Largely, however, they had no idea what was actually going on. As it turns out, operas have plots, dialogue, character development—they tell entire stories. Most Americans, however, do not speak German, Italian or French, the predominant languages in which most of the classic opera libretto dialogue, essentially the screenplay for an opera are written.
That all changed when supertitles came along in Supertitles are like the subtitles in foreign films. It changed the viewing experience entirely, allowing American audiences in on the entire experience.
But this new, entirely beneficial modern convenience is not easily accomplished. Having watched Don Giovanni last month, I was interested in learning about the process of opening up an ancient Mozart opus to a humble monolinguist like myself.
Dean sat down with me for coffee to discuss his unique career. My job is Director of Public Programs and Media. But you asked how I got going in the first place!
I got completely mesmerized by it. Going back and forth, seeing both languages at the same time, was something I got obsessed with. Yeah, I really loved opera, so it made a great deal of sense. I came out to Seattle in the summer of as an unpaid intern, not anticipating getting a job at all—I just thought it would be a fun way to spend the summer. That was 19 years ago! There are three important steps. In this eight-week program, dramaturg Jonathan Dean explores connections between operas and their literary sources.
Many of the most popular and beloved operas in the repertoire are based on works of literature, some which are familiar to us, others less so. A close look at the relationship between operas and their literary sources illuminates the way in which opera enhances storytelling through music. On some evenings, we will focus on specific creators whether musical or literary ; on other evenings, we will compare and contrast entire genres. Join us to learn more about how stories pass from hand to hand, form to form, and culture to culture.
Part of the atmosphere. Jonathan: It goes worse after his particular period. And there's a role that his writings played in that increased intensification of antisemitism once you got into the 20th century, Wagner lived to So there was no such thing as a Nazi when he was alive. There was a socialism and he sort of dallied with socialism, and ended up what we might consider somewhat of a conservative, although also a member of the green movement. Naomi: Yeah. He was really interested in antivivisectionism, which has to do with honoring animals and nature and sort of all of that.
Jonathan: Animal rights. Naomi: Yeah, really. So things we'd think of as that were really progressive today, but I think what makes the antisemitism issue kind of difficult in addition to his tapping into that world that was already there, his writings, which Das Judentum in der Musik , the Jewish people in music. Jonathan: Jewishness in music. That's definitely a better translation, which is we know that Meyerbeer, Giacomo Meyerbeer, who was a German Jewish composer, was nice to Wagner when Wagner went to Paris in the early s.
And then Wagner ended up just writing mean terrible things about him. So we've got that world with Wagner, but then I think what makes it so hard for us today, and the more immediate legacy has held Wagner was appropriated by people later, including his own family members, in Bayreuth where Wagner had his home there.
Hitler was a frequent visitor at certain points in the thirties. Jonathan: Huge fan of Wagner. Naomi: The nicest thing about Hitler perhaps is that he had good musical taste in my opinion.
And not to joke about this, there were some really serious, dangerous things about how Wagner fit into this pure Aryan master race. Jonathan: Certainly all that thinking that then went into Nazism comes out of an intellectual circle, which they were very comfortable at Bayreuth. It's not called Wagner, it's called Wagnerism and the legacy and reception and continuing history with its importance and its pain of what it means today.
So I think it's for people, listeners who are interested, oh gosh, do I really want to buy that really big thick book? I say, "Yeah, go ahead. Jump in. So it's written for today, but talking about these real tough issues from the past.
Jonathan: What I found so fascinating about it is Wagner, he was so prolific and he never stopped talking and he never stopped writing. And he has these immense operas and they're so complicated and they're so full of ideas and you can sort of make it mean anything you want.
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