Panel 3
November 9
16h30–18h30
Chair: Paula Gomes Ribeiro
(CESEM – FCSH/UNL)
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From Cinema to Opera. Musical theatre based on films
Katrin Stoeck
(University of Leipzig, Germany)
The relationship of Opera and Cinema is as old as the cinema himself, if we think of the silent film Der Rosenkavalier and others. The Way of the Opera into the Cinema all the time was easy, today we for instance have a new development with showing opera presentations from the MET or the Bol’šoj at cinemas in other countries.
But one aspect of the relationship of musical theatre and cinema is not a main topic of the discussion: films as a foundation for operas or musical theatre. There are works as Lost highway by Olga Neuwirth, Paul und Paula and Gegen die Wand by Ludger Vollmer, Albert – warum? by Enjott Schneider, The secret life of words by Miroslav Srnka, Selma Ježková (Dancer in the dark) by Poul Ruders, Il postino by Daniel Catans, Nosferatu by Alva Henderson or Phil Glass’ La Belle et la Bête and Orphee.
The paper focusses the relationship of the musical theatre pieces to their cinematic foundations: How the subject is transformed into the new medium? Is the relationship to the film very close or is the film only the inspiration to the musical theatre? Are there similarities or differences in the fields of structure, setting, cutting, lightning, personality, gesture, movement
and other elements?
There are also social elements to discuss, for instance the changing of the audience from an audience of cinema to an opera audience: Are these musical theatre pieces a chance to get a new audience to musical theatre?
Are there general attributes of musical theatre based on a film ore does every single work create his own attributes? How did the situation of communication between stage and audience changed?
And last but not least: Why the musical theatre based on films isn’t as popular as the “Literaturoper”?
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Operatizing Film
Jelena Novak
(University of Amsterdam, Netherlands; CESEM – FCSH/UNL, Portugal)
There have been many examples of filmed operas, where the film has been based upon the story of an already existing opera, and with the existing operatic music. Normally after the film has been shot and edited, music and singing are synchronised to it. So, there is a‘new’ film to which ‘old’ music is attached. The reverse of this, making an opera of a film is manifestly presented by “opera for ensemble and film” La Belle et la Bête (1994) by Philip Glass. The procedure of operatizing a film goes in the opposite direction to filming operas. In this case Glass took an extant film, removed its soundtrack completely and composed new opera music for it. Although at first sight the final result of these two procedures might look similar – in both cases we see moving images synchronised with music and singing – there are striking differences since moving images that are being made to match the sound (filmed operas) bring different meanings than does sound that has been made to match the image (operatized film). In relation to this work, Kramer’s comment that “whereas the movies subsume the vocal under the visual, opera does the reverse”, becomes irrelevant. In this paper I will discuss how operatizing film problematizes status and function of opera. I use recent operas based on films as my theoretical objects: Cocteau opera trilogy (1993-96, Philip Glass/Jean Cocteau), Rosa, the Death of a Composer(1994, Louis Andriessen/Peter Greenaway, based on western movies), and After Life (2006, Michel van der Aa/ based on film by Hirokazu Kore-Eda).
