Do you constantly find yourself bombarded with ideas for wonderful operas?
I do. I spent weeks trying to make Cousin Bette into something resembling an opera. I mean, I know I have no musical talent, and I could spend years putting something together that no one would ever see or hear. But it was a compulsion. I don't know if you've read it but the opening scene is just smash-and-grab - nineteenth-century smash-and-grab, anyway! This guy has a rivalry going with a "friend" because this friend stole his courtesan - and so he visits the guy's wife to try to seduce her! In the course of the interview with her it becomes clear that her daughter and his son's marriage was arranged over the guys' parties with their courtesans, and in addition he's perfectly willing to spoil her son's marriage if she won't jump into bed with him. Well, it's an amazing scene.
I'm perennially visited by the idea of guerilla opera, too - subway opera, with musicians playing buskers, and actors pretending their personal lives are just spilling over into the public forum. You'd have to have pretty good actors to pull it off.
How about you? Any ideas?
I do. I spent weeks trying to make Cousin Bette into something resembling an opera. I mean, I know I have no musical talent, and I could spend years putting something together that no one would ever see or hear. But it was a compulsion. I don't know if you've read it but the opening scene is just smash-and-grab - nineteenth-century smash-and-grab, anyway! This guy has a rivalry going with a "friend" because this friend stole his courtesan - and so he visits the guy's wife to try to seduce her! In the course of the interview with her it becomes clear that her daughter and his son's marriage was arranged over the guys' parties with their courtesans, and in addition he's perfectly willing to spoil her son's marriage if she won't jump into bed with him. Well, it's an amazing scene.
I'm perennially visited by the idea of guerilla opera, too - subway opera, with musicians playing buskers, and actors pretending their personal lives are just spilling over into the public forum. You'd have to have pretty good actors to pull it off.
How about you? Any ideas?