a model employed in subsequent Romantic opera, such teleological readings overlook reform melodramas that embraced vocal music and localized sublime moments. I argue that these works, rather than Ariadne, pushed melodrama’s generic boundaries to the verge of opera and in the process provided instrumental music with the power to express the sublime without the aid of text. This exploration offers fresh insight into melodrama’s music–text relations, generic hybridity, and aesthetic entanglements with opera and symphonic music.

The name of the conductor Max Conrad is hardly one to conjure with. He admitted as much himself in the first paragraph of his memoirs, published in 1956: To be sure, I was born in Berlin, as was [Bruno Walter]; he attended the Askanische High School in Berlin – as did I; he left it without finishing his school leaving certificate – as did I; he studied music with teachers from the Stern Conservatory – as did I; and he soon became famous – and I … oh dear, now it becomes irregular, like a Greek verb …For more than 30 years, Conrad (1872–1963) played a major role in the operatic life of Zurich. In the greater scheme of things, this might perhaps be regarded as of little significance, for Zurich's was then but a theatre in the outer provinces of the German-speaking world. Nor did Conrad achieve recognition by conducting important premières there, as did other men (such as Robert F. Denzler, who conducted the world premières of Hindemith's Mathis der Maler and Berg's Lulu in the 1930s, or Hans Rosbaud, who conducted the staged première of Schoenberg's Moses und Aron in 1957). Conrad did train the flower maidens for the first (legal) performance of Wagner's Parsifal outside Bayreuth, given in Zurich in 1913 – but the première itself was conducted by the chief kapellmeister, Lothar Kempter. To be sure, Conrad did conduct the world première of the revised version of Othmar Schoeck's fine expressionist opera Penthesilea in 1928; but that is hardly enough to ensure anyone posthumous fame.

Der behandelte Zeitraum ist durch den Beginn der 1753 von Melchior Grimm eröffneten <Correspondance littéraire> und den Rücktritt Georg Bendas vom Hofkapellmeisteramt 1778 eingegrenzt. Günstige Voraussetzungen für eine neue Epoche des Musiktheaters schufen die Besetzung der Hofkapelle, der italienische Kompositionsstil, das rationalistische Gedankengut Frankreichs und eine der weltlichen Kunst aufgeschlossene, von der Lektüre Leibnizens und Christian Wolffs geprägte Herzogin. Zwei markante Beispiele werden vorgestellt: das den tragischen Konflikt zwischen individuellem Schicksal und Staatsaktion gestaltende Duodram <Ariadne auf Naxos> von Brandes/Benda und Gotter/Bendas besonders dem "dritten Stand" und der gesellschaftskritischen wie musikästhetischen Denkweise Rousseaus zugewandtes Singspiel <Der Holzhauer oder Die drei Wünsche>.

Lucanus Cornelia-alakja a nyelvi és motivikus utalások szerint Vergilius és Ovidius mitikus nőalakjainak rokona, de motivikus szinten sokat köszönhet Propertiusnak és Seneca tragédiáinak is. Lucanus Cornelia-narratívájában meglehetős bizonyossággal tételezhető tudatos nyelvi és motivikus utalás egyrészt Catullus Ariadnéjára, másrészt Ovidius több, hosszabb-rövidebb Ariadne-narratívájára. A tanulmány áttekinti az Ariadne-történetre való lehetséges utalásokat Lucanus eposzában. Rómában, ahol az Ariadne-történet legtöbbet emlegetett része a naxosi epizód volt, a krétai királylány alakjához kapcsolódott a katastérismos képzete: az ’Ariadne Naxoson’-történet Corneliával való összekapcsolása ezért mitológiai metaforája lehet a megistenülés képzetének. Cornelia tehát erényes asszonyként éppúgy kiérdemeli a megistenülést a férjével kapcsolatban, mint Pompeius a maga férfiúi állapotában.

