Artigos de revistas sobre o tema "Cape Cod (Mass.) – Guidebooks"

ABSTRACT The diversity of bacteria associated with the deer tick (Ixodes scapularis) was assessed using PCR amplification, cloning, and sequencing of 16S rRNA genes originating from seven ticks collected from Nantucket Island and Wellfleet, Cape Cod, Mass. The majority of sequences obtained originated from gram-negative proteobacteria. Four intracellular bacteria were detected including strains of Ehrlichia, Rickettsia, and Wolbachia and an organism related to intracellular insect symbionts from the Cytophaga-Flavobacterium-Bacteroides group. Several strains of members of the Sphingomonadaceae were also detected in all but one tick. The results provide a view of the diversity of bacteria associated with I. scapularis ticks in the field.

Abstract A cold, dry arctic air mass occupied southeastern Canada and the northeastern United States on 13–14 January 2004. This air mass was quite dry—total column precipitable water values at Pickle Lake, Ontario, Canada, and The Pas, Manitoba, Canada, were as low as 0.02 in. (0.5 mm)—allowing significant amounts of radiation originating from the surface to be detected using Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) 6.5-μm “water vapor channel” imagery. On this day the strong thermal gradient between the very cold snow-covered land surface in southern Canada and the warmer, unfrozen, cloud-free water along the northern portion of the Great Lakes was quite evident in GOES-12 imager water vapor channel data. Several hours later, as the cold dry air mass moved eastward, the coast of Maine, Cape Cod, and the Saint Lawrence River were also apparent in the water vapor channel imagery.

ABSTRACT The transport and attachment behaviors of Spumella guttula (Kent), a nanoflagellate (protist) found in contaminated and uncontaminated aquifer sediments in Cape Cod, Mass., were assessed in flowthrough and static columns and in a field injection-and-recovery transport experiment involving an array of multilevel samplers. Transport of S. guttula harvested from low-nutrient (10 mg of dissolved organic carbon per liter), slightly acidic, granular (porous) growth media was compared to earlier observations involving nanoflagellates grown in a traditional high-nutrient liquid broth. In contrast to the highly retarded (retardation factor of ∼3) subsurface transport previously reported for S. guttula, the peak concentration of porous-medium-grown S. guttula traveled concomitantly with that of a conservative (bromide) tracer. About one-third of the porous-medium-grown nanoflagellates added to the aquifer were transported at least 2.8 m downgradient, compared to only ∼2% of the broth-grown nanoflagellates. Flowthrough column studies revealed that a vital (hydroethidine [HE]) staining procedure resulted in considerably less attachment (more transport) of S. guttula in aquifer sediments than did a staining-and-fixation procedure involving 4′,6′-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) and glutaraldehyde. The calculated collision efficiency (∼10−2 for porous-medium-grown, DAPI-stained nanoflagellates) was comparable to that observed earlier for the indigenous community of unattached groundwater bacteria that serve as prey. The attachment of HE-labeled S. guttula onto aquifer sediment grains was independent of pH (over the range from pH 3 to 9) suggesting a primary attachment mechanism that may be fundamentally different from that of their prey bacteria, which exhibit sharp decreases in fractional attachment with increasing pH. The high degree of mobility of S. guttula in the aquifer sediments has important ecological implications for the protistan community within the temporally changing plume of organic contaminants in the Cape Cod aquifer.

Abstract. Twelve months of measurements collected during the Two-Column Aerosol Project field campaign at Cape Cod, Massachusetts, which started in the summer of 2012, were used to investigate aerosol physical, optical, and chemical properties and their influences on the dependence of cloud development on thermodynamic (i.e., lower tropospheric stability, LTS) conditions. Relationships between aerosol loading and cloud properties under different dominant air-mass conditions and the magnitude of the first indirect effect (FIE), as well as the sensitivity of the FIE to different aerosol compositions, are examined. The seasonal variation in aerosol number concentration (Na) was not consistent with variations in aerosol optical properties (i.e., scattering coefficient, σs, and columnar aerosol optical depth). Organics were found to have a large contribution to small particle sizes. This contribution decreased during the particle growth period. Under low-aerosol-loading conditions, the liquid water path (LWP) and droplet effective radius (DER) significantly increased with increasing LTS, but, under high-aerosol-loading conditions, LWP and DER changed little, indicating that aerosols significantly weakened the dependence of cloud development on LTS. The reduction in LWP and DER from low- to high-aerosol-loading conditions was greater in stable environments, suggesting that clouds under stable conditions are more susceptible to aerosol perturbations than those under more unstable conditions. High aerosol loading weakened the increase in DER as LWP increased and strengthened the increase in cloud optical depth (COD) with increasing LWP, resulting in changes in the interdependence of cloud properties. Under both continental and marine air-mass conditions, high aerosol loading can significantly increase COD and decrease LWP and DER, narrowing their distributions. Magnitudes of the FIE estimated under continental air-mass conditions ranged from 0.07±0.03 to 0.26±0.09 with a mean value of 0.16±0.03 and showed an increasing trend as LWP increased. The calculated FIE values for aerosols with a low fraction of organics are greater than those for aerosols with a high fraction of organics. This implies that clouds over regions dominated by aerosol particles containing mostly inorganics are more susceptible to aerosol perturbations, resulting in larger climate forcing, than clouds over regions dominated by organic aerosol particles.

