The Best Opera For Newbies, And Other Opera Questions

Tom Huizenga explains opera to NPR listeners: “It’s one of the most complicated art forms because, if you think about it: you’ve got drama, you’ve got music, you’ve got singing, you’ve got costumes, you’ve got lighting, you’ve got ballet sometimes. You’ve got all kinds of stagecraft. When all the cylinders are firing, it can be mind-blowing. But for me, it ends up being all about the voice. They’ve got to do it without a microphone, over the top of an orchestra, and they’ve got to project that voice, even if it’s soft, way up to the nose-bleed seats.” – NPR

Is There Anything Steve McQueen – Turner Winner, Oscar Winner, Recent Knighthood Recipient – Can’t Do?

He’s not a big fan of artistic cowardice. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s all about the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. End of. To get to that, you have to go in close, uncover what’s been hidden or covered over. Obviously, the easy thing is not to go there, but I have a need to go there.” – The Guardian (UK)

Sam Mendes Wins The Directors’ Guild Award For ‘1917’

Can any other film win the Oscar? Doubtful. “The strongest best-picture spoiler is likely Parasite, the South Korean thriller that prevailed at the Screen Actors Guild Awards this month and could become the first film not in the English language to win the top Oscar. Still, with the momentum of the PGA and DGA prizes, 1917 will be tough to beat.” – The New York Times

Dear Met: Please Create A Series Of Concert Performances

This series of unstaged performances of Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust was an accident – they were meant to be seven fully-staged performances. But what a happy accident, and what the Met could learn from the experience: “Rameau, Lully, Vivaldi: The glory of early music could finally ring at the Met without the pressure and expense of full stagings. Ditto Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise, a late-20th-century classic still unheard in this city.” – The New York Times

The Paris Opera Opens Again (Perhaps Briefly) After Weeks Of Strikes

Public sector workers, dancers, and musicians have been on strike since December, with cancellations costing the Paris Opera nearly 15 million euros. But Saturday night, the production of Tales of Hoffman went up. “‘To preserve the economic integrity of the Opera, we have made the decision to go ahead with the performance this evening, but we remain mobilised for the withdrawal of this bill,’ said a union representative at the start of the performance, in a statement recorded by a spectator and posted on Twitter.” – France24