The article presents a new proposal to supplement v. 12 of the anonymous hexametric piece containing, most likely, the lament of Ariadne abandoned by Theseus on Naxos. The suggestion offered here (οὐκ or, better, οὐδ’ αἰδ]ὼς ἐν ὀνείρωι instead of δήλ]ωσεν ὀνείρωι or ὡς ἐν ὀνείρωι developed by other scholars) allows us to guess that the piece may have expressed Ariadne’s contradictory feelings and her moral dilemma.

In this article I suggest ways in which a gorgeously crafted, colourful, compelling 20th century painting of an abandoned Ariadne highlights both her tragic and comic presence in classical literary representations. Joseph South-all's 1925-6 work Ariadne in Naxos (tempera on linen, 83.5 × 101.6 cm), reproduced below, can be viewed in all its glory in the Birmingham City Art Gallery (bequeathed by the artist's widow, Anne Elizabeth, in 1948) but it was featured to fine effect in the 2007 exhibition The Parrot in Art: From Dürer to Elizabeth Butterworth, Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham. It was in this psittacine (psittaceous?) context that I first encountered Ariadne's parrot so the bird perhaps loomed larger in the painting than it might as a stand-alone Southall on its home ground in the Gallery.

В статье на основе переписки Рихарда Штрауса и Гуго фон Гофмансталя, а также других документальных источников подробно освещается сложный и длительный процесс создания оперы «Женщина без тени», от первых набросков либретто (1910) до премьеры в 1919 году. Эта опера, которой оба соавтора придавали огромное значение, может рассматриваться как их совместный opus magnum, которому присущи итоговые черты. Гофмансталь очень долго и тщательно работал над либретто, объединив в нем множество источников, сюжетных мотивов, цитат, отсылок к различным текстам европейской культуры. Созданная им волшебная сказка, изобилующая символами, аллегориями и театральными «чудесами» и вместе с тем заключающая в себе высокую этическую идею, наследует традициям барочного и классицистского театра. Сочиненной на этой основе опере Штрауса также свойствен обобщающий, суммирующий характер. По разнообразию и богатству выразительных средств эта масштабная партитура беспрецедентна для всего предшествующего творчества композитора. Она объединяет в себе как композиционные новации его экспрессионистских опер («Саломея», «Электра»), так и детализированность, камерность письма и новую трактовку голоса, найденные в «Ариадне на Наксосе». Одновременно «Женщина без тени» подводит итог развитию оперного театра начиная с Вагнера. С одной стороны, воздействие Вагнера (и, конкретно, его последней музыкальной драмы «Парсифаль») в штраусовской партитуре несомненно. С другой— «Женщина без тени» венчает развитие жанра «сказочной оперы», который переживал расцвет в немецкоязычных странах после Вагнера и считался плодотворной альтернативой оперной продукции многочисленных вагнеровских подражателей. Штраус и Гофмансталь поднимают «сказочную оперу», расцветшую на непритязательном фольклорном материале, до уровня высоких философско-этических обобщений и тем самым словно возвращают ее к метафизическим вагнеровским первоистокам. Таким образом «Женщина без тени», поставленная уже после Первой мировой войны, становится последней вершиной немецкой романтической оперы, объединяющей ее разнонаправленные тенденции. Building upon the correspondence between Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, as well as other documentary sources, this paper discusses in detail the complicated and prolonged process of the creation of the opera “Die Frau ohne Schatten”, from the first drafts of the libretto in 1910 to the opera’s first staging in 1919. This opera, considered paramount by both authors, can be regarded as their collective “opus magnum”. Hofmannsthal devoted a lot of time and effort to the libretto, amalgamating numerous sources, literary motifs, quotations, references to various texts of the European culture. As a result, he created a fairy tale abounding with symbols, allegories and theatrical “miracles” and at the same time conveying a profound ethical message, which carries on the tradition of the Baroque and Classicism theatre. The opera composed by Strauss also has a universal, generalizing character. The diversity and exuberance of this grand work is unprecedented for the composer. It combines compositional novelties of his expressionist operas (“Salome”, “Elektra”) with the nuanced, intimate character of music and the innovative treatment of voice discovered in “Ariadne auf Naxos”. At the same time, “Die Frau ohne Schatten” summarizes the development of the opera theatre since Wagner. On the one hand, the influence of Wagner (and, in particular, of his last music drama “Parsifal”) is apparent in Strauss’s composition. On the other hand, “Die Frau ohne Schatten” culminates the development of the genre of Märchenoper, which flourished in German-speaking countries after Wagner and was considered a viable alternative to the opera works of Wagner's numerous imitators. Strauss and Hofmannsthal raise the Märchenoper, which evolved from unpretentious folklore tradition, to the level of philosophical and ethical generalization, as if restoring it to Wagner’s metaphysical origins. Thus, “Die Frau ohne Schatten”, staged in the aftermath of the World War I, becomes the last pinnacle of German Romantic opera, encapsulating the diverse patterns of this genre.