Two Nitrification-Denitrification Biological Excess Phosphorus Removal (NDBEPR) systems have been operated for 8.5 months in order to compare their Biological Excess Phosphorus Removal (BEPR) performance. One of these systems, i.e. the University of Cape Town (UCT) system, exhibits mainly aerobic P uptake while the External Nitrification Biological Nutrient Removal Activated Sludge (ENBNRAS) system is characterised by high anoxic P uptake. It was observed that when operating with predominantly aerobic P uptake, the UCT system released more P than the ENBNRAS system, even though it had a lower anaerobic mass fraction. However, when the influent TKN/COD was high, i.e. >0.1, anoxic P uptake also occurred in the UCT system and P release dropped to lower levels than in the ENBNRAS. Accordingly, P uptake of the UCT system was 5 mg P/l influent higher than that of the ENBNRAS system, when it was predominantly aerobic, but 9 mg P/l influent lower when anoxic P uptake occurred. As a result, the UCT system achieved superior P removal when aerobic P uptake was predominant (23% higher), but when high influent TKN/COD promoted anoxic P uptake the P removal of the UCT system was poorer than that of the ENBNRAS system. This study clearly showed that anoxic P uptake is not beneficial to NDBEPR systems.

ABSTRACT In a new twist on an old procedure, pneumatically injected miniature well points may change soil investigations much as nail guns have changed carpentry. Soil vapor analysis has increasingly gained attention as a means of locating and monitoring subsurface gasoline spills. Accurate depiction of the plume position requires reproducible vapor detection and monitoring. In addition, static water level needs to be determined to understand flow direction. Miniature aluminum slitted well points can be mass-produced by computer-aided production facilities to create low-cost identical copies about 10 cm in length. The small points can be inserted into shafts and injected into the ground. The shaft is then pulled back, leaving a flexible teflon or polypropylene tubing attached. A gasoline spill at Falmouth, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, provided an opportunity to test the use of the injected “shield” points. More than 40 vapor points were installed in two days during four transects across a product plume located 10 m below grade.

Abstract. Aerosol optical properties were measured by the DOE/ARM (US Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurements) Program Mobile Facility in the framework of the Two-Column Aerosol Project (TCAP) deployed at Cape Cod, Massachusetts, for a~one year period (from summer 2012 to summer 2013). Measured optical properties included aerosol light-absorption coefficient (σap) at low relative humidity (RH) and aerosol light-scattering coefficient (σsp) at low and at RH values varying from 30 to 85%, approximately. Calculated variables included the single scattering albedo (SSA), the scattering Ångström exponent (SAE) and the scattering enhancement factor (f(RH)). Over the period of measurement, f(RH = 80%) had a mean value of 1.9 ± 0.3 and 1.8 ± 0.4 in the PM10 and PM1 fractions, respectively. Higher f(RH = 80%) values were observed for wind directions from 0–180° (marine sector) together with high SSA and low SAE values. The wind sector from 225 to 315° was identified as an anthropogenically-influenced sector, and it was characterized by smaller, darker and less hygroscopic aerosols. For the marine sector, f(RH = 80%) was 2.2 compared with a value of 1.8 obtained for the anthropogenically-influenced sector. The air-mass backward trajectory analysis agreed well with the wind sector analysis. It shows low cluster to cluster variability except for air-masses coming from the Atlantic Ocean that showed higher hygroscopicity. Knowledge of the effect of RH on aerosol optical properties is of great importance for climate forcing calculations and for comparison of in-situ measurements with satellite and remote sensing retrievals. In this sense, predictive capability of f(RH) for use in climate models would be enhanced if other aerosol parameters could be used as proxies to estimate hygroscopic growth. Toward this goal, we propose an exponential equation that successfully estimates aerosol hygroscopicity as a function of SSA at Cape Cod. Further work is needed to determine if the equation obtained is valid in other environments.

