This story is part of a series of 50 stories we are releasing to commemorate 50 years of opera in West Michigan. Browse more stories and follow our journey throughout the season.
Haworth President and CEO Franco Bianchi reflects on why he loves and supports the art form.
OUR FOUNDERS HAD A BOLD PROPOSITION: to build a professional opera company that would put Grand Rapids on the map for a very discerning audience. 50 years later, we are humbled to be the modern bearers of classical standards and modern ingenuity. Learn more.
SUPPORT OUR NEXT 50 YEARS
As an integral part of our city’s artistic fabric, it’s our responsibility to see to its continual flourishing. Please consider donating to Opera Grand Rapids to ensure our artistic excellence for the next 50 years and beyond. You’ve already made us great. With your support, there’s no limits to the height our voices can reach together. Give today.
Opera is deeply ingrained in our popular culture. The art form has long been a rich source of themes seen in film, TV, advertisements, and more recently, video games. Opera has helped to amplify the most dramatic scenes in movies, inspired all-out parodies and fanciful plot devices, and added comic relief to a plethora of TV advertisements. Here is a collection of our favorites pop culture references to Mozart’s masterpiece of masterpieces, The Marriage of Figaro.
Mad Men
One of the first episodes in the dramatic series, Mad Men (an award-winning drama about the high-pressure and glamorous world of Madison Avenue advertising firms) titled “The Marriage of Figaro”mimics the opera’s intertwining romances. In one scene, at the birthday party of Sally Draper, the viewer can hear music from the opera in the background.
Shawshank Redemption
One particularly memorable scene from the film Shawshank Redemption captures the essence of the film’s message of inner freedom irrespective of external circumstance. In this moving scene, former banker and wrongly-accused inmate Andy Dufresne locks himself in his Shawshank State Prison office and broadcasts “Canzonetta Sull’aria” from the opera The Marriage of Figaro over the prison’s PA system for all inmates to hear. The music lifts the spirits of the inmates, as described by the narrator in the film:
“I have no idea, to this day, what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful it can’t be expressed in words and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.”
Those words eloquently contradict the notion that opera needs to be understood in order to be appreciated, something that keeps many from opening themselves up to the art form.
So, what were ‘those two Italian ladies’ singing about? Coincidentally (or perhaps intentionally), the aria revolves around exposing duplicity and infidelity, similar to the film’s title character, Dufresne, who is framed for a murder resulting from his own wife’s extramarital affair.
The King’s Speech
In a triumphant overcoming, Bertie–later King George VI of England–is finally successful in eliminating his stammer with the aid of music from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. Under the direction of his speech therapist, Bertie utilizes headphones to muffle the sound of his speech, allowing the soon-to-be King the ability to speak like one.
Willy Wonka
In this classic children’s film, the viewer watches Willy Wonka play the overture from The Marriage of Figaro to unlock the famous chocolate factory doors. In the scene, Mrs Teevee, one of the children’s mothers, incorrectly claims the music is composed by Rachmaninoff, giving no credit to Mozart.
Zombie Land
The 2009 American zombie comedy, Zombieland, featured the overture from The Marriage of Figaro in a scene where the characters have fun by haphazardly destroying the merchandise in an unoccupied storefront.
This story is part of a series of 50 stories we are releasing to commemorate 50 years of opera in West Michigan. Browse more stories and follow our journey throughout the season.
An openness to new experiences among the young, emerging economic models, and a wealth of stories unique to the pace of life in the fiberoptic age are producing fascinating, original work for the stage. Whether your sensibilities tend toward the traditional or the bleeding edge of weird, this is the most exciting time for opera storytelling in four hundred years.
Diva Plavalaguna walks onto the stage, alone. Each tier of the house is packed to capacity with music lovers, but there is hardly a sound. Everyone present has traveled very far to see this. The orchestra, unseen, makes a few melancholy gestures as Plavalaguna takes three small steps from the shadows into the light. Her thick blue head tendrils hand in neat bunches over her shoulders. A colossal viewport behind her reveals the planet Fhloston, all ocean blue and cloud sworls. As she begins an aria from Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, her expression is beatific, as if she can see the music before her; accordingly, she scoops and caresses the air as she sings. Her skin is the blue of a child’s bedroom, and she is beautiful. The audience is enchanted.
