“How many tenors does it take to screw in a lightbulb?” jested award-winning soprano and actress Elaine Crane in a phone interview this week. “Just one,” she continued, aware that the joke might as easily be about, perhaps, sopranos. “He holds the lightbulb and the world revolves around him.”
Crane will be one of four presenters at this Friday’s “The ABCs of Opera,” an hourlong joint presentation by the Warner Free Lecture Series and Fanfare, in the public library’s Volunteers Hall at 7:30 p.m. Fanfare is the organization that supports music education in the Harvard schools.
Conductor and lecturer Aldo Fabrizi will join Crane as they tell tales about opera, present some history, and talk about what happens behind the scenes. “It might even be a little voyeuristic,” said Fabrizi, “and perhaps we can tear down some misconceptions along the way.” Mezzo-soprano Angela Jajko will join Crane in singing operatic examples, accompanied by pianist Olga Rogach.
From left: Aldo Fabrizi, Elaine Crane, Angela Jajko, and Olga Rogach will entertain at “The ABCs of Opera” Friday, March 24, in Volunteers Hall. (Courtesy photos)
It’s musical theater
Crane and Fabrizi are on a mission. Said Crane, “We’d like to make opera feel more accessible to people. There is this preconceived notion that people are not going to like it, even before they try it.”
Misconceptions abound, said Fanfare member John Chapman: “Opera is considered pretentious, even ‘funny.’” Although Chapman admits to having a “bit of a blind spot” about opera, he is receptive to exploring the genre. “So much of jazz comes from show tunes,” he said. “There is a great genius of form from the music of Stephen Sondheim and Rodgers and Hammerstein.”
Crane agrees: “It’s often said that musical theater is America’s contribution to opera because it came out of the operatic tradition.” Opera, she said, is more like musical theater than people realize. And, she said, “Opera singers really need to be actors, too.”
Listening to opera
“I am very, very, very fond of opera,” said longtime Harvard resident Otto Solbrig. He and his wife, Dorothy, travel to New York’s Metropolitan Opera up to 10 times a year. “Opera is one of the richest kinds of music: It combines theater, music, and poetry,” he said.
Solbrig described appreciating opera as more than a one-time experience: “The first time you go, you get engaged with the play, the action, the stage. The second, and third time, you know the play—what’s left is feeling the emotions, seeing how they act, and hearing the arias that ‘tell’ your feelings.”
Fabrizi is of the same mind. He suggested that one’s appreciation of a work grows with multiple viewings. “It hits you on so many senses. There is the emotional piece, and then there’s the music that you listen to, and then there’s all the visual stimuli, and the story itself.” And the story matters, said Fabrizi, just as it does with great literature. “It’s like reading Shakespeare, or Dante, or any of the great storytellers. They stand more than one reading.”
Why opera today?
There is a universality to opera’s themes: life, love, death, betrayal, passion—and, explained Crane, “In opera they’re treated in a grand and beautiful way.” The experience of losing oneself in the music and theater, feeling emotions more deeply, and putting aside troubles are what makes opera relevant today, said Crane.
As founder and executive director of Greater Worcester Opera (GWO), Crane and her company are dedicated to opera performance and education. One important way they do this is by producing their operas in English. Not only does this give audience members an immediate connection to the sung words, but it also has opera being kid-friendly, Crane said.
“We encourage kids to come. Last year we did the ‘Marriage of Figaro’ in English, and the kids who came loved it. They don’t know they’re not supposed to like it.” But, added Crane, “It’s getting the kids through the door that’s the tricky part.”
The GWO has three touring operas for students. For elementary-age students “Diamonds and Toads” is a kid-friendly opera featuring the music of Mozart. For older students, operas include shortened versions of “Hansel and Gretel” and “Pirates of Penzance,” where selected students perform onstage, in costume, with the GWO’s professional singers.
Crane, Fabrizi, and the rest of the company look forward to reaching both youth and adult audiences, experienced opera fans and newcomers at Friday’s lecture. “You like what you know … and if you know it [opera], you’re going to like it,” said Crane. “And we believe that’s a beautiful thing.”