Abstract. Aerosol optical properties were measured by the DOE/ARM (US Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurements) Program Mobile Facility during the Two-Column Aerosol Project (TCAP) campaign deployed at Cape Cod, Massachusetts, for a 1-year period (from summer 2012 to summer 2013). Measured optical properties included aerosol light-absorption coefficient (σap) at low relative humidity (RH) and aerosol light-scattering coefficient (σsp) at low and at RH values varying from 30 to 85%, approximately. Calculated variables included the single scattering albedo (SSA), the scattering Ångström exponent (SAE) and the scattering enhancement factor (f(RH)). Over the period of measurement, f(RH = 80%) had a mean value of 1.9 ± 0.3 and 1.8 ± 0.4 in the PM10 and PM1 fractions, respectively. Higher f(RH = 80%) values were observed for wind directions from 0 to 180° (marine sector) together with high SSA and low SAE values. The wind sector from 225 to 315° was identified as an anthropogenically influenced sector, and it was characterized by smaller, darker and less hygroscopic aerosols. For the marine sector, f(RH = 80%) was 2.2 compared with a value of 1.8 obtained for the anthropogenically influenced sector. The air-mass backward trajectory analysis agreed well with the wind sector analysis. It shows low cluster to cluster variability except for air masses coming from the Atlantic Ocean that showed higher hygroscopicity. Knowledge of the effect of RH on aerosol optical properties is of great importance for climate forcing calculations and for comparison of in situ measurements with satellite and remote sensing retrievals. In this sense, predictive capability of f(RH) for use in climate models would be enhanced if other aerosol parameters could be used as proxies to estimate hygroscopic growth. Toward this goal, we propose an exponential equation that successfully estimates aerosol hygroscopicity as a function of SSA at Cape Cod. Further work is needed to determine if the equation obtained is valid in other environments.

ABSTRACT Microeukaryotes in oxygen-depleted environments are among the most diverse, as well as the least studied, organisms. We conducted a cultivation-independent, small-subunit (SSU) rRNA-based survey of microeukaryotes in suboxic waters and anoxic sediments in the great Sippewisset salt marsh, Cape Cod, Mass. We generated two clone libraries and analyzed approximately 300 clones, which contained a large diversity of microeukaryotic SSU rRNA signatures. Only a few of these signatures were closely related (sequence similarity of >97%) to the sequences reported earlier. The bulk of our sequences represented deep novel branches within green algae, fungi, cercozoa, stramenopiles, alveolates, euglenozoa and unclassified flagellates. In addition, a significant number of detected rRNA sequences exhibited no affiliation to known organisms and sequences and thus represent novel lineages of the highest taxonomical order, most of them branching off the base of the global phylogenetic tree. This suggests that oxygen-depleted environments harbor diverse communities of novel organisms, which may provide an interesting window into the early evolution of eukaryotes.

ABSTRACT Time series incubations were conducted to provide estimates for the size selectivities and rates of protistan grazing that may be occurring in a sandy, contaminated aquifer. The experiments involved four size classes of fluorescently labeled groundwater bacteria (FLB) and 2- to 3-μm-long nanoflagellates, primarily Spumella guttula(Ehrenberg) Kent, that were isolated from contaminated aquifer sediments (Cape Cod, Mass.). The greatest uptake and clearance rates (0.77 bacteria · flagellate−1 · h−1 and 1.4 nl · flagellate−1 · h−1, respectively) were observed for 0.8- to 1.5-μm-long FLB (0.21-μm3 average cell volume), which represent the fastest growing bacteria within the pore fluids of the contaminated aquifer sediments. The 19:1 to 67:1 volume ratios of nanoflagellate predators to preferred bacterial prey were in the lower end of the range commonly reported for other aquatic habitats. The grazing data suggest that the aquifer nanoflagellates can consume as much as 12 to 74% of the unattached bacterial community in 1 day and are likely to have a substantive effect upon bacterial degradation of organic groundwater contaminants.

