Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom!

The opera world needs a jolt. Or so thinks Peter Gelb, about to take over as director of New York's Metropolitan Opera. Critic Anthony Tommasini explains:

In a recent interview, Mr. Gelb said that contemporary opera could use a jolt from composers who have worked in musical theater, jazz and popular music. He also said that the opera world had much to learn from the Broadway model of working on a show for months in advance, with members of the creative team bickering and bartering, revising, throwing out songs, writing new ones, jiggling the book, trying to get things right.

So he is inaugurating a collaborative program with the Lincoln Center Theater. Nine composers of diverse profiles will initially take part, ranging from the elegant musical theater composers Adam Guettel and Jeanine Tesori, to the brash (some would say crass) contemporary classical composer Michael Torke. Wynton Marsalis has been tapped from the world of jazz. The gifted pop singer and songwriter Rufus Wainwright, a passionate opera buff, will try his hand at writing one. Scott Wheeler — who, in the interest of full disclosure, is a good friend of mine — is a more proven choice. His "Democracy," commissioned by Plácido Domingo for the Washington National Opera, had a successful premiere there last year.

Mr. Gelb's idea is that as these operas are written, they will be developed in workshops, where problems can be assessed and changes made. Some will make it to full productions at the Met. Others may be found more suitable for the smaller stage of the Vivian Beaumont Theater. Then again, a work may be deemed unsuccessful and not produced at all.

Tommasini has some reservations, though. For one thing, he appears to believe that rather than wasting time on the development of crossover composers, the Met should focus on the cultivation of known opera talents, encouraging them to "think big."

He also feels that dabbling in musical theater is not what the Met should be about. No matter how dismaying Mr. Gelb may find the overcommercialization of that genre, Tommasini argues, it's not the job of the Met to develop productions which, ultimately may be appropriate as a sort of musical comedy, rather than as an opera.

He further wonders whether the workshop approach Gelb is instituting--working with composers who haven't previously written operas--will be fruitful.

Yet Tommasini isn't just throwing stones. He concludes:

Still, through this program Mr. Gelb will at least keep essential questions about the nature of contemporary musical drama before the public for years to come. Meanwhile, in his quest to shake up the Met, he is skewering sacred cows. He plans, for example, to replace the Met's hugely popular production of "Tosca," a Zeffirelli extravaganza, with something grippingly modern for the incandescent soprano Karita Mattila, possibly directed by George C. Wolfe. I can't wait.

Speaking as someone who isn't really into opera or into classical symphonic music, either, I can vouch for the interest that's roused in me when I learn that Elvis Costello has written an opera, or that Billy Joel has written pieces in the classical genre for piano, or that Paul McCartney has composed a symphonic poem, an oratorio, and a stream of chamber pieces. It causes me to, at least occasionally, listen to classical music while pecking away at the computer. When I like something I hear, I even periodically buy a CD that wouldn't have otherwise interested me.

Don't you think that Bruce Springsteen has an opera ready to erupt from his volcanic mind? What might Stevie Wonder, with his penchant for storytelling and melody, do in an operatic production? And isn't a shame that Roy Orbison, with his penchant for passion and pathos, didn't write some symphonic pieces? And Bono, in his homage to his late father, has already talked about the "opera in me." Just imagine any number of rappers being set loose to work with classical music or with operas.

Music isn't static. It's dynamic. Every genre of music is the result of some fusion and cross-pollenation, of permutations that some composer created, deliberately or unwittingly. When it comes to music, I say, "Let a thousand flowers bloom." And if the peonies find a way to pollenate the roses, the result may be awful. But it could be stunning. The only way to know for sure is for composers to try. The Met appears committed to helping them to do just that.