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Posted by marcabru on August 28, 2024, 8:52 pm, in reply to "Re: Opera in decline ?"
The tenor of the comments (pun intended) appears to indicate general agreement with my point that Baroque opera is viewed as a separable part of opera which is ancillary to the "real" opera of the Classical and Romantic eras, say 1775 - 1925.
I would note though that the historical opera orchestra size that Mozart had was fairly small by modern standards, probably around 25 players, not all that much more than for late Baroque opera. People listening to Mozart now are generally hearing orchestras significantly larger than Mozart did. Also I suspect from the comments that what people like from modern opera is as much the orchestral accompaniment as the voices. I am not saying for them that the voices are no more important than the orchestra, merely that the voices by themselves are inadequate for the mainstream opera goer who wants those voices accompanied by a large and varied orchestra going full tilt.
So I would agree that the mainstream operas are somewhat imperiled. Not by the (exemplary) large orchestra playing, but by the lessening interest in such big voices capable of being heard in such circumstances by the under 50 years old section of the opera audience, at least in the US and I suspect also in the UK. So I would agree to Mr Moore's discomfort, not only is Jonas Kaufmann the best of the tenors for this repertoire now (with a nod to Stuart Skelton), he is likely to be the last even this suitable. Both of them are closing in on 60 years after all.
So my prediction is an increasing divergence between the respective adequacy of mainstream opera singing vs Baroque and modern chamber opera singing. 
Previous Message
I suppose I am fairly typical of many opera lovers in that I quite enjoy some baroque operas but am less likely to go the expense of buying tickets for them when I can hear what is essentially a comparatively small-scale experience at home as opposed to what one hopes will be the impact and spectacle of Grand Opera from Gluck and Mozart onwards. That is why I have not done any surveys of them apart from "Dido and Aeneas", which I view as a special case; I see them as a separate - and yes, lesser - category and they do not usually fill a big house in the way that Verdi, Wagner and Puccini can. Having said that, I cherish memories of, for example, Janet Baker in the ENO "Julius Caesar" - but that was hardly performed in the period style which is now obligatory.
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I was just pointing out the context for Regietheater in Austro-Germany where there is still a reasonable public for classical music and opera as well as frequent performances. Something like Regietheater is not exportable from that remaining hothouse, I agree entirely, if only because of the more sporadic operatic performances elsewhere. But even trad performances are a bandaid for a museum repertoire.
As for Handel and Baroque, the expressed opinion of Noah (I don't know his personal view) is quite typical of the more traditional opera goer who is not tuned in to what is going on in the Baroque revival. Yes a clever or straightforward updating is rarely out of place. The De Niese Giulio is an example of the latter while the Bartoli exemplifies the former. But many more Baroque operas are being performed recently (past 30 years) and without any over the top added stage business. Effective stage management and a bit of expressivity carries the music and drama along very well (if one like Baroque music.) But a section of opera goers have trouble with the reduced instrumental accompaniment. Previous Message
I suppose what I'm attempting to say, amongst all this rambling, is that the problem with opera nowadays is not opera itself but the way it's presented.
I know that Handel's operas, in spite of some splendid music they contain, appear very stilted and need some updating with a bit of flesh on show and episodes of knockabout comedy (as in the dvd of Julius Caesar that I have) to make them "Go" but anything from Mozart onwards can , and in my opinion SHOULD be done, without deviating too much from the intentions of the original creators. Perhaps if we got back to that, opera might return to the popularity it enjoyed forty years ago.
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Opera in decline ? - Jeffrey Lague July 9, 2023, 11:54 am
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