Virtual Virtuosi: The Met Opera Series
at TSL
by Ross Rice
With all due respect to those aficionados
and enjoyers of the grand tradition of Opera, most of you
reading this probably don’t care for opera, or at least
are pretty sure you THINK you don’t. It’s hard
to make a predominantly upper-crust European tradition going
back hundreds of years, with its creative peak some 150 years
ago, something new and resonant to present times. Opera is
expensive, usually only in major cities, you have to dress
up too much, and do they have to sing so dang loud? Why bother?
Well, if it was made a lot easier, why NOT
bother for a change? Time and Space Limited in Hudson offers
a way to experience opera in an almost ideal format, at a
very reasonable price. And not just any old opera company,
folks, but one of the world’s best: the Metropolitan
Opera, in New York City.
This month (the series runs through April
27) the opera is Charles Gounod’s Roméo et
Juliette, with libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré,
incidentally one of over 200 operas that have been based on
Shakespearean works. A Parisian who studied mostly 16th century
religious music in Italy, Gounod (1818-1893) is most known
for his musical setting of Ave Maria, and his opera
Faust, which actually caused some controversy when
a critic publicly doubted Gounod’s authorship, and found
himself challenged to a duel by the irate composer (the critic
retracted…now THAT’S how you handle a bad review!) Roméo
et Julliete, a perennial crowd-pleaser, though not considered
one of the all-time greats, still has plenty of great roles
and arias for top singers, and that all-important opera element:
a classic love story, with one (or both) of the lovers dying
very melodically and passionately. CONTINUE....
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