As Richard Gere's character says in Pretty Woman, "People's reactions to opera the first time they see it is very dramatic; they either love it or they hate it. If they love it, they will always love it. If they don't, they may learn to appreciate it, but it will never become part of their soul."
Luckily, The Metropolitan Opera has started to have certain performances of their operas shown live in HD at select movie theaters. So, LoveMuffins and some freinds and I decided to take advantage of a world premiere show, "The Enchanted Island" this past weekend.
This was an interesting choice to be my first opera experience. The premise of the opera is that the- now married- lovers from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream are shipwrecked on the magical island from Shakespeare's The Tempest. The description from The Met Opera's website: "In one extraordinary new work, lovers of Baroque opera have it all: the world’s best singers, glorious music of the Baroque masters, and a story drawn from Shakespeare. In The Enchanted Island, the lovers from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream are shipwrecked on his other-worldly island of The Tempest. Inspired by the musical pastiches and masques of the 18th century, the work showcases arias and ensembles by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, and others, and a new libretto by Jeremy Sams."
To begin with, the set was absolutely fabulous. Magical and fantastic, even. It was a traditional proscenium combined with projections and 2D set pieces. Completely unreal looking- which is perfect for an opera called "The Enchanted Island," and was so entrancing to watch.
The lovers' ship sinking:
Neptune's undersea home:
Ferdinand's Ship sailing to the island under Neptune's direction:
And I've decided that I need to get into performing in operas (ok... maybe just operettas, which are what I think of as opera "light," haha) so that I can wear costumes like this:
Sycorax (Caliban's mother and Prospero's spurned ex-lover): Yes, that is a full-length feather cloak.
Miranda (Prospero's daughter and the lovers' and Ferdinand's love interest):
While I was not completely pleased or impressed by the plot and the character development, this opera was fascinating to watch. I can honestly say I've never seen anything like this onstage before. It was sometimes beautiful, sometimes creepy, or sometimes magical- depending on the scene. And the moods created by the combination of the music, set, costumes, and lighting was unbelievably good. Check out some of the looks they created in this teaser video:
Have you ever seen anything onstage that looks like that monster's mouth at the 7 second mark? It was amazing. Our entire group that went kept saying "wow" and "that's so cool" and "amazing" throughout the performance. We unanimously thought it looked fantastic.
Now, about the plot. There were holes to say the least. And I have to say that I was a bit disappointed by the lack of emotional depth in much of the acting and libretto. The lovers, for instance, were completely shallow. While they were the comedic relief, I still expected them to be at least a bit convincingly in love.
Then there was Prospero, the tyrant magician of the island. He was the lead male in the opera and supposed to be very domineering and threatening. When he opened his mouth to sing the opening number in the show, I was completely shocked to hear a woman's voice coming out. He is a countertenor, which I now understand is a characteristic of baroque style opera. However, it didn't work for me. Maybe I'm just uncultured, but I find it hard to accept that a man singing in a female style voice is scary, sad, or anything serious, in fact. Plus he wasn't even a good actor aside from that. Here is a video of him singing an aria not from this opera, to demonstrate my point:
I believe the most frustrating plot point was the ridiculous deus ex machina moment. The god Neptune, who had a good reason to be in the first act of the show, randomly shows up and resolves the primary conflict of the show for no apparent reason. Sycorax, the classic "woman scorned," has been plotting vengeance on Prospero for all the wrongs he has committed against her for the entire opera. Then finally when she is about to get it, Prospero begs for forgiveness and Neptune pops up out of nowhere to tell Sycorax that mercy is godly. And so she forgives him. Just like that. It was weird... and I didn't like it. We think it happened because the singer playing Neptune is famous, and so they wanted to give him another aria. That's the only thing that made sense to us.
However, several of actors and characters were fantastically developed and acted. Sycorax, for example, was unbelievable. I was happy when the bows at the end showed her to have top billing for the opera. And her son, Caliban, was also fantastic. But my favorite by far was the actress who played Ariel, the enslaved spirit of the island. She was interviewed at intermission, and she said she drew part of her inspiration from Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. I had been thinking the same thing myself, and I think it worked wonderfully for her character. Plus, she was a wonderful singer and stunningly gorgeous. I would love to see her again in something. Here is a recording of one of her arias:
All in all, I enjoyed my first opera experience very much. But I will be going to a more traditional and less "cutting edge" opera the next time I do this, in April, La Traviata. I'm excited to continue to broaden my cultural horizons!