Elsewhere on the pleasure barge, grotesque alien mercenaries are blasting their way through softly lit halls in search of their quarry. As the action escalates, so does the music. But the crescendo Donizetti aficionados expect never comes. Instead, the audience is treated to a burst of clearly-synthetic orchestra blasts. A skittering electronic drum track enters the fray, and Diva Plavalaguna is swaying like an alien flower in the breeze as her voice weaves its way through a series of impossible notes. Each melodic flourish now resembles the music of an electric violin. Her movements range between those of a sorceress and a hip-hop dancer.
The Fifth Element
Luc Besson’s 1997 sci-fi romp, The Fifth Element, was a crossover moment for contemporary opera. Its particulars suggest Besson was creating an “all-things-to-all-people” film; in 126 minutes, moviegoers are treated to the ineffably charming and often scantily-clad Milla Jovovich doing cartoonish martial arts, Bruce Willis in action mode, Chris Tucker playing a role designed for Prince (yes, the Prince), rubber-suited aliens, flying cars, and Gary Oldman rhapsodizing about the virtues of chaos in a southern accent. But ask someone about The Fifth Element today, and the extraterrestrial diva’s stirring performance is likely to come up immediately.
It was a crossover moment for opera, both musically and culturally. For many millions of Americans, the film marked the first time they had sat through an entire aria, however brief. Albanian soprano Inva Mula’s haunting rendition of Il dolce suono, a “mad scene” from Lucia di Lammermoor, was doubtlessly an entry point into the art form for many; the soundtrack sold well in the United States and elsewhere. One need only peruse internet music forums and reviews from the period to learn the techno-aria was the reason for most listeners’ interest.
The story of The Fifth Element may be riddled with robots and techno-Macguffins, but the scale and spectacle are sheerly operatic. In the twenty years since the film’s release, we have seen an explosion of fresh stories—interstellar and otherwise—told in the opera house. (As well as news operas in bars, parks, and on the internet.)
When it comes to the evolution of opera storytelling, the twentieth century was hardly conservative. After three hundred years of comparatively traditional narrative norms, worldwide upheaval and new art movements birthed avant-garde composers and librettists; they brought their sensibilities to the stage in droves. Philip Glass’s minimalism found its operatic apotheosis in 1976’s Einstein on the Beach—an absurdist five-hour production with no story whatsoever, based loosely around the titular scientist’s life.
In 1986, Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Zinovieff gave us The Mask of Orpheus. A meditation on truth, myth, and narrative itself, the opera takes place along multiple mythic, personal, and heroic axes; in practice, this means a labyrinthine production involving singers, mimes, and puppets acting out multiple versions of the same storyline simultaneously.
Die Hamletmaschine, a Wolfgang Rihm opera based on the postmodern play of the same name, is an exercise in ritualism, sensory-overload, and interpretation. Whether “The Hamlet Machine” is spiritually profound or difference borne of desperation is the audience’s decision, but no one can accuse this intentionally fractured piece of theater of playing it safe.
The storytelling sensibilities of opera have evolved alongside the rest of humanity’s conversation. Postmodernism, cinema verite, social justice movements, and a critical appraisal of opera’s own traditions are just a few factors that birthed the art form’s twentieth century mutations. In its constantly evolving modes of expression, opera becomes predictable.
Anna Nicole Smith, The Opera
The advent of the digital age is changing the way we tell stories, and the nature of the stories themselves. Rainy Park Opera’s The Tinder Opera is an internet opera about romance in the era of the dating app. Two Boys, an opera by composer Nico Muhly and playwright Craig Lucas, is ripped-from-the-headlines story about a murder that blossomed from an internet chat room encounter. Anna Nicole is an operatic take on the life and times of tabloid icon Anna Nicole Smith.
An openness to new experiences among the young, emerging economic models, and a wealth of stories unique to the pace of life in the fiberoptic age are producing fascinating, original work for the stage. The opera enthusiast (or the casual pub-goer) can see a five-hour opera epic on the weekend, or a 10-minute opera on their phone any day of the week. And the nature of those stories includes a gamut from an operatic adaptation of David Lynch’s Lost Highway to the timeless story of The Minotaur. The narrative landscape for our favorite art form is rich, broad, and sparkling with new ideas. Whether your sensibilities tend toward the traditional or the bleeding edge of weird, this is the most exciting time for opera storytelling in four hundred years. In its varied voices, the grandest story is that of opera itself—a tale of the total work of art, sustained by passion, and ever-changing.
