The Baroque era saw many fundamental changes in music—the use of elaborate musical ornamentation, changes in musical notation, and new performance techniques. Noting the evolution of these transitions from the Renaissance era, Baroque music was just about as progressive and “outside the box” as one could get at that time.
There was one other musical addition of note. Because of the expanded size, range, and complexity of musical arrangements, the Baroque era also saw the development of opera as its own musical genre. From opera seria to opera buffa—and composers ranging from Handel to Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Porpora, and Monteverdi—the genre would progress even further, through the Classical and Romantic eras and right to today’s modern operatic stage.
But these early works—the building blocks of modern opera—were hardly left untouched in the past. Directors, both early and modern styled, have continued bringing these works to opera’s grand stage with approaches ranging from authentic to as modernly progressive as the Baroque era was itself.
“There is a regard paid to the evolution of early opera,” said Stephen Stubbs, the co-artistic director of the Boston Early Music Festival and artistic director of Pacific Musicworks in Seattle. Stubbs described producing early works for the modern stage as a kind of musical archeology, with production values placed on historical accuracy and musical value.
“Producing the work requires expertise and research in musical history,” Stubbs continued, “not only from the way the work was performed at that time but to the aesthetics—the movement of a nobleman or noblewoman, dance, costuming, delivery and instrumentation. We try to make it as accurate and authentic as possible, while still finding new and innovative ways to present the work to today’s audiences. So, for the modern director, it can be an enormous job and investment in the amount of preparation. It takes a lot of dedication and love.”
For the young aspiring singer, performing early operatic works of this nature can serve as a pivotal stepping stone in vocal, stage, and career development.
“The modern stage requires a lot of volume of its singers, something that younger singers don’t always posses,” Stubbs said. “But for early works, we’re not necessarily looking for volume more than we’re looking for the right kind of voice. It’s important to remember that when many of these early pieces were originally performed, they were sung by young voices in their teens and twenties. Youth is a positive value in these works.
“So, while a young singer might get turned down from the modern opera house or might be at the level where they are good enough to sing in the chorus or in a Young Artist Program, they might find a good fit with an early music festival or production and an opportunity to gain a lot of experience singing roles in these early works. A lot of established singers regionally, nationally, and throughout the opera world, like Natalie Dessay, got their start performing Handel and Baroque opera.
Young singers also excel for other reasons, says Stubbs. “For the skill sets required, Baroque might be more hirable for the young voice. The young singer also has an open mind. They are still formable and don’t yet have a set idea of singing and acting.”
And acting is of utmost importance in this arena. “Baroque opera is a strong spawn of theater,” Stubbs explained. “A lot of these works could translate easily to a stage play. As was the style of Baroque opera, it was based on free-flowing and conversational text. We like to create awareness that what singers are essentially doing is acting and using his or her voice to create a character. A singer has to be an actor from the very beginning.”
While Stubbs’ approach to early opera is deeply rooted in authenticity with modern touches, modern-styled directors, such as Peter Sellars, have been regarded for their imaginative—and somewhat controversial—contemporary restagings of operas from the Baroque period. Many opera critics have argued that these approaches stray too far from the composer’s intentions and cross over from high culture to pop culture. Directors and opera houses, however, have expressed using these means as a way to bring early works of art to modern audiences in an artistic, accessible, and entertaining way.
Sellars, who has directed opera for both stage and film, including 1990’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto—set in the modern Middle East as a crash course in geopolitics—will mount a new production of Handel’s Hercules for the Lyric Opera of Chicago in March 2011.
Another modern stage director, Ian Judge, has been noted to frequently change the setting of period operas which he has been at the helm for.
“I try to find the best world for the story and characters to operate in, and I think you have to find a balance between the period the author set it in, the period he conceived it in, the nature of theatre and audiences at that time, and the world we live in,” he told Media Culture Journal in a 2008 interview.
Judge further noted that the influence of television and film have affected audience’s expectations of opera. “I think audiences who are brought up on television, which is bad acting, and movies, which are not that good of acting, perhaps require more of opera than stand and deliver, and I have never really been happy with someone who just stands and sings,” he said.
Other opera houses—such as Modern Baroque Opera based in Vancouver, Canada—have crafted their entire mission by adapting Baroque works for twenty-first-century productions, such as The Beggar’s Opera, which has been frequently adapted in various forms for the stage. Many companies also have turned to film directors when approaching new adaptations for early works.
Famed tenor Plácido Domingo, who was the Eli and Edythe Broad General Director of Los Angeles Opera at the time, once took advantage of the company’s proximity to the film industry by enlisting Garry Marshall, creator of the television sitcom Happy Days and director of the films Pretty Woman and The Princess Diaries, to direct an adaptation of the company’s 20th anniversary season opener, Offenbach’s The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein, according to Media Culture Journal.
When asked how Domingo approached him to direct the opera—his first, Marshall said, “He was insistent that, one, people think that opera is pretty elitist, and he knew without insulting me that I was not one of the elitists. Two, he said, ‘You gotta make a funny opera. We need more comedy in the operetta and opera world.’”
Marshall obliged by rewriting most of the opera’s dialogue and performed the work in English, but left the arias untouched and in the original French. He also created numerous sight gags and added characters, including a dog named Morrie and a cameo caricature of the composer.
The approach—just one example of a modern spin on an early work—proved favorable to critics and open-minded audiences who were willing to take a risk on a new-old production using modern nuances and technological advancements in a departure from conventional staging.
FanFaire noted Domingo’s tactic of using television and film directors to direct opera, saying, “You’ve got to hand it to Plácido Domingo for having the vision to draw on Hollywood’s vast pool of directorial talent. Certainly something can be gained from the cross-fertilization that could ensue from this sort of interaction between opera and the movies, two forms of entertainment . . . that in Los Angeles have traditionally lived separate lives on opposite sides of the tracks. A wider audience, for example, never a problem for the movies, can only mean good news for the future of opera.
“So, did the Marshall Plan work? Purists of course will always want their operas and operettas ‘pure and unadulterated.’ But with an audience that seemed to have as much fun as the stellar cast on stage, it sure did.”
This philosophy has helped to carry early opera into today’s modern market. And even Stubbs, who remains more traditional, agrees to a certain extent. “You always have to find new creative ways—even if your goal is to produce an authentic work—to present a piece in an innovative way.”