It is a characteristic of Ovid's Heroides for each epistle implicitly to establish the dramatic time, context and motive for its composition by the particular heroine to whom it is attributed. In this way the poet is able to exploit the tension between the heroine's inevitably circumscribed awareness of the development of her story and the superior information which can be deployed by a reader acquainted with the mythical tradition or master-text which dictates what is actually going to follow: Penelope hands over a letter to a man whom the reader familiar with Homer can identify as Ulysses even if she cannot, Ariadne wonders whether Naxos is infested with tigers at a moment shortly before Dionysus and his tiger-driven chariot will arrive.

Naxos, the largest island of the Cyclades, in the center of the Archipelago, swayed over time between the two ends of the pendulum of insularity, namely between isolation and connectivity, in almost every aspect of human life (society, politics, economy, art, worship etc.). The article examines the position and importance of the island in the Archipelago but also its interaction with the neighboring mainland. It seeks the identity of its inhabitants and whether it differed from that of neighboring islands. It is a diachronic study based on the methods of Historical Archaeology, extending from the Early Iron Age to the end of the Roman period. In this respect, the limitations imposed by the material remains of the past can be overcome by the exploitation of textual evidence in conjunction with evidence found in the landscape and the natural resources. The starting point is the image of Naxos in myth and literature as a place chosen for the upbringing of gods (i.e., Zeus’ and Dionysus’) or as a deserted landscape of abandonment and pain (in the case of Ariadne). The article specifies which of these traditions are of local origin and which are panhellenic. Subsequently, local history issues related to the aspect of insularity are examined, such as: the trade of Naxian goods, the spread of Naxian coins, the mobility of Naxians as individuals (artists, professionals, pilgrims, etc.), products imports, the participation in alliances (i.e. Delian League, Second Athenian League, Nesiotic League), issues of colonization and mobility of Naxians in general etc.

Esta tradução tem como objetivo recriar a composição métrica de um excerto do Catulo 64, um epílio do poeta latino Caio Valério Catulo, com a aplicação das normas da métrica clássica da poesia em português, atribuindo valor e tonicidade à s sílabas e à s palavras. Esse poema em particular é um epitalâmio, uma canção escrita para ser lida em cerimônias nupciais, cujos personagens principais são Peleu e Tétis. O texto selecionado retrata o abandono de Ariadne por Teseu, recontado por êcfrase, uma narrativa presente em objetos inanimados ”“ neste caso, um manto bordado com os momentos de agonia e amaldiçoamento da filha de Minos na praia de Naxos enquanto vê seu amante deixá-la, despreocupado, após a vitória sobre o Minotauro, irmão dela. O metro original latino é o hexâmetro dactílico, composto por seis pés dáctilos, com substituições, como a inclusão de espondeus. Aqui, em português, os versos seguiram uma lógica similar, e houve a tentativa de emular tanto o tom épico quanto a cadência musical do Catulo 64.

