Images

I do not know why images make me feel nervous when they get hold of opera.
I do not not mind film - operas so much as live operas filmed.
A film-opera is set for images, which is not the same with live operas being broadcasted. This last one is naturally set for the stage and the whole construction is so restrictive on a television screen where most opera-lovers watch opera Dvds. Even with the best sound arrangements, I feel frustrated at the very start of the orchestra. I miss the feeling of the music, the vibrations of the real sounds from the instruments, the air being filled with that special chemistry which always happens in opera houses when the first notes strike, the claps to cheer the conductor, the urgency of the first notes which will give the colour of the work and tell a lot at the very start,when I am part of the audience! And I resent seeing opera singers on a screen, because it is natural for opera singers to over do it in order to captivate even the audience which sits at the last row of the gods, so far from the stage. A close-up on a screen can be devastating for them . That is not always suitable for the dramatic tension of the plot either.
I cannot get over that enormous swirl of passion for cinema-opera,only the best casts get on the screen just like the film-stars,and only the nicest ones (perhaps not the best voices). Another star-system is born. It is like transforming a prism into an ordinary flat line. Opera -images look flat, whereas any opera on stage is such a powerful rich, deep construction, with orchestra, voice, acting, singing, moving,dancing and all the colours of costumes and settings. It is possible to even feel the texture of a satin dress or a velvety or silky costume. Pictures do not talk to me like that when opera is concerned.
It is like drinking fizzy water instead of champagne for a joyful rejoicing, because for me going to my local opera house (and my season is beginning on oct the 4th) is always a treat and a feast.
I cannot say that going to the cinema or watching my tv is a feast.
Which does not mean I do not appreciate films.
My favourite picture so far is that graceful trip Hana makes on the rope Kip is holding after having lit up the Chapel frescoes for her, and that is magic with the Aria from the Golberg variation. I have just finished watching the English Patient for the fourth or fifth time,the Tozeur red rocks, the Cave of swimmers, the desert and precisely that chapel where they are swirling together while the piano is softly playing.Hana discovers the frescoes. This has the required depths cinema can reach to produce a real work of art, but opera is already a work of art, why reproduce it in another art form which has contrary rules to the lyrical scene: the sound is always amplified, that is why I get nervous about opera images, they do not sound true to my ears ,they also transform the successful singers into movie-stars. And we are kept in an endless process of reproducing images and sounds in a virtual environment getting more and more sophisticated around us.
I keep going to my good old opera house where I can discover young talented singers every season. Every two years Marseilles opera house hosts this international competition Rolando Villazon will be presiding with another singer, Sylvia Sass, and among celebrities, Juan Diego Florez's teacher,Ernesto Palacio, so there will be different tendancies to appreciate the young singers 'performances.
And all that is live, without microphones....A feast and a treat !