# Should current popular figures be used as the subject of operas?



## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

After showing my stepdad Powell who was dismissive and my friend Ben who was amused music from the Turnage opera Anna Nicole,






I can't say whether or not operas based on current pop figures like Anna Nicole Smith or Jackie Kennedy have lasting power. I'm just speculating that using the image of pop figures doesn't lead to a long lasting power for these works?

Or maybe I am lacking back knowledge of any operas based on popular figures of their day... it's not like Fidelio was based on a hit celebrity of Beethoven's time.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

I feel that this has been a general shift in theater as a whole over time. Shakespeare's most contemporary subject was Henry VIII, in a play that premiered 65 years after his death. Marlowe's _The Massacre at Paris_ was based on events only 20 years earlier but this was not common.

In the 20th century and beyond, though, contemporary events have become quite normal fodder for stage plays, films, and whatnot. Not all of them are worthy but some of them are indeed great. It is only natural that opera has (eventually) caught up.

Turnage's opera has certainly gotten more attention for being based on a recent popular subject and some of that may translate into people who would otherwise not have the time for the piece finding they like it. This of course depends on the work itself, more than the subject.

I don't see anything about contemporary subjects that make them unsuitable for an opera and the lasting quality of the work will depend upon how it is written, performed, and otherwise received, just like any other opera.


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

In the days of censorship, it was quite common for the themes for operas to be based on current topics, but the setting and the characters to be transposed to other times to get the performances onto the stage


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Can you say Klinghoffer?


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

nina foresti said:


> Can you say Klinghoffer?


The one thing about that opera which bothers me is that its subject was a private individual who never sought the spotlight, and every time a major opera house performs it, Klinghoffer's daughters are once again forced to relive a terrible tragedy. If Adams and Sellars wanted to address the issues surrounding that incident, they could have opted for a fictionalized treatment with just enough of the details altered to protect Mr. Klinghoffer's family -- after all, the opera originally began with a fictionalized first act that Adams subsequently cut. I have no problem with operas dealing with modern celebrities, who are/were in the public eye by their own choosing.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

mountmccabe said:


> I feel that this has been a general shift in theater as a whole over time. Shakespeare's most contemporary subject was Henry VIII, in a play that premiered 65 years after his death. Marlowe's _The Massacre at Paris_ was based on events only 20 years earlier but this was not common.
> 
> In the 20th century and beyond, though, contemporary events have become quite normal fodder for stage plays, films, and whatnot. Not all of them are worthy but some of them are indeed great. It is only natural that opera has (eventually) caught up.
> 
> ...


It is ironic that Shakespeare used current events for Henry VIII that one turned out to be his worst play.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

MAuer said:


> The one thing about that opera which bothers me is that its subject was a private individual who never sought the spotlight, and every time a major opera house performs it, Klinghoffer's daughters are once again forced to relive a terrible tragedy. If Adams and Sellars wanted to address the issues surrounding that incident, they could have opted for a fictionalized treatment with just enough of the details altered to protect Mr. Klinghoffer's family -- after all, the opera originally began with a fictionalized first act that Adams subsequently cut. I have no problem with operas dealing with modern celebrities, who are/were in the public eye by their own choosing.


Hear hear - until I read this I'd simply assumed that Mr. Klinghoffer's family must have given the project their blessing bearing in mind that the opera was written only a few years after the atrocity. This now leaves a rather sour taste knowing that the Klinghoffer daughters weren't even consulted - as if events such as this are in the public domain and the feelings of any loved ones are of little significance.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

albertfallickwang said:


> After showing my stepdad Powell who was dismissive and my friend Ben who was amused music from the Turnage opera Anna Nicole,
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It is not the subject, but the treatment of the libretto and of course, the music itself, that is ALL.


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## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

An opera about Maria Callas, anyone? Or just set *Master Class* by Terrence McNally to music


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

albertfallickwang said:


> It is ironic that Shakespeare used current events for Henry VIII that one turned out to be his worst play.


I don't see that they were 'current' events, when Henry married Ann Boleyn in 1533 and the play was written in about 1613, eighty years later and under another dynasty. If I wrote about a government crisis in the 1930s, it wouldn't be 'current', would it?

Nor is *Henry VIII* universally believed to be his worst play. (Personally, I'd nominate *Titus Andronicus* - but others like it.) Shakespeare wrote *Henry VIII* with collaborators and it's unclear how much of it is his. Characterisation is often good, and the play has always worked in the theatre* and been popular with audiences.

* Except when it burned down _The Globe_, of course!


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

silentio said:


> An opera about Maria Callas, anyone? Or just set *Master Class* by Terrence McNally to music


I would love to see this... I know that HBO was supposed to do a mini series for this play?


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