ARIA SERIOUS?

We here at Aria Serious are joking, of course. We like adventure, we like intrigue, we like things new and challenging and different. However, it seems in the world of opera, people like things to be the same way they have always been. Take the Met's newest production of La Sonnambula which opened this week. Throwing tradition aside, director Mary Zimmerman has set this production up to be an "opera within an opera" -- essentially the whole thing is staged as one big opera rehearsal. Sounds interesting and fun, if not true to the libretto . But this is where we here at Aria Serious are wrong. Very wrong. The Associated Press called the production a " travesty " while Bloomberg asks " what was she thinking?" And then there were the boos at curtain calls. Ouch. Of course, after reading all of this, we've shelved our dreams of directing our own opera down the road. But joking aside, does booing at an opera discourage directors from taking risks? I ...

If you're new to the world of live opera and classical music then you've probably clapped after hearing a wonderful aria or a stunning movement. Apparently this is a mistake. And you'll know this is a mistake by the glares and the venomous shushing that will come your way. Concert pianist Emanuel Ax thinks that is time we change the rules about when to applaud. This is something I applaud. At a time when we're all desperate for new audience members it might make sense to rewrite the rule books to make our art form seem more inviting. -- Edward

Tim Mangan, over at the O.C. Register and The Arts Blog has posted an article about an offer we are extending to displaced Opera Pacific patrons that was created when Opera Pacific approached us following their closure . We can confirm letters are now going out to Opera Pacific patrons. We hope they can join us down here; live opera is an incredible experience and one that every community should have access to. The loss of our good friends at Opera Pacific is heartbreaking. -- Edward

With all the doom and gloom we've been talking about here at Aria Serious, sometimes it pays to stop and look at the bright side of things. Sure, life and business is tough in this climate but we need to stop and remember this simple fact: opera is not dead yet. Nope, it is very much alive. The Christian Science Monitor published this article that looks at how new works are flourishing in America . So have a read, and remember: opera has been through worse. It has survived wars and great depressions. Afterall , it is a great artform , and the one thing all great artforms share is the power to endure. Now for something completely different, the Monty Python sketch that inspired the title to this post. -- Edward

In the never ending quest to find new and younger audiences to classical music, The Guardian in the UK reports on the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment concert series, Night Shift . Seems after their standard concert, the orchestra played an hour-long show to a more casual audience. The show featured "some dimmed lighting and on-stage chat to create a definitively different atmosphere from a normal concert, while still focusing on the music." It didn't hurt that audience members were allowed to bring drinks into the theatre. So there you have it, can it really be that simple? Alcohol makes classical music fun? Or, seriously, was it the whole rethinking of the concert experience? And if so, how can opera learn from this lesson? -- Edward

A fascinating and wonderful look at aging audiences for the arts . But gray hair at 40!!?? Come to think of it, at 40 I'd be happy for just some hair. Any hair. Please? - Edward

A fascinating discussion about whether or not an appreciation for opera, art and classical music can be taught to children by their parents (clicking the above link will take you to a 17 minute audio clip on the NPR site), and the article that started the discussion in New York Magazine . So here's to my mom and dad, who taught me to appreciate opera, art and the finer things in life at a young age. I raise this glass of lukewarm strawberry Yoo-Hoo in your honor, with the understanding we still have some work to do. - Edward

I recently read this post by Amanda Ameer on her wonderful blog Life's A Pitch who wrote about her experiences at the Mostly Maux Arts Festival in New York called Dressed to Kill the Art Form . It is a scathing look at audience behavior and how, for having the stereotype of placing so much emphasis on decorum and protocol, those who attend classical music performances can be as rude (or ruder) as audiences at rock concerts or worse, the movies. We've all experienced audiences behaving badly. The coughing contests that seem to begin the moment the lights dim; the gentleman conducting the orchestra with a rolled up program; the cell phone that chirps out the Queen of the Night aria at a Strauss opera and the person who actually answers the phone to let the person calling know they are currently at an Strauss opera; the person who spends an entire opera typing away on their blackberry laughing at their own wit; the lady (I-kid-you-not) who sings along to the soprano for the entir...