I'll have another cup

I just came back from a trip to Santa Fe Opera where I saw Richard Strauss' Daphe and the American premiere of Tan Dun's Tea: A Mirror of Soul. I don't do reviews here and won't now, but the thought of doing one presented me with a problem.

How do professional reviewers approach a work like Tea? The aesthetic is much different that an opera typical of the Western music mainstream. It incorporates many Japanese and Chinese elements and to my mind in libretto, staging, and in most of the music, creates a work that inhabits a different sound world. So, how do you evaluate it's success (or failure) in terms that an audience used to typical operatic criticism can relate.

I'm not sure I could and perhaps that's why I'm not a professional critic (that and because my writing style varies from tolerable, to verbose, to barely comprehensible.) I think I understand Western art music (I hate the term classical music) as well as anyone, but in my opinion, approaching a work like Tea requires opening my mind to a different musical and dramatic language. And I therefore can't think of it in the same context as a La bohème, or Daphne.

But does the fact that it is presented in the context of a traditional opera festival, with the same singers who perform composers like Puccini and Strauss demand that it be considered in that context.

I'm just not sure.

Switched at birth

According to Playbill Arts Placido Domingo will join the list of luminaries who have contributed their voices to The Simpsons.

Two questions come to mind: Is this a good thing for opera? and Is there anything left that Domingo hasn't done?

To the first, it's just a coincidence that we've just been reminded of the late great Beverly Sills appearance on "The Muppet Show". That certainly did no one harm, although I don't see it as having the same kind of impact. Domingo has already done network TV (a guest shot on The Cosby Show and a dreadful Placido Domingo and the Ladies special). At this point in his career I don't see it as anything more than a lark. Having Domingo spar with Homer Simpson isn't really likely to do any harm but nor is it likely to have any positive effect on opera.

On the second point, one can only marvel that Domingo is still going and strong. His career is of course winding down, but his incredible energy and artistic integrity make him a model to which others should aspire. I have nothing but admiration for Domingo and hope that he continues to find new challenges.