Opera Dies Elegantly in Laguna Woods

When you live in a large retirement community, death surrounds you. Wednesday night, it was opera that died in Laguna Woods.

The Opera 100 Club brought live performances to the Village for 46 years. Wednesday, the curtain went down for good due to dwindling interest and audiences.  In front of an audience that filled perhaps 1/6th of the concert auditorium, Cal State University Fullerton put on an enthusiastic performance of Hansel & Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck.

I am not a regular follower of opera, but I decided to go on this historic last chance to see a live opera only a 10-minute walk from my home, and at a price of $10 for the ticket. I was very glad I went. It stirred all sorts of memories within me regarding opera. I actually thought of the time I confusedly said to my 8th grade music teacher (yes, those were the years when music and art were required in the curriculum) that I knew I should like opera, but I didn’t. She suggested I might in the future.

The first “real” opera I saw was indeed absolutely stunning — Aida outdoors in the Baths of Caracalla in Rome.  That could make an opera lover out of anyone.  I once took a long bus ride in California and sat next to a man who said he was dying.  He had traveled the world seeing operas, especially Wagner’s Ring Cycle, but he would not survive long enough to see the whole cycle.  The one that was missing was Gotterdammerung.

I felt guilty remembering a performance of that very opera in San Francisco.  My husband and I had eaten out prior to the performance, and I distinctly remember feeling very queasy throughout. My attention was totally on how fast I could get out of my row if I had to throw up.  It was the longest opera imaginable.  What I mainly remember is how happy I was when it ended.

When I lived in Santa Barbara, there was a high caliber opera school in the summers.  I went on a faculty wives trip to visit.  My image of a soprano was Kate Smith, but out came a tiny, petite young lady who opened her mouth and out came the same range and volume.  I was shocked.  They ended every summer with a formal opera performance.  That’s where I was enchanted by The Magic Flute. In Israel, an opera singer friend took me to a memorable Sweeney Todd.

Opera entered my life again when I lived in Macau. At that time, Macau was a Portuguese enclave. Everyone in the Portuguese community there turned out for one annual opera.  It had to be very well done, bombastic, and with amazing staging.  If not, the Portuguese community loudly registered its complaints, and that company would never be invited back again.

I had an uncle who was an artist and an opera lover.  In fact, he listened to opera every day in his old age.  With some premonition of his death, the last picture he ever drew was a pencil rendering of the parting of the lovers in Madame Butterfly as his goodbye to my aunt.

In speaking to one of the Fullerton teachers tonight during the intermission, I was surprised to learn that the singers had absolutely no technical amplification of their voices. They sang naturally loud, clear, and confidently in the large hall.  He agreed that opera had lost popularity not only in Laguna Woods, but in general, mostly because of money issues, but also because younger people in today’s society don’t seem to appreciate it.

For these reasons, even the best students may not have much of a future in opera. However, there are still dedicated students left who are willing to put their heart and soul into what it takes to be a quality opera singer.

The themes of operas aren’t much different from the daily news. Love, hunger, poverty, cannibal witches and enchanted fairies are no more bizarre than would-be underwear bombers, massacres by dictators, socialism vs. the Tea Party, war-ravaged refugees, stressed-out soldiers acting badly, and economic depression.

Thankfully, however, operas are make-believe, and dazzle us with the beauty and possibilities of the human voice.