Forget about political correctness and face it: we live in an ageist society. Why shouldn't the business of opera be ageist as well? And sizeist?
'No horizontally challenged ladies on stage, please.'' Actually, no ladies on stage at all. We are only interested in pre-pubescent anorexic midgets.' A friend of mine calls it the crave for the latest virgin.
'We have to fill the house and the audiences want to see model-like teenagers who can sing like Charlotte Church'.
What's wrong with that? The taste of the audience is what leads the market...Still, do they really fill the theatre that way?
If the voices cannot fill the theatre, why should the public?
Thankfully, technology comes to the rescue and now we can 'enhance' voices so that they reach every corner of the theatre. And we can build stadium-like opera houses so that more people can come to enjoy opera. It is no longer an elitist art, it is now open to the masses.
There it is: the birth of McDonalds Opera where all the singers look the same and sound the same and everyone can go and afford to see it.
But why should the masses go to the theatre when they can enjoy it in the comfort of their own house on video?
Right, that did not put bums on seats...where did we go wrong?
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Well, perhaps we should start from understanding the art form we are dealing with. And then go on to question the assumption that people go to the opera house to 'see' the show.
Now, wasn't opera that funny form where people sung instead of talking? And wasn't it full of oversized, overpowering, experienced singers who could make you cry with the slightest change of colour in their incredibly individual voices? So individual that they could be recognised among hundreds of other singers singing the same musical phrase?
Like a good 1969 Barolo, voices can neither be mass-produced, nor grow fast. Like a good wine, they require a lot of work, care, attention and most of all - patience.
The old Italian school of bel canto were well aware of this. Some treaties advise young singers not to undertake a major role before the age of 35.
And yet, I am told that in a May audition a producer for Cosi fan tutte requires a Fiordiligi of 18 or as near to that age as possible. Is this right? Are we dealing with the same art form? Have they never heard of that empowering, basic principle of theatrical experience, suspension of disbelief?
Petra Torre
FROM THE EDITOR:
Just to prove our point, here's Andrew Clements's comment on the winner of Cardiff Singer of the World 2003 competition:
"The other finalists /.../ were not quite finnished articles in the same way. At 32, though, Tommi Hakala seems to be just that." The Guardian, 30 June 2003
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