I enthusiastically accepted when Opera Birmingham invited me to come watch a practice. If it’s not already on your calendar, take note that they’re preparing to perform The Marriage of Figaro in a couple of weeks. On both lists of “Best Operas” that I could find quickly (here and here), Figaro ranks in the top five. For that reason alone, you probably should make a point to go in person and see it performed. Go ahead and ask yourself: When’s your next opportunity to see a “Top Five” anything in Birmingham, Alabama?
I visited opera rehearsal in the context of just finishing my RPM Challenge album for 2010. If you’re an opera fan and reading this piece, then you’ll have absolutely no business whatsoever thinking about or listening to my completely amateur musical and singing efforts. All you really need to know is that RPM challenges musicians to write and record a whole album of music all in the short month of February. So the time between the creative idea and the realization of that idea is extremely (and perhaps excessively) short – just 28 days. Which allows precious little time for contemplation or technical mastery. You just rush to get in, get it done, and get out.
I speak from experience when I can tell you, even in a rush and with simple ideas and limited time, that the original inspiration always gets altered in translation. There are chord changes, lyrics, or ideas that just don’t fit. So they get taken out or changed. The finished product is at least a few left turns and veers removed from how it was envisioned that first week in February.
The flip side of the always-rushing-around coin would be something like The Marriage of Figaro. Mr. Mozart did his part for Figaro in the 1780s. That allows over two-hundred years between that particular genius idea and Opera Birmingham’s particular realization of that idea. It’s a pretty short list of works of art that regularly get performed two hundred years later.
The bad news is that Figaro’s expression is complexicated because – not only is Mozart’s idea as old as our country (and my-oh-my how times have changed) – it’s written in Italian. It also requires independent interpretation from a full cast of more than twenty singers, an orchestra, a conductor, and a director. Inevitably, stuff gets edited, pushed, pulled, and altered. The good news is that artsy, creative, and scholarly people have had over two hundred years to ponder those changes. And the performers have spent a lifetime on the details of technical mastery.
When something like Shakespeare’s plays, Bach’s fugues, or The Marriage of Figaro are performed, they stagger through your door with these generations of interpretational baggage. This contrasts with more modern entertainment. With movies, for example, you can often walk in unprepared and they’ll make a good faith and self-contained effort to explain it all to you. With that in mind, it’s my belief that every scrap you can learn about works like Figaro – before you go – will pay you back in spades. But don’t feel bad if you don’t know much about opera. Just like it was said at the rehearsal, “Remember, probably thirty to forty percent of this audience will have never seen opera before.” (I’ve only seen one.)
It’s not like you have to do anything highfalootin’ like study. Take this tidbit for example: Alabama native Susanna Phillips – who is cast as Countess Almaviva – wore her grandfather’s cowboy boots to practice. Isn’t that cool? Overheard there: “It’s not often you see a soprano in cowboy boots.” Do you like her more? I do. Will you visualize her in orangey-brown, broken-in boots even when you see her all “divaed up” on stage? I might.
Howabout this info: Apparently, The Marriage of Figaro is significantly fast for an opera. Though some others can stretch like five sentences of content into twelve minutes of singing, Figaro apparently requires a nimble tongue, a sense of timing, and some judicious editing of the audience’s titles. Like a a highly revved engine. Or an Italian and musical version of the Gilmore Girls. When you go, doesn’t that make you want to pay attention to the sheer speed? It does me. Will you be sensitive and listen for cast members that might miss lines or sing them over one another? I will.
Finally, back in the 18th century there weren’t any trailers, like for movies. So I’d imagine that an audience would find some other way of learning the general story before they went to see the show. Why not take a look at a synopsis (like here) and get an overview even before you get there? Let yourself concentrate on other things, like just how lovely the music can be. Even at practice, it was.
Thanks very much to Daniel Seigel and Opera Birmingham for this cool opportunity. My favorite random line of the day: “I’d pay real money to see Juilliard play Birmingham Southern in football.”
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