| iv id="body"> | | | | stage. Now that's entertainment! |
| This article is for you if you're a behind-the-scenes kind | | | | What we don't see at an opera is the orchestra, |
| of person - the admin assistant who gets the | | | | perhaps the most important element of all. They're |
| presentation ready for the guys in marketing but | | | | listed in the program, of course, and given their bows |
| doesn't get to go to the meeting; the PR pro who | | | | at the curtain calls, but we only hear them, seated |
| writes all their speeches and answers all the complaint | | | | down below in the orchestra pit as they are. |
| letters for the president or CEO; the at-home mother | | | | Many elements go together to produce the opera we |
| who makes sure the concert pianist practices; the | | | | see that bears the name of one man only. Take |
| deputy chief whose job description is doing all the | | | | "Turandot" for instance. It was librettist Semoni who |
| things the chief doesn't like to do or can't do; or the | | | | gave Puccini the suggestion for the opera in the first |
| paralegal who prepares all the pleadings, knows all the | | | | place, telling about "Turandotte," a play written by |
| codes, and does all the licking and stamping. | | | | Gozzi, based on a fable from the Arabian Nights. |
| Temistocle Solear, Antonio Ghislanzoni, Henri Meilhac, | | | | Puccini had been searching for two years for a |
| Jules Barbier, Michael Carre, Guiseppe Giacosa, Luigi | | | | suitable plot for an opera, and at the age of 61 began |
| Illica, Renato Semoni, and Nicola Haym all know what | | | | "Turandot," instructing his librettists, Adami and Semoni |
| this is like. | | | | to "pour great pathos into the drama." Puccini was |
| Who on earth are these people?? | | | | known, incidentally for being extremely demanding, |
| Well even if you're not an opera fan, I bet you've | | | | requiring endless rewrites from his librettists. |
| heard of the composers Verdi, Bizet, Mozart, Strauss, | | | | From his point of view however, the librettists were |
| Gounod, Handel, Donizetti and Puccini. And I'm sure | | | | difficult. We can read his letters begging them to do |
| you've heard of some of their operas - Aida, Carmen, | | | | their work. He wrote frantically to Simoni, in charge of |
| Cosi fan Tutte, Madame Butterfly, Faust, and Don | | | | Act III, "The third! The third! The third!" |
| Giovanni, for instance. | | | | At one point, he confessed to a friend "Music disgusts |
| Did you know that these composers wrote the music | | | | me...", as he evidently had periods of self-doubt and |
| for their operas but not the lyrics? Solear, Ghislanzoni | | | | composer's block. Toscanini paid him a visit and gave |
| and the other individuals in the list are what's called | | | | him the encouragement to keep going. Every team |
| "librettists." It is they who wrote the words to the music | | | | has their Toscanini; or needs one. |
| that tell the story, without which you would be listening | | | | Puccini was justified in urging completion of the opera |
| to a symphony, not an opera. And we never hear their | | | | as he died before the team had completed the third |
| names! | | | | act. The collaboration continued on, as Toscanini found |
| They're called "librettists" because the words to the | | | | a composer named Franco Alfano, whose name is |
| songs, which basically comprise the script of the opera, | | | | rarely mentioned, to complete it. The world premier |
| is called a "libretto." It's Italian for little book. | | | | took place on April 25th, 1926, the work of one guiding |
| Like Gilbert and Sullivan, the pairs worked together. | | | | genius and many hands, hearts and minds. |
| The inimitable Richard Wagner was the only one to | | | | It isn't that teamwork and collaboration is new, it's that |
| compose all his operas entirely by himself, creating | | | | it's newly being recognized. Most of us realize we |
| both music and lyrics, which may account for why | | | | couldn't accomplish anything alone, while those behind |
| they are so powerful, so "Wagnerian." | | | | the scenes who work long and willing hours, long for |
| This is quite a feat because composing music and | | | | some recognition. Appreciation, after all, is what tops |
| writing words require different parts of the brain. | | | | the surveys when employees talk about what they |
| Sometimes the composer and librettist met in person, | | | | want at their job, and it's so consistently there, it's a |
| while other times the work was done by | | | | wonder it isn't heeded more. |
| correspondence. Strauss worked exclusively with one | | | | Richard Montuori, town manager of Bellica, |
| librettist, after writing his own lyrics for his first opera | | | | Massachusetts, knows and appreciates his team. "I |
| and finding out he wasn't good at it, but most other | | | | love [my] job," he said a newspaper interview. "Every |
| composers switched around, finding the right librettist | | | | day is different and presents new challenges. Finances |
| for the job, or one who was available. It's not unlike the | | | | are a daily and yearly challenge, but no one person |
| way a lot of us work these days - long distance and | | | | ever accomplishes anything alone. We have excellent |
| by contract. | | | | department heads and town boards that help keep the |
| Again, grasp the significance of the work these unsung | | | | town moving in the right direction." |
| heroes did. The words are so integral to the opera | | | | Isn't it nice to hear someone publicly acclaim the team |
| they are never translated. Subtitles run across the big | | | | that makes him shine? I hope your boss or manager |
| screen on stage, or the little screen on the chair in | | | | does this for you, and that if you're the boss or |
| front of yours at the opera. We read them in our | | | | manager, you appreciate and acknowledge - and sing |
| native tongue while they are sung on stage in the | | | | - the unsung heroes in your midst. |
| original German, Italian, or French. (For aficionados, | | | | But how do you praise everyone? There are always |
| anyway. Beginners may enjoy translations, such as | | | | so many. |
| The Chandos Opera In English series, which translates | | | | Here's a leadership trick I learned from a pro. At the |
| the lyrics into English.) | | | | culmination of an anniversary banquet, engineered by |
| What an incredible collaboration an opera is. It takes | | | | many, and funded by many more, the director of the |
| costume designers as well, because an opera is as | | | | benefited-agency rose and thanked "everyone who |
| much visual as it is auditory. The Grand Opera is | | | | helped make it possible to raise the $50,000." Then he |
| known for its elaborate sets and costumes. In | | | | added, looking around the room, "And I'd especially like |
| "Turandot," when the mob turns surly and the moon | | | | to thank someone whose name I won't mention, but |
| appears, she is personified and costumed in a | | | | they will know who I mean." |
| magnificence dominated the stage for what seems | | | | I thought it was me! So did a dozen other people, I'm |
| like half an hour, that will keep you transfigured. | | | | sure, and that was what the director had in mind, he |
| One opera I hope to see one day is Verdi's "Aida," | | | | told me later when I asked him whom he had in mind, |
| excuse me, Verdi and Ghislanzoni's "Aida" at the Bath | | | | because his glance around the room was |
| of Caracalla in Rome, where the Triumphal March of | | | | professionally ambivalent. |
| Rhadames features live elephants and horses on | | | | It works, and it's always, always true. |