Mayou Trikerioti, 6 June 2015

Session provoked by Yulia Shtern

Attending: John La Bouchardiere, Sarah Booth, Emma Black, Manuel Fajord, Stephen ?, Catherine Kontz, Jane Eve Shaughte, Mayou Trikerioti, Tim Lenkiewicz

- modernizing for the sake of modernization? vs classical staging

- is one allowed to change the words & music when modernising or is it just the set and costume and that makes it “ok”? 

so that lead to:

- can one take this further, ie. a modern compose re-composing? // parallel to theatre/Shakespeare being abridged to 60min for kids. that you cannot “cut” the music & make it work musically and narrative (there was no composer in the group at the time to help on this)

- modern audiences used to 90min films/plays

- Opera driven by ideas not narrative nowdays

- music education problem = embracing music can maybe lead to the ability to modernise.

- Most opera is from the dead vs theatre that is a more live form, with new writing produceed all the time.

- what the critics expect and what the audience expects / are we caged in that premise and cannot move forward, is this a ball and chain?

- we should ask WHY are you doing this piece now?

- do people “excuse” non-politically correct narratives in opera more so than in theatre? (ex.Cosi)

- is the solution to write new opera “inspired by…”

- can we look at the non politically correct without judging it, as “political correctness” can also lead to everything being transformed flat? That is the way it was written.

- musical education many people have never been to an opera

-lack of understanding of opera

-one day opera houses should be free?

- make the theatre space more socially accessible (ENO cafes meetings etc)

-modernise because it enriches the story or don't if it's not. HOWEVER who can be the judge of that?

- breaking the mould in order to have a career as a director or designer = a pressure that can be counter-productive.

- new opera = fear of the unknown.

- is the brand-name “opera” a problem?

– accessibility - value - you pay more therefore it is good - it costs a lot of money to produce.

- opera houses opening doors (occasionally to people that never watch opera +have £5 tickets.

- opera companies going into receiving houses don't know what their audiences as they cannot get info from box offices.

plus people are over surveyed and don't want to answer questions.

-opera should be for everyone

Tags:

accessibility, Audiences, audiences, Education, modernising, elitism, education, prices, Elitism