My mind's eye has 20/20 vision when it comes to certain occurrences in my life. What I had for breakfast, I couldn't tell you. But where I was when man landed on the moon, or the day John Lennon was shot, or the vivid memory of the hospital room when my son was born are ingrained in the old gray matter like an insignia embossed in sealing wax to ensure an envelope's security and authenticity.
So I was out at Fallen Timbers the other day, passing the Rave movie theatre when I noticed a poster for a New York Metropolitan Opera performance to be shown at the theatre later this month. I immediately recalled an old friend of mine, Marley, who passed away a couple of years ago from ALS at the age of 52.
Marley used to love opera. Whether Pyotr Tchaikovsky or Peter Townshend; it didn't matter. He would get up on his soapbox and wax eloquently about how opera was the purest art form and the culmination of hundreds of years of classical Greek Antiquity, carnival, liturgical drama, the Italian Intermedio and madrigal-comedy from which you could draw a straight line, with a very crooked pencil to John Adams' (no not THAT one) “Nixon in China”. Of course, what you have to understand is that Marley is also the same audiophile who introduced me to The Scorpions, The Ramones and (heaven forbid!) The Sex Pistols. He was a walking Funk & Wagnalls of musical knowledge from folk to world music; from David Byrne to Wolfgang Mozart. I never saw him lose a music question in a game of Trivial Pursuit.
Comfortably numb
One night in 1982, he had a revelation. He and I went to a midnight showing of “Pink Floyd's The Wall” at a local movie house. It was midnight and the air was already filled with the smells of various California counties. The owner of the theatre greeted us in a slow, inebriated drawl. “Hi guys, since it's late and there aren't that many of you here, we're going to really crank up the sound. Enjoy.” As the opening riff of “In the Flesh?” poured out of high-end (at the time) quad speakers, we sat wide-eyed at both the visual and aural images bouncing from the screen. Now THIS was opera! We agreed that every rock opera film needed to send us circling around alpha centauri as this one had … of course, maybe it was just the canabis.
Be that as it may, Marley would have loved the concept of opera being brought to the masses via HD movie theatres. He was always waiting for the second coming of opera's next great savior! Whether it was a singer, producer or director, he didn't know. The concept of opera has been on life support for a long time. Who wants to sit in a theatre and watch some Egyptian slaves or Spanish bullfighters sturm and drang for nearly four hours?
The Met has been rewriting the rules of opera as entertainment for not only the upper class. Now anyone, for the price of a movie ticket, can see Ramfis, the jealous Amneris and the hapless, hopeless title character in Verdi's Aida (Saturday, December 15) and Met Opera stars Deborah Voigt, Susan Graham and Marcello Giordani in Berlioz's epic LesTroyens (Saturday, January 5). We are lucky enough to have two movie houses, at Westfield Franklin Park Mall and Fallen Timbers, showing these and other operas from the world stage.
In real time
Lest there be some confusion, what you are watching when you go to see an opera in a movie theatre is LIVE, not taped in front of a live audience, but a performance happening at that moment in New York. For those lovers of music, and specifically opera, it's a great opportunity to be a part of a larger cultural phenomenon. (Though encore performances are ongoing through the spring after the initial showing).
The Met is opening up a whole new world of live performance as witnessed by last summer's production of the Encores' Broadway hit, Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along, featuring Neil Patrick Harris, also in movie theatres. The Met may be on the vanguard of what it means to be an audience member and participating in significant cultural events in the 21st century. It can only be good for all opera companies and other live performances and may open the doors to people who are not familiar with the power, the beauty, and splendor of opera, let alone an opera company with the history and talent of the New York Metropolitan. So on December 15, I will buy two tickets for Aida, one for me and one for Marley. I will buy him a Fanta Orange drink (his favorite) and put it in his cupholder, and together we will sit front and center for an undeniably entertaining afternoon. And I will look at his seat and recall what he said over 30 years ago when confronted with Roger Waters' magnum opus — "You're right, Marley. This rocks!”
The Met Opera series screens at both Rave Franklin Park, 5001 Monroe St., and Fallen Timbers, 3100 Main St., Maumee. Verdi's Aida will be shown on Saturday, December 15 at 12:55pm and Berlioz's Les Troyens will be shown on Saturday, January 5 at noon. $24. For more information, visit www.fathomevents.com.