The article examines the most famous work of the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt — The Kiss. It analyses the insufficiency of the existing, most common both in academic and popular culture interpretations of this painting as an abstract image of lovers, a kind of “yin and yang” or the struggle and unity of the male and female opposites. For the first time in Russian research, evidence of a specific plot of The Kiss is provided. Based on the artist’s career, then-contemporary literature, the context of the creation of the painting, and its figurative and symbolic content, the plot of the painting is identified as the meeting of Ariadne and Dionysus on the island of Naxos. This, in turn, reveals the semantic content of The Kiss not as an abstract “icon of love” or the image of gender relations, as universally perceived, but broadly — as a symbol of the fullness of life in general, correlating, on the one hand, with the programs of R. Wagner and F. Nietzsche, and on the other hand, with the aspiration of Art Nouveau to the ultimate modernity. As a whole, The Kiss reconciles the conditional avant-garde of modernity with strict academicism, being a capacious and emotionally charged variation on a classic theme, performed in the current artistic language. At the same time, in the context of the artist’s own path, The Kiss, due to the reversal of the plot about Theseus and the Minotaur, which was put on the poster of the first Secession exhibition, becomes a sign of overcoming the crisis of 1905 associated with the failure of the artist’s Faculty paintings and the break with the Secession.

AbstractIn this essay the author describes the genesis, transformation and function of cross-dressing in the history of the opera. Whereas in baroque times the woman in trousers - together with the castrato - was meant to meet the audience’s need for high-pitched, angelic voices, the »real« breeches part in post-baroque operas followed also other theatrical purposes. These purposes are examined in three cases: Mozart’s Cherubino (from Le Nozze di Figaro) - the first breeches part that was designed exclusively for a female singer - and Richard Strauss’ »young and romantic men« Octavian (from The Rosenkavalier) as well as the Composer (from Ariadne auf Naxos).

This article examines the changes in the casting of the role of Komponist in Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos. The article aims to establish the timeline of when this original soprano role became a staple of the mezzo-soprano category. The research involves an examination of the historical archives of international opera houses such as the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Vienna State Opera, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and the Royal Opera House in London. The conclusion reveals that the shift in voice type took place gradually between the 1960s and 1970s. The conclusion also proposes that the reason for this change lies in the development of the mezzo-soprano’s subcategories, which coincides with this period in the late 20th century.

Cultural sociologists (Bourdieu; DiMaggio, “Cultural Capital”, “Classification”; Gans; Lamont & Foumier; Halle; Erickson) wrote about high culture and popular culture in an attempt to explain the growing social and economic inequalities, to find consensus on culture hierarchies, and to analyze cultural complexities. Halle states that this categorisation of culture into “high culture” and “popular culture” underlined most of the debate on culture in the last fifty years. Gans contends that both high culture and popular culture are stereotypes, public forms of culture or taste cultures, each sharing “common aesthetic values and standards of tastes” (8). However, this article is not concerned with these categorisations, or macro analysis. Rather, it is a reflection piece that inquires if opera, which is usually considered high culture, has become more equal to popular culture, and why some directors change the time and place of opera plots, whereas others will stay true to the original setting of the story. I do not consider these productions “adaptations,” but “post-modern morphologies,” and I will refer to this later in the paper. In other words, the paper is seeking to explain a social phenomenon and explore the underlying motives by quoting interviews with directors. The word ‘opera’ is defined in Elson’s Music Dictionary as: “a form of musical composition evolved shortly before 1600, by some enthusiastic Florentine amateurs who sought to bring back the Greek plays to the modern stage” (189). Hence, it was an experimentation to revive Greek music and drama believed to be the ideal way to express emotions (Grout 186). It is difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when stage directors started changing the time and place of the original settings of operas. The practice became more common after World War II, and Peter Brook’s Covent Garden