Yesterday’s radio opera was “Florencia en el Amazonas” by Daniel Catán. It was a joint commission in 1996 from the opera companies in Houston, Los Angeles, and Seattle, and premiered in Houston. It’s said to be based (loosely) on “Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel García Márquez, but the story line is not so much Márquez’s as are the characters and mythical occurrences. From the very beginning, when Riolobo starts to serve as a quasi-narrator, it should be pretty clear just from his name that the opera is in a space where things happen which are not strictly explainable by science. And they do. I’m not a big fan of Ailyn Perez, for reasons which have nothing to do with opera, but perhaps it’s time for me to let that go – everyone else seems to have done so. The music is very listenable – and manages to avoid all the cliches that Americans (including me) associate with Spanish music, much of which was built up by French composers (I’m sure with good intentions.)
Peter Gelb – the managing director of the Met – really is trying to bring opera together with America – and to beinr America together through opera. Don’t say “Impossible” just yet. Even if opera is not for everyone (which I’m not convinced of, but will accept as a basis for discussion) it definitely is for a lot of people who don’t know it yet.
Interestingly, Heather Cox Richardson this weekend makes an understated but interesting case for using art (visual art) as a means to bring Americans together – and for the government’s role in doing that. Heather doesn’t say so – but we all know that Republicans aren’t actually opposed to spending money – they are only opposed to spending money on things that would help real prople – which certainly includes things which would help all Americans (or at the very least, more Americans) come together to work toward goals which would help all Americans. And that may be the best evidence that spending money on art helps real people – regardless of the genre of the art in question. I might also express this principle a different way by pointing out that there’s a reason Republicans like things to be bleak.
I don’t have a profound though tor image to hand just now … but Il’ll throw in a critter vid. They generally generate something on the order of joy, or at least restored faith.
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