One Man's Opinion / Does Anyone Really Care?

During the past opera season I went to see Pietro Mascagni's masterpiece one act opera "Cavalleria Rusticana"at the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. The traditional setting or venue is a rustic village somewhere in Sicily circa 1900 (the year of the opera's premiere).  The present production, directed by Giancarlo Del Monaco, takes place in a stone quarry. How odd, how strange and how unrelated to the content of the libretto?! Oh yes. The music was definitely Mascagni's. But the sets and the design concept had absolutely no relation to the opera. So? The concept is different; it's fresh; perhaps even original!  What is wrong with being innovative? After all, we want to bring the audience into the opera house and we want to give them something different and not old hat.  But are we giving our operagoers Mascagni?  Is the music the only thing that matters and is it detached from the story and the text that is, the libretto? 

Mascagni like all opera composers chose a specific story - not a concept or comment on social mores - to compose music to. This music is intended to depict and describe life in a typical Sicilian village in place and time.  As such his melodies paint a picture in various hues and shades in order to bring out the special flavor of life in rural Sicily.  These are plain folk honest, hearty and hard-working.  Theirs is a simple life and includes the human side of daily existence which include the possibility of adultery, infidelity and vendetta. The church is the center of social and religious life. The story takes place on Easter Sunday, a time of religious devotion and family togetherness.  People dress in their finest clothing. Mascagni's music reflects and describes open fields, flowers. The glorious chorus sung outside the church in the village square is a masterful piece of music composition that describes beautifully religious piety, fervor and devotion.  What does the setting of a stone quarry have to do with the atmosphere that is described so artfully by Mascagni's music in the original and intended story??  Who would think of spending Easter Sunday in a quarry and an entire community at that?

My point is this. Opera is a living art form.  It describes true -to-life situations in music and words. It is not abstract; it is not a world of make believe! As such  opera lives and breathes.
It has substance, texture and a smell all its own. Music and text are wedded, welded together into an inseparable whole. Innovation and freshness can work only by taking into account all the components that make up the total product.