ABSTRACTSince 1998, cyclic mortality events in common eiders (Somateria mollissima), numbering in the hundreds to thousands of dead birds, have been documented along the coast of Cape Cod, MA, USA. Although longitudinal disease investigations have uncovered potential contributing factors responsible for these outbreaks, detecting a primary etiological agent has proven enigmatic. Here, we identify a novel orthomyxovirus, tentatively named Wellfleet Bay virus (WFBV), as a potential causative agent of these outbreaks. Genomic analysis of WFBV revealed that it is most closely related to members of theQuaranjavirusgenus within the familyOrthomyxoviridae. Similar to other members of the genus, WFBV contains an alphabaculovirus gp64-like glycoprotein that was demonstrated to have fusion activity; this also tentatively suggests that ticks (and/or insects) may vector the virus in nature. However, in addition to the six RNA segments encoding the prototypical structural proteins identified in other quaranjaviruses, a previously unknown RNA segment (segment 7) encoding a novel protein designated VP7 was discovered in WFBV. Although WFBV shows low to moderate levels of sequence similarity toQuaranfil virusandJohnston Atollvirus, the original members of theQuaranjavirusgenus, additional antigenic and genetic analyses demonstrated that it is closely related to the recently identified Cygnet River virus (CyRV) from South Australia, suggesting that WFBV and CyRV may be geographic variants of the same virus. Although the identification of WFBV in part may resolve the enigma of these mass mortality events, the details of the ecology and epidemiology of the virus remain to be determined.IMPORTANCEThe emergence or reemergence of viral pathogens resulting in large-scale outbreaks of disease in humans and/or animals is one of the most important challenges facing biomedicine. For example, understanding how orthomyxoviruses such as novel influenza A virus reassortants and/or mutants emerge to cause epidemic or pandemic disease is at the forefront of current global health concerns. Here, we describe the emergence of a novel orthomyxovirus, Wellfleet Bay virus (WFBV), which has been associated with cyclic large-scale bird die-offs in the northeastern United States. This initial characterization study provides a foundation for further research into the evolution, epidemiology, and ecology of newly emerging orthomyxoviruses, such as WFBV, and their potential impacts on animal and/or human health.

Little is known of the endangered and declining western North Atlantic population of the Roseate Tern Sterna dougallii outside the breeding season, when most mortality probably occurs. We used geolocators to track Roseate Terns in 2007 and 2009 and retrieved six units with useful data. In the post-breeding period in July-August, all six birds staged around Cape Cod, close to the breeding site. They started southward migration from 28 August to 14 September and flew directly across the western North Atlantic Ocean to staging areas around Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. We identified five major areas and four minor areas in the West Indies and along the north and east coasts of South America where birds stopped over for 2-24 d during southward and northward migrations. Birds arrived at (Northern Hemisphere) wintering areas from Guyana/Suriname on the north coast of South America to eastern Brazil between 3 October and 2 November. They left wintering areas from 7-23 April and arrived back at the breeding area from 5-30 May. Although this study is based on data for only six birds, it identifies several stopover and wintering areas that should receive priority for future studies and potential conservation measures. Geolocators did not impair Roseate Terns' ability to raise young in the year the devices were attached, but lower than expected rates of return suggest that the geolocators reduced survival, and most of the birds that returned had lost body-mass and did not breed in the year of return.

Abstract. Submarine groundwater discharge was quantified by a variety of methods in Salt Pond, adjacent to Nauset Marsh on Cape Cod, USA. Discharge estimates based on radon and salinity took advantage of the presence of the narrow channel connecting Salt Pond to Nauset Marsh, which allowed constructing whole-pond mass balances as water flowed in and out due to tidal fluctuations. A box model was used to estimate discharge separately to Salt Pond and to the channel by simulating the timing and magnitude of variations in the radon and salinity data in the channel. Discharge to the pond is estimated to be 2200±1100 m3d-1, while discharge to the channel is estimated to be 300±150 m3d-1, for a total discharge of 2500±1250 m3d-1 to the Salt Pond system. This translates to an average groundwater flow velocity of 3±1.5 cm d-1 Seepage meter flow estimates are broadly consistent with this figure, provided discharge is confined to shallow sediments (water depth <1 m). The radon data can be modeled assuming all groundwater fluxes to both the channel and to the pond are fresh, with no need to invoke a saline component. The absence of a saline component in the radon flux may be due to removal of radon from saline groundwater by recent advection of seawater or it may to due to the presence of impermeable sediments in the center of the pond that limit seawater recirculation. This groundwater flux estimated from the radon and salinity data is comparable to a value of 3200-4500 m3d-1 predicted by a recent hydrologic model (Masterson, 2004; Colman and Masterson, 2004). Additional work is needed to determine if the measured rate of discharge is representative of the long-term average, and to determine the rate of groundwater discharge seaward of Salt Pond. Data also suggest a TDN flux from groundwater to Salt Pond of ~2.6 mmol m-2d-1, a figure comparable to fluxes observed in other eutrophic settings.