OUR FOUNDERS HAD A BOLD PROPOSITION: to build a professional opera company that would put Grand Rapids on the map for a very discerning audience. 50 years later, we are humbled to be the modern bearers of classical standards and modern ingenuity. Learn more.
SUPPORT OUR NEXT 50 YEARS
As an integral part of our city’s artistic fabric, it’s our responsibility to see to its continual flourishing. Please consider donating to Opera Grand Rapids to ensure our artistic excellence for the next 50 years and beyond. You’ve already made us great. With your support, there’s no limits to the height our voices can reach together. Give today.
This story is part of a series of 50 stories we are releasing to commemorate 50 years of opera in West Michigan. Browse more stories and follow our journey throughout the season.
The sports roots of the phrase “it ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings”, Mozart as a child prodigy, and other interesting facts you probably don’t know.
Opera has a rich 400-year legacy. It’s no wonder it’s picked up a few entertaining stories along the way. We’ve collected some of our favorites below.
Maria Callas
Castrated men sang in place of women, who were banned from the stage
In the seventeenth century, women were not allowed to sing onstage. Instead, male singers who were castrated before puberty, or castrati, would sing their parts. Today, contraltos–the lowest and most rare female voice category–are often assigned roles originally written for castrated males. Learn more.
Who coined “It ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings”
The famous saying “it ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings” is in reference to buxom Brunhilde’s 10-minute aria at the end of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle. The phrase is usually attributed to professional basketball coach Dick Motta, who in turn attributes it to San Antonio sportswriter/broadcaster Dan Cook, who says he overheard a friend say it.
Opera is really an artist’s body of work
The word “opera” originates from the Latin word for word for “work” (opus). This is similar to someone’s best work being described as their magnum opus! Learn more.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart wrote an opera when he was just 12 years old
Mozart wrote his first opera, Bastien und Bastienne, a parody of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s operatic intermezzo Le devin du village (The Village Soothsayer), when he was only 12 years old. Learn more.
Richard Wagner
Wager considered writing operas about Jesus Christ and the Buddha
Later in life, Wagner, who became interested in Buddhism, is rumored to have considered writing operas about Jesus Christ and the Buddha.
OUR FOUNDERS HAD A BOLD PROPOSITION: to build a professional opera company that would put Grand Rapids on the map for a very discerning audience. 50 years later, we are humbled to be the modern bearers of classical standards and modern ingenuity. Learn more.
SUPPORT OUR NEXT 50 YEARS
As an integral part of our city’s artistic fabric, it’s our responsibility to see to its continual flourishing. Please consider donating to Opera Grand Rapids to ensure our artistic excellence for the next 50 years and beyond. You’ve already made us great. With your support, there’s no limits to the height our voices can reach together. Give today.
This story is part of a series of 50 stories we are releasing to commemorate 50 years of opera in West Michigan. Browse more stories and follow our journey throughout the season.
“In a way, [the arts field] is the social consciousness of our communities… With opera, particularly, and theater, we can be advocates for community unity. If we can draw people to what we do, so that they can share that experience, then we will have played out part in building a wonderful, embracing community. This is part of our mission.” – Artistic Director Maestro James Meena
We hear the word “diversity” invoked frequently in the media, and most institutions count increasing internal diversity among their organizational goals. At Opera Grand Rapids, diversity means much more to us than simply checking a series of boxes. As an arts organization, we are part of a grand cultural conversation, and we want to include everyone in that dialogue. We think that performances by and for people of all cultural backgrounds, ages, incomes, and perspectives make us a strong, vibrant community. But having those values is one thing; putting them into practice is another.