productions of Boris Godunov (1948) and Salome (1949) are considered the prototypes of this practice (Sutcliffe 19-20). Richard Wagner’s grandsons, the brothers Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner are cited in the music literature as using technology and modern innovations in staging and design beginning in the early 1950s. Brief Background into the History of Opera Grout contends that opera began as an attempt to heighten the dramatic expression of language by intensifying the natural accents of speech through melody supported by simple harmony. In the late 1590s, the Italian composer Jacopo Peri wrote what is considered to be the first opera, but most of it has been lost. The first surviving complete opera is Euridice, a version of the Orpheus myth that Peri and Giulio Caccini jointly set to music in 1600. The first composer to understand the possibilities inherent in this new musical form was Claudio Monteverdi, who in 1607 wrote Orfeo. Although it was based on the same story as Euridice, it was expanded to a full five acts. Early opera was meant for small, private audiences, usually at court; hence it began as an elitist genre. After thirty years of being private, in 1637, opera went public with the opening of the first public opera house, Teatro di San Cassiano, in Venice, and the genre quickly became popular. Indeed, Monteverdi wrote his last two operas, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and L’incoronazione di Poppea for the Venetian public, thereby leading the transition from the Italian courts to the ‘public’. Both operas are still performed today. Poppea was the first opera to be based on a historical rather than a mythological or allegorical subject. Sutcliffe argues that opera became popular because it was a new mixture of means: new words, new music, new methods of performance. He states, “operatic fashion through history may be a desire for novelty, new formulas displacing old” (65). By the end of the 17th century, Venice alone had ten opera houses that had produced more than 350 operas. Wealthy families purchased season boxes, but inexpensive tickets made the genre available to persons of lesser means. The genre spread quickly, and various styles of opera developed. In Naples, for example, music rather than the libretto dominated opera. The genre spread to Germany and France, each developing the genre to suit the demands of its audiences. For example, ballet became an essential component of French opera. Eventually, “opera became the profligate art as large casts and lavish settings made it the most expensive public entertainment. It was the only art that without embarrassment called itself ‘grand’” (Boorstin 467). Contemporary Opera Productions Opera continues to be popular. According to a 2002 report released by the National Endowment for the Arts, 6.6 million adults attended at least one live opera performance in 2002, and 37.6 million experienced opera on television, video, radio, audio recording or via the Internet. Some think that it is a dying art form, while others think to the contrary, that it is a living art form because of its complexity and “ability to probe deeper into the human experience than any other art form” (Berger 3). Some directors change the setting of operas with perhaps the most famous contemporary proponent of this approach being Peter Sellars, who made drastic changes to three of Mozart’s most famous operas. Le Nozze di Figaro, originally set in 18th-century Seville, was set by Sellars in a luxury apartment in the Trump Tower in New York City; Sellars set Don Giovanni in contemporary Spanish Harlem rather than 17th century Seville; and for Cosi Fan Tutte, Sellars chose a diner on Cape Cod rather than 18th century Naples. As one of the more than six million Americans who attend live opera each year, I have experienced several updated productions, which made me reflect on the convergence or cross-over between high culture and popular culture. In 2000, I attended a production of Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre in Prague, the very theatre where Mozart conducted the world premiere in 1787. In this production, Don Giovanni was a fashion designer known as “Don G” and drove a BMW. During the 1999-2000 season, Los Angeles Opera engaged film director Bruce Beresford to direct Verdi’s Rigoletto. Beresford updated the original setting of 16th century Mantua to 20th century Hollywood. The lead tenor, rather than being the Duke of Mantua, was a Hollywood agent known as “Duke Mantua.” In the first act, just before Marullo announces to the Duke’s guests that the jester Rigoletto has taken a mistress, he gets the news via his cell phone. Director Ian Judge set the 2004 production of Le Nozze di Figaro in the 1950s. In one of the opening productions of the 2006-07 LA opera season, Vincent Patterson also chose the 1950s for Massenet’s Manon rather than France in the 1720s. This allowed the title character to appear in the