One thing particular is going on in Philadelphia past the prospect of successful a Tremendous Bowl. After years of declining audiences, resulting in a diminished season this yr, operas are taking part in to packed homes. Within the fall of 2024, incoming Director, and world class countertenor, Anthony Roth Constanza took a giant swing to provoke his tenure: pay what you need ticket pricing for any seat in the home. Inside days, the season was basically a sellout, with two-thirds of the gross sales going to first time opera goers. The query of whether or not there’s nonetheless an viewers for opera in Philadelphia has been convincingly answered. In his opening remarks, Constanzo received acclamation together with his assertion to the viewers: “isn’t it nice to be sitting right here collectively listening to nice music?”. Now the problem is to place the enterprise on financially sound footing and maintain the newfound viewers members returning. Composer Bologne and conductor Bovell are welcome additions to that journey.
The good majority of latest operas showing at the moment comply with Callas’ recommendation and have severe themes addressed in severe methods. I personally would welcome a couple of extra romantic comedies with nice music for some comedian respites alongside the way in which in between being led to confront the darker facet of human nature. Is there no residing composer who needs to tackle Emily in Paris, the Opera, a contemporary tackle The Nameless Lover with Instagram and ladies having jobs? Actually? C’mon.
The Fan Expertise: The Nameless Lover was scheduled for performances on January 31 and February 2. The opera featured spoken dialog in English whereas vocals have been sung in French with English supertitles on a display overhead. The opera ran a bit of over 90 minutes with out an intermission.
The Choose Your Value format extends for the rest of the opera season, although checking simply now, there are solely restricted seats accessible for all performances of Don Giovanni, the remaining opera for this season. The pricing scheme for the subsequent season stays to be introduced.
Opera Philadelphia’s Scholar in Residence, Lily Kass, gave an informative pre-opera speak one hour earlier than the efficiency overlaying details about the composer and the opera. She corrected some misconceptions I had developed. For instance, whereas I had learn that Bologne had met Mozart, she stated they stayed in the identical residence in Paris for awhile, however there isn’t a factual proof that they really met. She identified that despite the fact that Bologne’s music is claimed to sound like Mozart, Bologne was born 14 years sooner than Mozart and The Nameless Lover was composed earlier than Mozart’s in style operas, that means let’s give Bologne credit score for being Bologne.
