# Can anyone help a student out?!



## lauren993 (Nov 24, 2015)

Hi guys,

I've signed up to this forum to get some help for a project I'm doing at university. I'm a graphic design student, and one of the current projects is to design something that will encourage those from the 20-30 year old age group to go and see an opera.

My idea was for a poster - to take something from current affairs, e.g. an image of the recent Paris attacks, and 'match' it to an Opera. By match, I mean the Opera would have either similar themes to terrorism in this instance, or could be analogised/interpreted as having so. 

So, would anyone be able to help me out with matching some Operas (the more well known the better but don't worry too much) that could be 'related' to the following topics in current affairs?:

1) Current situation of the NHS and the questioning of its future
2) Terrorism: ISIS
3) Refugees from Syria fleeing ISIS
4) Tax avoidance from large corporations 

You don't have to provide answers to all of them of course, any help is really, really appreciated! Thank you!


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

lauren993 said:


> Hi guys,
> 
> I've signed up to this forum to get some help for a project I'm doing at university. I'm a graphic design student, and one of the current projects is to design something that will encourage those from the 20-30 year old age group to go and see an opera.
> 
> ...


Very tricky question, seeing the situation in Europe at the moment.


----------



## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

Fidelio by Beethoven

"The opera tells how Leonore, disguised as a prison guard named "Fidelio", rescues her husband Florestan from death in a political prison. Bouilly's scenario fits Beethoven's aesthetic and political outlook: a story of personal sacrifice, heroism and eventual triumph (the usual topics of Beethoven's "middle period") with its underlying struggle for liberty and justice mirroring contemporary political movements in Europe. Some notable moments in the opera include the "Prisoners' Chorus", an ode to freedom sung by a chorus of political prisoners, Florestan's vision of Leonore come as an angel to rescue him, and the scene in which the rescue finally takes place. The finale celebrates Leonore's bravery with alternating contributions of soloists and chorus". - from wikipedia


----------



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

In other words you mean, do your homework for you?


----------



## lauren993 (Nov 24, 2015)

Not at all, I'm asking because I know people on here are very knowledgeable on Operas, and would be a good starting point.


----------



## lauren993 (Nov 24, 2015)

Thank you for those who have replied helpfully so far, it's very appreciated.


----------



## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Personally I'd avoid heavy news stories because I don't think it has appeal. Better to look at trends and interests of your target market. Cars, sport, fashion, food and drink, relationships, partying, etc.

La Boheme is a good choice of opera (urban people in their 20s, Paris, cafes, relationships), although assuming other students are doing the same project others are bound to choose it too.


----------



## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

*1) Current situation of the NHS and the questioning of its future* - _An American Tragedy_, Picker. Clyde is a missionary's son, and flirts his way around the country. He ends up working at his uncle's factory, where he impregnates one coworker but abandon her for another.
*2) Terrorism: ISIS* - _The Death of Klinghoffer_, Adams. Terrorists from the Palestine Liberation Front hijack a cruise ship and murder a Jewish passenger.
*3) Refugees from Syria fleeing ISIS* - _Les Huguenots_, Meyerbeer. Catholics slaughter thousands of Protestants to maintain cultural control. Includes star-crossed lovers.
*4) Tax avoidance from large corporations* - _Gianni Schicchi_, Puccini. A con man helps a family change the will of their recently deceased patriarch so the money doesn't go to a monastery.

I am not sure these are the right answers.


----------



## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

With all this ISIS and terrorism stuff, you might be interested in operas that depict the clash of cultures, Western and Muslim. Especially Mozart's _Die Entführung aus dem Serail_. The character called Osmin would be surely member of ISIS, had he lived today.

That said, I find your idea with these connections very poor and I'd like to encourage you to cenceive a better one.


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

mountmccabe said:


> *1) Current situation of the NHS and the questioning of its future* - _An American Tragedy_, Picker. Clyde is a missionary's son, and flirts his way around the country. He ends up working at his uncle's factory, where he impregnates one coworker but abandon her for another.
> *2) Terrorism: ISIS* - _The Death of Klinghoffer_, Adams. Terrorists from the Palestine Liberation Front hijack a cruise ship and murder a Jewish passenger.
> *3) Refugees from Syria fleeing ISIS* - _Les Huguenots_, Meyerbeer. Catholics slaughter thousands of Protestants to maintain cultural control. Includes star-crossed lovers.
> *4) Tax avoidance from large corporations* - _Gianni Schicchi_, Puccini. A con man helps a family change the will of their recently deceased patriarch so the money doesn't go to a monastery.
> ...