fourth act dressed as Marilyn Monroe. Excerpts from the dress rehearsal can be seen on YouTube. Most recently, I attended a production of Ariane et Barbe-Bleu at the Paris Opera. The original setting of the Maeterlinck play is in Duke Bluebeard’s castle, but the time period is unclear. However, it is doubtful that the 1907 opera based on an 1899 play was meant to be set in what appeared to be a mental institution equipped with surveillance cameras whose screens were visible to the audience. The critical and audience consensus seemed to be that the opera was a musical success but a failure as a production. James Shore summed up the audience reaction: “the production team was vociferously booed and jeered by much of the house, and the enthusiastic applause that had greeted the singers and conductor, immediately went nearly silent when they came on stage”. It seems to me that a new class-related taste has emerged; the opera genre has shot out a subdivision which I shall call “post-modern morphologies,” that may appeal to a larger pool of people. Hence, class, age, gender, and race are becoming more important factors in conceptualising opera productions today than in the past. I do not consider these productions as new adaptations because the libretto and the music are originals. What changes is the fact that both text and sound are taken to a higher dimension by adding iconographic images that stimulate people’s brains. When asked in an interview why he often changes the setting of an opera, Ian Judge commented, “I try to find the best world for the story and characters to operate in, and I think you have to find a balance between the period the author set it in, the period he conceived it in and the nature of theatre and audiences at that time, and the world we live in.” Hence, the world today is complex, interconnected, borderless and timeless because of advanced technologies, and updated opera productions play with symbols that offer multiple meanings that reflect the world we live in. It may be that television and film have influenced opera production. Character tenor Graham Clark recently observed in an interview, “Now the situation has changed enormously. Television and film have made a lot of things totally accessible which they were not before and in an entirely different perception.” Director Ian Judge believes that television and film have affected audience expectations in opera. “I think audiences who are brought up on television, which is bad acting, and movies, which is not that good acting, perhaps require more of opera than stand and deliver, and I have never really been happy with someone who just stands and sings.” Sociologist Wendy Griswold states that culture reflects social reality and the meaning of a particular cultural object (such as opera), originates “in the social structures and social patterns it reflects” (22). Screens of various technologies are embedded in our lives and normalised as extensions of our bodies. In those opera productions in which directors change the time and place of opera plots, use technology, and are less concerned with what the composer or librettist intended (which we can only guess), the iconographic images create multi valances, textuality similar to Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of multiplicity of voices. Hence, a plurality of meanings. Plàcido Domingo, the Eli and Edyth Broad General Director of Los Angeles Opera, seeks to take advantage of the company’s proximity to the film industry. This is evidenced by his having engaged Bruce Beresford to direct Rigoletto and William Friedkin to direct Ariadne auf Naxos, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and Gianni Schicchi. Perhaps the most daring example of Domingo’s approach was convincing Garry Marshall, creator of the television sitcom Happy Days and who directed the films Pretty Woman and The Princess Diaries, to direct Jacques Offenbach’s The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein to open the company’s 20th anniversary season. When asked how Domingo convinced him to direct an opera for the first time, Marshall responded, “he was insistent that one, people think that opera is pretty elitist, and he knew without insulting me that I was not one of the elitists; two, he said that you gotta make a funny opera; we need more comedy in the operetta and opera world.” Marshall rewrote most of the dialogue and performed it in English, but left the “songs” untouched and in the original French. He also developed numerous sight gags and added characters including a dog named Morrie and the composer Jacques Offenbach himself. Did it work? Christie Grimstad wrote, “if you want an evening filled with witty music, kaleidoscopic colors and hilariously good singing, seek out The Grand Duchess. You will not be disappointed.” The FanFaire Website commented on Domingo’s approach of using television and film directors to direct opera: You’ve got to hand it to Plàcido Domingo