Promise to Neptune....
FANS OF SYMPHONIC MUSIC AND FANS OF OPERA DON'T ALWAYS AGREE.
My wife Rose and I regularly attend concerts of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; her sister Marion loves Lyric Opera. We rarely go together, or own identical CDs. It's like sail boaters vs. power boaters: They belong to the same yacht clubs, but don't sit at the same end of the bar.
Nevertheless, as a Carleton College graduate steeped in the tradition of liberal arts, I felt obliged to respond positively when called to attend two operas as part of the school's recent Alumni Adventure in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Fortunately, Professor Lawrence Archbold, who teaches an opera survey course, appeared to offer guidance.
We would attend Bizet's Carmen on a Friday night followed by Mozart's Idomeneo on a Saturday night. Who is not familiar with the finger-snapping Habanera or chest-pounding Toreador song from Carmen, but Idomeneo? As I confessed to Professor Archbold, I couldn't hum a single tune; it might as well be Hip-Hop.
The title character in Carmen is a sultry worker in a cigarette factory who, after being arrested, lures a soldier into setting her free. The soldier follows Carmen to the mountains only to discover she's fallen in love with a bullfighter. The soldier stabs her in the final scene.
Idomeneo is more a problem thematically. He's a king returning to Crete after the Trojan Wars. Caught in a storm, Idomeneo promises Neptune that, as a sacrifice, he will slay the first individual he meets on the beach if his ship is spared. Alas, the first one he sees is his son. It takes three hours of singing for Idomeneo to get out of his bargain.
Symbols of Their Era
But as we learned from Professor Archbold, the two operas were more than mere musical dramas; they were symbols of their era. Idomeneo, commissioned in 1781 by a Bavarian ruler, was written to be performed at court, not before the general public. Aristocrats attending could be expected to know the Greek legend upon which Mozart based his music. "They didn't buy tickets," explained Professor Archbold. "They were expected to understand the plot, based on their classical education."
Idomeneo, we learned, followed the tradition of the Italian opera seria (serious opera), the story line often pushed forward by simple recitatives: two singers talking, accompanied only by harpsichord and bass. True to his innovative nature, Mozart modified the traditional ABA form for arias to ABAB. Because of the irrational behavior of the gods, Professor Archbold suggested that the audience might consider it a "coded anti-clerical statement." You don't need to be a musicologist to appreciate why Idomeneo served as a pivot point as opera music evolved from classic to romantic.
By the time Bizet wrote Carmen in 1875, opera had become more a public spectacle, at least in France. "Bizet was influenced by ticket managers who wanted some thumping, good songs to appeal to the masses," explained Professor Archbold. Carmen, thus, followed more the traditions of the French opera comique (comic opera), although Professor Archbold conceded there's nothing funny about the heroine being stabbed just before the curtain drops. Carmen and her bullfighter lover Escamillo sang songs based more on folk tunes, thus were perceived as more blue-collar. The soldier Don Jose and his jilted girl friend Micaella sang songs more classical in nature, branding them as aristocrats. The opera, thus, became a symbol of class struggle, important in the aftermath of the French Revolution. French audiences also loved lavish spectacles, including more dancing that Italian audiences would have tolerated.
Thanks to the guidance of Professor Archbold, we enjoyed both operas, Carmen more than Idomeneo. Perhaps I'm more the romantic: I can identify more with a lady who runs off with a bullfighter than a father who promises to kill his son. "Opera audiences agree," conceded Professor Archibold. "That is one reason why Carmen still is performed widely and Idomeno is rarely heard."
Copyright © 1999 by Hal Higdon. All rights reserved.