Are Artists taking over Opera?

The Opera world, like any other stage-based area of creativity is constantly battling to reach contemporary audiences in addition to hardcore opera fanatics. It’s caught between whether it should remain true to itself and its original music and scripts, or if it should have the opportunity to adapt and change with the times.
It seems to be doing both, with the help of well-established contemporary artists.
We recently saw William Kentridge’s production of the Magic Flute- with scenery and direction by him, and the production provided by the Royal Opera House of Belgium. The Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York is currently staging four performances. We went with an entourage of South African supporters, currently in town. Kentridge successfully opens up the work to a wider audience. He reduces the need for usually literal clumsy scenery and replaces it with his films- a series of animated charcoal drawings specifically drawn for the opera.
I enjoyed the fact that he played on the imagery and ideas held in the Magic flute- of which there is plenty- allowing us to be drawn into the story by the images as well as what was happening on stage.
Kentridge has been working on this for sometime now and many of these images have already become well known, especially within the South African Art community. This is perhaps a bad thing, in that I found a lot of the images to be very familiar. However there were people there that I know were blown away- having seen these images for the first time. There were moments when I felt there could have been a deeper exploration into the work-for instance the four trials, which are seemingly the grand finale of the Opera, were very uneventful and unmemorable. Other devices of projection and its interaction with the cast were more successful- like that of the chalkboards and rear projection at the back of the stage-where most of the action took place in terms of Kentridges work.

This is the first of many opera’s to involve artists. Coming soon to the Lincoln Center is the Tristan Project- an adaptation of Tristan and Isolde, with video work by Bill Viola. In an interview I heard with him on NPR, he simply spoke about how he was able to fit existing ideas and work within the framework of the opera. I felt that this was somewhat missing the point, but it is difficult and expensive work to produce- and the act of lending his work and name to an Opera will already draw a far wider audience. I haven’t seen it yet so I can’t really provide an opinion.

Also on the way is a work by Philippe Parreno: “Parreno is also co-curating a group opera called Il Tempo del Postino with Hans Ulrich Obrist for the inaugural Manchester International Festival in July 2007. Showcasing international artists such as Matthew Barney, Olafur Eliasson and Carsten Höller, the opera is based around the idea of artists occupying a duration of time rather than an amount of space.” Parreno is currently showing at the Haunch of Venison Gallery in London.

In the meantime it’s back to work for me-with my Thesis exhibition coming up at Pratt Institute in about two weeks.