Excellent choices.

Also *The Passenger*. Wiki

" ... The opera is set on two levels: the upper level depicts the deck of an ocean liner after the Second World War where a German couple, Liese and Walter (a West German diplomat on his way with his new wife to a new diplomatic posting), are sailing to Brazil. The wife, Liese, thinks she recognises a Polish woman on board, Marta, as a former inmate of Auschwitz where she, unknown to her husband, was a camp guard. The second lower level develops below the liner deck, depicting the concentration camp. The opera is an interplay between the two levels."


----------



## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

lauren993 said:


> 2) Terrorism: ISIS
> 3) Refugees from Syria fleeing ISIS


Rimsky-Korsakov: The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh.

It is about a town that is invaded by Tatars.


----------



## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

Hi Lauren and welcome to the forum!

Verdi's Nabucco touches on the relevant topics of religious oppression and exile: Jerusalem is overrun by the Babylonian king Nabucco, and the Hebrews are enslaved and exiled, their temple is destroyed, and they are forced to worship the Babylonian god under the explicit threat of genocide.

Here's the famous Hebrew chorus:






_Fly, thought, on wings of gold;
go settle upon the slopes and the hills,
where, soft and mild, the sweet airs
of our native land smell fragrant!

Greet the banks of the Jordan
and Zion's toppled towers...
Oh, my country, so beautiful and lost!
Oh, remembrance, so dear and so fatal!

Golden harp of the prophetic seers,
why dost thou hang mute upon the willow?
Rekindle our bosom's memories,
and speak to us of times gone by!

Mindful of the fate of Jerusalem,
give forth a sound of crude lamentation,
or may the Lord inspire you a harmony of voices
which may instill virtue to suffering._


----------



## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

Verdi's _Don Carlo_ also powerfully depicts both refugees from an overrun Flanders seeking mercy from King Philip II of Spain and the ISIS-style religious terror of the Spanish Inquisition.


----------



## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

This example is a bit dated (from 2011), but here's one of the better examples of directors making opera relevant to current affairs. Purists may roll their eyes, but I saw this well-received production of Handel's _Hercules_ and it really took what could be any otherwise esoteric Baroque opera with only academic appeal and made it immediate and relevant.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/03/opera-review-peter-sellars-stages-handels-hercules-in-chicago.html



> In Sellars' staging, Hercules is an American soldier in combat gear just returned home from the Middle East. Iole is brought in wearing the orange jump suit of a prisoner in Abu Ghraib, and she sings her first aria from under a hood.
> 
> But the production is not so much an updating as an attempt to find archetypal equivalents through the ages. The eloquently austere set by George Tsypin is a field of ancient Greek ruins. James F. Ingalls' potent lighting represents the fiery rise and smoldering descent of a relentless sun on Hercules' last day of life. Dunya Ramicova's costumes imply the modern-day America and the Middle East, Handel's 18th century and Sophocles' Athens.
> 
> The idea of war unites us in time and place, and this "Hercules" is about what events do to people.


----------



## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Cavaradossi said:


> This example is a bit dated (from 2011), but here's one of the better examples of directors making opera relevant to current affairs. Purists may roll their eyes, but I saw this well-received production of Handel's _Hercules_ and it really took what could be any otherwise esoteric Baroque opera with only academic appeal and made it immediate and relevant.
> 
> http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/03/opera-review-peter-sellars-stages-handels-hercules-in-chicago.html


I am sure those who see the opera can make these associations themselves without having the director forcing it unto them.


----------



## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Sloe said:


> I am sure those who see the opera can make these associations themselves without having the director forcing it unto them.


It seems to me to be more common that people resist seeing anything beyond the superficial, literal level, trying as hard as they can to avoid thinking about what an opera is actually about. There are certainly exceptions, though.


----------



## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

mountmccabe said:


> It seems to me to be more common that people resist seeing anything beyond the superficial, literal level, trying as hard as they can to avoid thinking about what an opera is actually about. There are certainly exceptions, though.


I can make all sorts of associations to any story.


----------