“Opera companies across the country have been working for more than a decade on building diverse audiences,” says Opera Grand Rapids Artistic Director James Meena. He says this initiative issues from arts organizations’ responsibility to their communities. “In a way, [the arts field] is the social consciousness of our communities. We also have assets we can leverage to bring people together for a shared experience not unlike what happens in sporting events. With opera, particularly, and theater, we can be advocates for community unity.” In that sense, Meena sees a performance of Rigoletto and a football game in much the same way: powerful live experiences that draw people of diverse backgrounds together to celebrate their shared passions. He sees opera as a form of positive social engineering. “If we can draw people to what we do, so that they can share that experience, then we will have played out part in building a wonderful, embracing community. This is part of our mission.”
2016 Attendees, Opera Grand Rapids Ballads & Brews event
To be an uplifting, unifying cultural force in the average community, opera has a lot of hurdles to overcome. The traditionally European artform must dislodge a mountain of stereotypes and a reputation for exclusivity if it is to appeal to people of all backgrounds and means. Says Meena, “The majority of the public does not view opera as being something that’s for them. They view it as something for the wealthy, who go to the opera in their furs and their diamonds, who want to be seen. That’s a stereotype. It’s not true, but it’s still what the majority of the public thinks.” (If you’re reading this, it is likely you have already found the opera to be more hospitable and less elitist than most.)
In order for OGR to have the diverse audience that opera deserves, we must employ diverse tactics in reaching new people. “In order for us to build audiences, and diverse audiences in particular, we have to extend ourselves to them,” Meena says. Opera Grand Rapids is not a traveling roadshow—it exists to serve Grand Rapids. It is imperative that we do so in a way that is as inclusive as possible. Sometimes that requires taking the opera to people where they live, work, and play. “We have to take our artists into the community,” says Meena. “That’s a way of expressing the welcoming nature of Opera Grand Rapids.” The maestro is confident that there are performances and stories for everyone, if opera can cross the chasm of people’s preconceptions. “We have to go meet with people, leaders, and organizations, and let them know the opera is a cultural institution belongs to them,” says Meena. “As members of the community, this is their opera company.”
For many people, the word “opera” may evoke an Italian period piece—a story concerned with courtly machinations and melodrama. While the pantheon of opera is populated with such stories, a creative explosion in recent years is producing operas that explore modern themes and employ innovative musical fusions, like OGR’s forthcoming performance of I Dream.
According to Meena, most operas began as topical, even contentious takes on issues of the day. “Opera stories, universally, have been very relevant. When Rigoletto was premiered, it was contemporary subject matter. It was about the nobility’s abuse of the middle class and the lower class, leading to social upheaval.”
Framed this way, I Dream, an opera about Martin Luther King, Jr., is firmly entrenched in the operatic tradition. It is also a great opportunity for us to take our artform outside the opera house and into the community; Opera Grand Rapids’ production of I Dream is part of the 32nd Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day event at Fountain Street Church, and open to the public. “[This opera] is taking a subject which resonates with contemporary audiences and presenting it in a safe venue, through the operatic medium—a venue where people can reflect on a big idea,” says Meena.
The Artistic Director is eager to continue bringing opera to people in other parts of the city, with the hope they will eventually join us for a performance in DeVos Hall. Small stages, public parks, and breweries have all been popular choices for those opera companies willing to court younger audiences. The venue may be casual and familiar, but the experience is still extraordinary. “It’s still the same experience,” Meena says. “They’re hearing great music, and seeing great theater and drama. This is going to be a growing part of opera’s business model across this country.”
Most people simply aren’t familiar with the wonders of opera. Living up to our charge as a cultural institution means meeting people where they live—sometimes aesthetically, sometimes literally. It means creating a welcoming space for people of all cultures and backgrounds. It also means allowing people of all income ranges to feel comfortable spending an evening with us. And it means telling stories both classical and fresh. For us, diversity isn’t just a buzzword. It’s a common thread uniting timeless art and strong communities, and we are proud to make it a top priority.
OUR FOUNDERS HAD A BOLD PROPOSITION: to build a professional opera company that would put Grand Rapids on the map for a very discerning audience. 50 years later, we are humbled to be the modern bearers of classical standards and modern ingenuity. Learn more.
SUPPORT OUR NEXT 50 YEARS
As an integral part of our city’s artistic fabric, it’s our responsibility to see to its continual flourishing. Please consider donating to Opera Grand Rapids to ensure our artistic excellence for the next 50 years and beyond. You’ve already made us great. With your support, there’s no limits to the height our voices can reach together. Give today.
