{"id":909,"date":"2015-09-04T12:31:59","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T19:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/?p=909"},"modified":"2015-09-04T16:27:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-04T23:27:00","slug":"in-defense-of-the-box-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/2015\/09\/in-defense-of-the-box-office.html","title":{"rendered":"IN DEFENSE OF THE BOX OFFICE"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Written<\/a>

Written on Skin – Th\u00e9\u00e2tre National de l’Op\u00e9ra Comique<\/p><\/div>\n

I agree completely with David Gockley’s remarks, as reported in Slipped Disc on September 1, about both the knee-jerk reaction of some critics (not just East Coast critics either) and the weakness of the opera, Written on Skin<\/em>. I attended a performance of the work in Paris and was absolutely dumbfounded at the positive reaction to it. I do not categorically dislike opera influenced by this kind of music. I love both Wozzeck<\/em> and Lulu <\/em>and other works of that style, and I don’t think Written on Skin<\/em> can be compared to them. I found it empty, and above all boring. It was all I could do to stay in the theater for the whole performance.<\/p>\n

The problem with criticizing a work like this, blessed as it has been by music critics all over Europe and now in New York, is that anyone disliking it is accused of being old fashioned and out of touch. American leaders of opera companies have to be concerned about those who buy tickets to our performances if we are to keep performing. I don\u2019t deny that there are those who genuinely find a work such as Written on Skin<\/em> wonderful, but my experience tells me that we are talking about a small segment of those who are willing to spend the money it takes to buy opera tickets for a run of several performances in large theaters.\u00a0I am happy for them, and it’s great that they can enjoy it. But they will probably not fill even one American house of several thousand seats, certainly not two. As the former General Director of a large American opera company, I want to point that, as it was in the nineteenth century when opera was a more popular art form than it is now+<\/p>\n

, we (I think fortunately) have to be concerned about those who buy tickets to our performances if we are to keep performing.<\/p>\n

When every composer was composing this type of music, which stemmed from the work of Alban Berg and Arnold Schoenberg,\u00a0contemporary opera in this country was foundering. If an opera company produced a work in this style, the single-ticket audience didn’t come and the subscribers protested. This happened over a period of thirty or forty years. Fortunately in about 1990, composers began to compose more music that adhered, however loosely to the tonal system, and new operas\u00a0came\u00a0to life\u00a0all over America.<\/p>\n

No one did more to encourage this new music than David Gockley<\/p>\n

\"Dead<\/a>

Dead Man Walking – San Francisco Opera<\/p><\/div>\n

who was then General Director in Houston before moving to San Francisco in the same position. He has steadfastly championed American opera, presenting, I believe, a new opera every season in San Francisco as he did in Houston. Santa Fe, now under Charles MacKay, has done the same, and other opera companies, such as Minnesota, have also presented more than a few U.S. world premieres. In most cases, as has happened in opera since its origin in 1600, only a few have received second stagings<\/p>\n

\"Silent<\/a>

Silent Night – Minnesota Opera<\/p><\/div>\n

or frequent performance. But the audiences have come and have not left unhappy. I realize that some who read this will sneer, but if we are going to have opera, we are not here\u00a0to annoy our audiences. No one can force\u00a0the public to subscribe or buy tickets. The importance of the box office is not a new thought. Verdi always asked first what was happening at the box office; he, Puccini, Wagner, and many contemporary composers, such as Jake Heggie, are writing for audiences, not for the few. Further, I have noted that Heggie’s operas have had great success with audiences in their performances in Europe.<\/p>\n

\"Cold<\/a>

Cold Mountain – Santa Fe Opera<\/p><\/div>\n

My reaction to Written on Skin<\/em> has nothing to do with whether the audience here would or would not like it–as I wrote\u00a0above I found it empty and unrewarding–but as a person who presented opera for over thirty years in a large American city I am concerned about the way many of those who write about opera seem to dislike or dismiss works that are not basically atonal and enthusiastically praise the reverse. It\u2019s the same way with productions. Those that ignore the words sung are often praised more readily than productions that relate to what the singers are singing. There is a weird kind of intellectual elitism that completely ignores that what is presented onstage, at least in the United States, must sell tickets and must make audiences want to return for more.<\/p>\n

An American General Director like David Gockley not only has the responsibility of presenting opera to which opera lovers will come but more importantly has principal singers and chorus, musicians, stagehands, and artisans of all kind who are dependent on him to keep the opera houses of this country open and working.\u00a0Politicians do not support American opera; the people for whom we present opera do, and without them we would not exist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I agree completely with David Gockley’s remarks, as reported in Slipped Disc on September 1, about both the knee-jerk reaction of some critics (not just East Coast critics either) and the weakness of the opera, Written on Skin. I attended a performance of the work in Paris and was absolutely dumbfounded at the positive reaction […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":911,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions\/911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}