for having the vision to draw on Hollywood’s vast pool of directorial talent. Certainly something can be gained from the cross-fertilization that could ensue from this sort of interaction between opera and the movies, two forms of entertainment (elitist and perennially struggling for funds vs. popular and, it seems, eternally rich) that in Los Angeles have traditionally lived separate lives on opposite sides of the tracks. A wider audience, for example, never a problem for the movies, can only mean good news for the future of opera. So, did the Marshall Plan work? Purists of course will always want their operas and operettas ‘pure and unadulterated’. But with an audience that seemed to have as much fun as the stellar cast on stage, it sure did. Critic Alan Rich disagrees, calling Marshall “a representative from an alien industry taking on an artistic product, not to create something innovative and interesting, but merely to insult.” Nevertheless, the combination of Hollywood and opera seems to work. The Los Angeles Opera reported that the 2005-2006 season was its best ever: “ticket revenues from the season, which ended in June, exceeded projected figures by nearly US$900,000. Seasonal attendance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion stood at more than 86% of the house’s capacity, the largest percentage in the opera’s history.” Domingo continues with the Hollywood connection in the upcoming 2008-2009 season. He has reengaged William Friedkin to direct two of Puccini’s three operas titled collectively as Il Trittico. Friedkin will direct the two tragedies, Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica. Although Friedkin has already directed a production of the third opera in Il Trittico for Los Angeles, the comedy Gianni Schicchi, Domingo convinced Woody Allen to make his operatic directorial debut with this work. This can be viewed as another example of the desire to make opera and popular culture more equal. However, some, like Alan Rich, may see this attempt as merely insulting rather than interesting and innovative. With a top ticket price in Los Angeles of US$238 per seat, opera seems to continue to be elitist. Berger (2005) concurs with this idea and gives his rationale for elitism: there are rich people who support and attend the opera; it is an imported art from Europe that causes some marginalisation; opera is not associated with something being ‘moral,’ a concept engrained in American culture; it is expensive to produce and usually funded by kings, corporations, rich people; and the opera singers are rare –usually one in a million who will have the vocal quality to sing opera arias. Furthermore, Nicholas Kenyon commented in the early 1990s: “there is suspicion that audiences are now paying more and more money for their seats to see more and more money spent on stage” (Kenyon 3). Still, Garry Marshall commented that the budget for The Grand Duchess was US$2 million, while his budget for Runaway Bride was US$72 million. Kenyon warns, “Such popularity for opera may be illusory. The enjoyment of one striking aria does not guarantee the survival of an art form long regarded as over-elitist, over-recondite, and over-priced” (Kenyon 3). A recent development is the Metropolitan Opera’s decision to simulcast live opera performances from the Met stage to various cinemas around the world. These HD transmissions began with the 2006-2007 season when six performances were broadcast. In the 2007-2008 season, the schedule has expanded to eight live Saturday matinee broadcasts plus eight recorded encores broadcast the following day. According to The Los Angeles Times, “the Met’s experiment of merging film with live performance has created a new art form” (Aslup). Whether or not this is a “new art form,” it certainly makes world-class live opera available to countless persons who cannot travel to New York and pay the price for tickets, when they are available. In the US alone, more than 350 cinemas screen these live HD broadcasts from the Met. Top ticket price for these performances at the Met is US$375, while the lowest price is US$27 for seats with only a partial view. Top price for the HD transmissions in participating cinemas is US$22. This experiment with live simulcasts makes opera more affordable and may increase its popularity; combined with updated stagings, opera can engage a much larger audience and hope for even a mass consumption. Is opera moving closer and closer to popular culture? There still seems to be an aura of elitism and snobbery about opera. However, Plàcido Domingo’s attempt to join opera with Hollywood is meant to break the barriers between high and popular culture. The practice of updating opera settings is not confined to Los Angeles. As mentioned earlier, the idea can be traced to post World War II England, and is quite common in Europe. Examples include Erich Wonder’s approach to Wagner’s Ring, making Valhalla, the mythological home of the gods and typically