A little over three weeks ago I received an email from my friend Miguel Lerin. He’s the fella in the photo caught in his natural habitat. He asked me to come to Barcelona to be part of the Judging panel for the big 50th anniversary “Concurs Francesc Viñas” in Barcelona, Spain. Mirella Freni, who should have been on that panel, came down with something serious enough to keep her from leaving home. Miguel asked me to come take the chair with her name on it, and I am confident that at least I did a great job of keeping it warm.
On my way back home, about 2 weeks ago, I started a blog that absorbed all of my meager writing abilities for the week that followed. One week ago, I decided to chuck it in the digital dust bin. The trip to Barcelona gave me artistic heart burn, and no amount of ranting was going to make it better.
Barcelona is a great city! The reports of dire economic conditions in Spain are not to be taken lightly, but to walk the streets of Barcelona is to see a city that shows no fear. In fact, I am not the only non-Spanish judge at the “Concurs Francesc Viñas” who was struck by the vibrancy of Barcelona. The cultural life in Barcelona that I saw was not wilting under economic sogginess either. The appreciation for Barcelona’s operatic heritage was on full display in the ceremonies and installations remembering Francesc Viñas and the great acts of love his descendants have dedicated to his name for the past 50 years.
The competition itself was most interesting. And therein lays the discontent that inspired me to beat my keyboard with a vengeance last week. I lost myself to my passionate opposition to modern trends in the opera business, and I slashed madly at those whom I see turning Opera into an art form for the eyes.
It was a dark week of ruminating rage after rubbing shoulders with Music Moguls made my vision color everything red. So what positive statements can I make about the experience? Number one: I got over it! Halleluiah!! Number two: I saw friends who helped get the red out of my eyes. Number three: I was able to help one of those friends. Number four: I heard lots of singers.
Now I’m HAPPY again, taking coffee with my wife in the morning, shoveling snow and teaching voice. Now that the red is gone, I can see the snow is white, and it’s about time to get serious and get on with the blog. Coffee with the wife has benefits for the hubby that may get overlooked by some tenors. In my case, Debbie hands me lots of information that she digs up from the internet. Just yesterday she shared a sad picture of Plattsburgh that she found painted in two articles posted by our local paper. When I read them I knew I had to use them. I also knew that Debbie deserves a salary adjustment.
First, I want to report the existence of great vocal instruments in the human population. I was introduced to a lot of them at Viñas. Second, I want to report that all the voices that passed through Viñas need to know Garcia. Third, I want to report the ignorance of the truth of Garcia in high places. The majority of my fellow judges contented themselves by eliminating the most interesting singing from the final. That interest was due to the least influence of “Factory” teaching on those singers. When those voices didn’t come back for the Semi Final, I had to do my best to rate the returning talent from least to most boring. Fourth, I want to announce that the world of Opera is in the same predicament as my local community.
In Barcelona I found a mix of individuals among whom there were more than a few who are as concerned as I am about the precarious position in which many Opera Houses can be found. Among the judges there was at least one who worried about the low ticket sales at the box office of the Metropolitan Opera. My Debbie found an article about that problem one morning and told me about it between sips of coffee. With confirmation that this newspaper article was telling the truth, I brought it up with the most important Opera person I met in Barcelona, Joan Francesc Marco. Since he was not one of my fellow judges, I consider myself fortunate to have been seated next to him at a luncheon. He had other concerns that took up the majority of our conversation, but the whole line of discussion started with my question: “Does the Liceu (his theatre) share the Met’s problem of ticket sales taking a downward turn.” Mr. Marco answered “Yes”.
I may be flattering myself to even have an opinion, tenor that I am, but it seems to me that an entertainment without a ticket purchasing audience is certainly going to go the way of cities and towns with populations who can no longer afford the administration of their municipalities.
Our local newspaper offered us two articles that are great examples of the difficulties that face the North Country. The first tells us about one among many problems that face anyone wanting to start a job creating business in the extreme north of New York State. The other article does a great job of praising the concerned elite of our community for their efforts to address the problems they recognize as creating demographic difficulties. That these articles showed up in the same edition was too rich to pass up. The local “wise people” of Plattsburgh think that if you build a theatre accessible by riding your bicycle along the Saranac River, education will improve, young families will flock north and the progeny of those folks will stick around to ride their bikes to the Strand Theatre. Really??!! I think they forget that these super fit, hypothetically well-educated, culturally sophisticated people need a community with an economy in which a career can be made.
The Musical Mogul would seem to have a similar dream. He seems to think that if the stage is outfitted with something truly innovative for sets and the staging of the cast is of the same innovative quality and the talent on the stage is nice to look at and clothed to maximize the visual effect, then the audience will be entertained and they will have copious income from the box office as confirmation that all is well with the World of Opera. Don’t look now. That is not happening. Innovation is everywhere to be seen. What these Moguls forget is that Opera is first an audible art form. The singing is the engine of audience interest. Bore them with the singing, and you will only have the visual portion of the entertainment to keep them interested. The singers who were favored by the majority of judges at Viñas bored me, and I have to credit those singers with the ability to do the same for any other normal entertainment consumer. I hate to be the bad guy messenger, but the average High Definition wide screen TV with standard cable service is better eye candy than most anything Opera Companies can afford to put on their stage. Opera without vocal entertainment is like Plattsburgh without a thriving economy. Ticket sales at the Opera box office could shrink as fast as the immigration of sophisticated families to Plattsburgh.
What bucks this shrinking trend and actually grows? TICKET PRICES AND TAXES. Now what are we to think of this? The art world sure looks like the smaller real world of Plattsburgh.