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Video Art and Film as a Part and a Problem of Current Opera Performance Practice –
Some Examples and Observations
Martin Knust
(Stockholms Universitet, Sweden)
Since the 1990s video and film have become regular parts of opera performances. The variety of filmic material incorporated today in such performances is immense as is the range of interferences; operas like Alban Berg’s Lulu and Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten certainly have prepared the ground for this development. Today, the majority of staging requires specialists for video and film technique, computer and camera staffs etc. It is
apparent that the relation between these visual arts and the music, scenery, choreography, etc. of a production has become problematic to different degrees. Videos, projections and films can ‘conventionally’ serve as an illustrating complementing or accompanying element of the stage design, for instance in the Lohengrin of Stefan Herheim at the Staatsoper Berlin (première 2009) or the controversial Entführung aus dem Serail of Calixto Bieito at the Komische Oper Berlin (première 2005). But they can also dominate not only the scenical but
also the musical part of the performance. An example for the latter is the Bayreuth Parsifal of Christoph Schlingensief (première 2004), who demanded from the conductor – in this case Pierre Boulez – to adapt the tempi to the various films on screen. An extreme example for this way of staging opera was the world première of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s opera Sonntag at the Oper Köln in 2011, where a 3D film determined completely the musical and choreographical
realisation – the score instructs both – of the third part Licht – Bilder. And finally, the aesthetics of film can pervade successfully an entire opera staging as the Maria Victoire of Johannes Schaaf at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (première 2009) or the La fanciulla del West of Christof Loy at the Royal Opera in Stockholm (première 2011) prove. In other words: the familiarity of the audiences with certain filmic elements is a given fact which can be exploited for opera staging today.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Peter Gelb’s Experiment: Operas on Movie Screens
Edward Haymes
(Cleveland State University, USA)
One of the experiments Peter Gelb has carried on as General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera has been the broadcasting of live performances into movie theaters across the country and around the world. More than ten productions a year are broadcast in this fashion and the theater where I have attended most of them is always full. What is the difference between the
experience of opera in a movie house, as a movie, in contrast to the experience in the theater where it is performed.
I have experienced one opera in the house that I have also seen on a movie screen (in the same production), Wagner’s Die Walküre, and I would like to compare the two experiences in the following.
First: in the opera house the focus is on the singers and on the whole production. In the huge confines of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the singers were nowhere near as overwhelming as they had been in the movie house. The production seemed to be in service to, not served by La Machine, the giant scenic device invented by the Canadians to serve as scenery for the entire Ring.
When I saw the production on screen (a year later) the voices were amplified so that they were equal to any orchestra. The dependency on La Machine had been reduced by the close-ups while some of the weaknesses of the projections were exacerbated by being seen on the singers when they stood in front of the set. Most of the productions shown on the screen were moved in the direction of movies by drawing the viewers’ attention to the fine points of acting rather than to the overall operatic effect of the production. Some of the singers used this to their advantage, while others ignored it. The result was that productions presented in movie houses were often very different in effect from that presented in the opera house itself.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
November 9
16h30–18h30
Chair: Paula Gomes Ribeiro
(CESEM – FCSH/UNL)
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
From Cinema to Opera. Musical theatre based on films
Katrin Stoeck
(University of Leipzig, Germany)
The relationship of Opera and Cinema is as old as the cinema himself, if we think of the silent film Der Rosenkavalier and others. The Way of the Opera into the Cinema all the time was easy, today we for instance have a new development with showing opera presentations from the MET or the Bol’šoj at cinemas in other countries.
But one aspect of the relationship of musical theatre and cinema is not a main topic of the discussion: films as a foundation for operas or musical theatre. There are works as Lost highway by Olga Neuwirth, Paul und Paula and Gegen die Wand by Ludger Vollmer, Albert – warum? by Enjott Schneider, The secret life of words by Miroslav Srnka, Selma Ježková (Dancer in the dark) by Poul Ruders, Il postino by Daniel Catans, Nosferatu by Alva Henderson or Phil Glass’ La Belle et la Bête and Orphee.
The paper focusses the relationship of the musical theatre pieces to their cinematic foundations: How the subject is transformed into the new medium? Is the relationship to the film very close or is the film only the inspiration to the musical theatre? Are there similarities or differences in the fields of structure, setting, cutting, lightning, personality, gesture, movement
and other elements?
There are also social elements to discuss, for instance the changing of the audience from an audience of cinema to an opera audience: Are these musical theatre pieces a chance to get a new audience to musical theatre?
Are there general attributes of musical theatre based on a film ore does every single work create his own attributes? How did the situation of communication between stage and audience changed?
And last but not least: Why the musical theatre based on films isn’t as popular as the “Literaturoper”?