a mountaintop, into the spaceship Valhalla, as well as my own experience with Don Giovanni in Prague and Ariane et Barbe-Bleu in Paris. Indeed, Sutcliffe maintains, “Great classics in all branches of the arts are repeatedly being repackaged for a consumerist world that is increasingly and neurotically self-obsessed” (61). Although new operas are being written and performed, most contemporary performances are of operas by Verdi, Mozart, and Puccini (www.operabase.com). This means that audiences see the same works repeated many times, but in different interpretations. Perhaps this is why Sutcliffe contends, “since the 1970s it is the actual productions that have had the novelty value grabbed by the headlines. Singing no longer predominates” (Sutcliffe 57). If then, as Sutcliffe argues, “operatic fashion through history may be a desire for novelty, new formulas displacing old” (Sutcliffe 65), then the contemporary practice of changing the original settings is simply the latest “new formula” that is replacing the old ones. If there are no new words or new music, then what remains are new methods of performance, hence the practice of changing time and place. Opera is a complex art form that has evolved over the past 400 years and continues to evolve, but will it survive? The underlining motives for directors changing the time and place of opera performances are at least three: for aesthetic/artistic purposes, financial purposes, and to reach an audience from many cultures, who speak different languages, and who have varied tastes. These three reasons are interrelated. In 1996, Sutcliffe wrote that there has been one constant in all the arguments about opera productions during the preceding two decades: “the producer’s wish to relate the works being staged to contemporary circumstances and passions.” Although that sounds like a purely aesthetic reason, making opera relevant to new, multicultural audiences and thereby increasing the bottom line seems very much a part of that aesthetic. It is as true today as it was when Sutcliffe made the observation twelve years ago (60-61). My own speculation is that opera needs to attract various audiences, and it can only do so by appealing to popular culture and engaging new forms of media and technology. Erickson concludes that the number of upper status people who are exclusively faithful to fine arts is declining; high status people consume a variety of culture while the lower status people are limited to what they like. Research in North America, Europe, and Australia, states Erickson, attest to these trends. My answer to the question can stage directors make opera and popular culture “equal” is yes, and they can do it successfully. Perhaps Stanley Sharpless summed it up best: After his Eden triumph, When the Devil played his ace, He wondered what he could do next To irk the human race, So he invented Opera, With many a fiendish grin, To mystify the lowbrows, And take the highbrows in. References The Grand Duchess. 2005. 3 Feb. 2008 < http://www.ffaire.com/Duchess/index.htm >.Aslup, Glenn. “Puccini’s La Boheme: A Live HD Broadcast from the Met.” Central City Blog Opera 7 Apr. 2008. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://www.centralcityopera.org/blog/2008/04/07/puccini%E2%80%99s- la-boheme-a-live-hd-broadcast-from-the-met/ >.Berger, William. Puccini without Excuses. New York: Vintage, 2005.Boorstin, Daniel. The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination. New York: Random House, 1992.Bourdieu, Pierre. 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And Cue the Soprano.” The New York Times 4 Sep. 2005.Los Angeles Opera. “LA Opera General Director Placido Domingo Announces Results of Record-Breaking 20th Anniversary Season.” News release. 2006.Marshall, Garry. “Interview with Garry Marshall.” The KCSN Opera House, 88.5 FM. 31 Aug. 2005.National Endowment for the Arts. 2002 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. Research Division Report #45. 5 Feb. 2008 < http://www.nea.gov/pub/NEASurvey2004.pdf >.NCM Fanthom. “The Metropolitan Opera HD Live.” 2 Feb. 2008 < http://fathomevents.com/details.aspx?seriesid=622&gclid= CLa59NGuspECFQU6awodjiOafA >.Opera Today. James Sobre: Ariane et Barbe-Bleue and Capriccio in Paris – Name This Stage Piece If You Can. 5 Feb. 2008 < http://www.operatoday.com/content/2007/09/ariane_et_barbe_1.php >.Rich, Alan. “High Notes, and Low.” LA Weekly 15 Sep. 2005. 6 May 2008 < http://www.laweekly.com/stage/a-lot-of-night-music/high-notes-and-low/8160/ >.Sharpless, Stanley. “A Song against Opera.” In E. O. Parrott, ed. How to Be Tremendously Tuned in to Opera. New York: Penguin, 1990.Shore, James. Opera Today. 2007. 4 Feb. 2008 < http://www.operatoday.com/content/2007/09/ariane_et_barbe_1.php >.Sutcliffe, Tom. Believing in Opera. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1996.YouTube. “Manon Sex and the Opera.” 24 Apr. 2008 < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiBQhr2Sy0k >.