Passion
Carmen has been steadily improving. It seems that some of the problems the past couple of days have been related to what constitutes a sitzprobe. The singer types within the group had one idea, but the conductor had a slightly different approach. So after a compromise on this issue was finally achieved, things went a bit more smoothly. We got through running the show with one cast today. Tomorrow we have a tech run without the orchestra, and then two dress rehearsals before we open. This is a pretty fancy concert version, so I am hoping it all holds together. A 1200-seat concert hall is a pretty difficult place to do staging with all the people involved in this show, but everyone came away from today’s rehearsal feeling optimistic. All this for one performance for each cast. Please don’t make me think about how all this money might be better spent!
With all that is going on, it strikes me that the element I have not been able to achieve in this opera is to instill in the student performers the notion of passion. They have so many things to think about, what with following the conductor, singing, moving about the stage, that about the last thing they are really able to incorporate is the passion of the opera. It’s always been the thing about Carmen (and opera, for that matter) I’ve always liked – well , that, and the music. Our student singers here are generally not very good actors. Of course, they really aren’t studying to be actors, but I do try to coax as much out of them as I can. However, I truly wonder if they have any sensibility of what passion is in the first place. The world in which they’ve grown up is so exteriorly cold and technological that I sense whatever passions they may have, they cannot translate to the stage. Either that, or they’re too young and self-conscious to let their passions appear on the stage.
I’ve been wondering myself lately if I have any passion left for anything. I notice as I creep into mid-middle age that my cynical side has more influence on my decisions than my passionate side. I think about getting passionate about something, but the more I think about it, the more cynical I become. I find that problems and challenges become either too large to solve effectively, or too time- and energy-draining to take on. Sometime the complete reverse is true – passions become mismanaged and get out of control, and people do not realize they are speaking and reacting purely out of passion. This situation applies to everything I think about doing – from building a new house to starting a new theatre. In this country, people with passion too often get kicked in the shorts (Ralph Nader – check this latest essay), or are assassinated.
Passion also seems to have dissipated itself into words without action. I read many passionate screeds and tirades, but seldom in this culture do I see it in action. I see a lot of passionate works written, but it does not appear that those passionate works get translated into societal action. Passion also seems to be unachievable at a mass cultural level. Since the mid-90s the right has done a better job of harnessing people’s passions than the left. You can disagree with the right’s positions, but it’s hard to disagree that they have a better handle on channeling people’s passions.
The great delight of being in theatre and working on such shows as Carmen is the chance to evoke those passions, excite them and bring them alive. But in a culture where passion is so dissipated, how do you explain an opera where everyone makes decisions and acts on the basis of passion? And how, then, do you communicate that to an audience who have come, not to see or experience the passion in the piece, but a slice of “culture” and “art?” -twl