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Operatizing Film
Jelena Novak
(University of Amsterdam, Netherlands; CESEM – FCSH/UNL, Portugal)
There have been many examples of filmed operas, where the film has been based upon the story of an already existing opera, and with the existing operatic music. Normally after the film has been shot and edited, music and singing are synchronised to it. So, there is a‘new’ film to which ‘old’ music is attached. The reverse of this, making an opera of a film is manifestly presented by “opera for ensemble and film” La Belle et la Bête (1994) by Philip Glass. The procedure of operatizing a film goes in the opposite direction to filming operas. In this case Glass took an extant film, removed its soundtrack completely and composed new opera music for it. Although at first sight the final result of these two procedures might look similar – in both cases we see moving images synchronised with music and singing – there are striking differences since moving images that are being made to match the sound (filmed operas) bring different meanings than does sound that has been made to match the image (operatized film). In relation to this work, Kramer’s comment that “whereas the movies subsume the vocal under the visual, opera does the reverse”, becomes irrelevant. In this paper I will discuss how operatizing film problematizes status and function of opera. I use recent operas based on films as my theoretical objects: Cocteau opera trilogy (1993-96, Philip Glass/Jean Cocteau), Rosa, the Death of a Composer(1994, Louis Andriessen/Peter Greenaway, based on western movies), and After Life (2006, Michel van der Aa/ based on film by Hirokazu Kore-Eda).
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Video Art and Film as a Part and a Problem of Current Opera Performance Practice –
Some Examples and Observations
Martin Knust
(Stockholms Universitet, Sweden)
Since the 1990s video and film have become regular parts of opera performances. The variety of filmic material incorporated today in such performances is immense as is the range of interferences; operas like Alban Berg’s Lulu and Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten certainly have prepared the ground for this development. Today, the majority of staging requires specialists for video and film technique, computer and camera staffs etc. It is
apparent that the relation between these visual arts and the music, scenery, choreography, etc. of a production has become problematic to different degrees. Videos, projections and films can ‘conventionally’ serve as an illustrating complementing or accompanying element of the stage design, for instance in the Lohengrin of Stefan Herheim at the Staatsoper Berlin (première 2009) or the controversial Entführung aus dem Serail of Calixto Bieito at the Komische Oper Berlin (première 2005). But they can also dominate not only the scenical but
also the musical part of the performance. An example for the latter is the Bayreuth Parsifal of Christoph Schlingensief (première 2004), who demanded from the conductor – in this case Pierre Boulez – to adapt the tempi to the various films on screen. An extreme example for this way of staging opera was the world première of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s opera Sonntag at the Oper Köln in 2011, where a 3D film determined completely the musical and choreographical
realisation – the score instructs both – of the third part Licht – Bilder. And finally, the aesthetics of film can pervade successfully an entire opera staging as the Maria Victoire of Johannes Schaaf at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (première 2009) or the La fanciulla del West of Christof Loy at the Royal Opera in Stockholm (première 2011) prove. In other words: the familiarity of the audiences with certain filmic elements is a given fact which can be exploited for opera staging today.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Peter Gelb’s Experiment: Operas on Movie Screens
Edward Haymes
(Cleveland State University, USA)
One of the experiments Peter Gelb has carried on as General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera has been the broadcasting of live performances into movie theaters across the country and around the world. More than ten productions a year are broadcast in this fashion and the theater where I have attended most of them is always full. What is the difference between the
experience of opera in a movie house, as a movie, in contrast to the experience in the theater where it is performed.
I have experienced one opera in the house that I have also seen on a movie screen (in the same production), Wagner’s Die Walküre, and I would like to compare the two experiences in the following.
First: in the opera house the focus is on the singers and on the whole production. In the huge confines of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the singers were nowhere near as overwhelming as they had been in the movie house. The production seemed to be in service to, not served by La Machine, the giant scenic device invented by the Canadians to serve as scenery for the entire Ring.
When I saw the production on screen (a year later) the voices were amplified so that they were equal to any orchestra. The dependency on La Machine had been reduced by the close-ups while some of the weaknesses of the projections were exacerbated by being seen on the singers when they stood in front of the set. Most of the productions shown on the screen were moved in the direction of movies by drawing the viewers’ attention to the fine points of acting rather than to the overall operatic effect of the production. Some of the singers used this to their advantage, while others ignored it. The result was that productions presented in movie houses were often very different in effect from that presented in the opera house itself.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::