Abstract. Submarine groundwater discharge was quantified by a variety of methods for a 4-day period during the early summer of 2004, in Salt Pond, adjacent to Nauset Marsh, on Cape Cod, USA. Discharge estimates based on radon and salinity took advantage of the presence of the narrow channel connecting Salt Pond to Nauset Marsh, which allowed constructing whole-pond mass balances as water flowed in and out due to tidal fluctuations. The data suggest that less than one quarter of the discharge in the vicinity of Salt Pond happened within the pond itself, while three quarters or more of the discharge occurred immediately seaward of the pond, either in the channel or in adjacent regions of Nauset Marsh. Much of this discharge, which maintains high radon activities and low salinity, is carried into the pond during each incoming tide. A box model was used as an aid to understand both the rates and the locations of discharge in the vicinity of Salt Pond. The model achieves a reasonable fit to both the salinity and radon data assuming submarine groundwater discharge is fresh and that most of it occurs either in the channel or in adjacent regions of Nauset Marsh. Salinity and radon data, together with seepage meter results, do not rule out discharge of saline groundwater, but suggest either that the saline discharge is at most comparable in volume to the fresh discharge or that it is depleted in radon. The estimated rate of fresh groundwater discharge in the vicinity of Salt Pond is 3000-7000 m3 d-1. This groundwater flux estimated from the radon and salinity data is comparable to a value of 3200-4500 m3 d-1 predicted by a recent hydrologic model (Masterson, 2004; Colman and Masterson, 2004), although the model predicts this rate of discharge to the pond whereas our data suggest most of the groundwater bypasses the pond prior to discharge. Additional work is needed to determine if the measured rate of discharge is representative of the long-term average, and to better constrain the rate of groundwater discharge seaward of Salt Pond.

Abstract. The radiative impact of organic aerosols (OA) is a large source of uncertainty in estimating the global direct radiative effect (DRE) of aerosols. This radiative impact includes not only light scattering but also light absorption from a subclass of OA referred to as brown carbon (BrC). However, the absorption properties of BrC are poorly understood, leading to large uncertainties in modeling studies. To obtain observational constraints from measurements, a simple absorption Ångström exponent (AAE) method is often used to separate the contribution of BrC absorption from that of black carbon (BC). However, this attribution method is based on assumptions regarding the spectral dependence of BC that are often violated in the ambient atmosphere. Here we develop a new AAE method which improves upon previous approaches by using the information from the wavelength-dependent measurements themselves and by allowing for an atmospherically relevant range of BC properties, rather than fixing these at a single assumed value. We note that constraints on BC optical properties and mixing state would help further improve this method. We apply this method to multiwavelength absorption aerosol optical depth (AAOD) measurements at AERONET sites worldwide and surface aerosol absorption measurements at multiple ambient sites. We estimate that BrC globally contributes up to 40 % of the seasonally averaged absorption at 440 nm. We find that the mass absorption coefficient of OA (OA-MAC) is positively correlated with the BC ∕ OA mass ratio. Based on the variability in BC properties and BC ∕ OA emission ratio, we estimate a range of 0.05–1.5 m2 g−1 for OA-MAC at 440 nm. Using the combination of AERONET and OMI UV absorption observations we estimate that the AAE388∕440 nm for BrC is generally ∼ 4 worldwide, with a smaller value in Europe (< 2). Our analyses of observations at two surface sites (Cape Cod, to the southeast of Boston, and the GoAmazon2014/5 T3 site, to the west of Manaus, Brazil) reveal no significant relationship between BrC absorptivity and photochemical aging in urban-influenced conditions. However, the absorption of BrC measured during the biomass burning season near Manaus is found to decrease with photochemical aging with a lifetime of ∼ 1 day. This lifetime is comparable to previous observations within a biomass burning plume but much slower than estimated from laboratory studies. Given the large uncertainties associated with AERONET retrievals of AAOD, the most challenging aspect of our analysis is that an accurate, globally distributed, multiple-wavelength aerosol absorption measurement dataset is unavailable at present. Thus, achieving a better understanding of the properties, evolution, and impacts of global BrC will rely on the future deployment of accurate multiple-wavelength absorption measurements to which AAE methods, such as the approach developed here, can be applied.

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 >.