January 20, 2021
Michael Andor Brodeur
THE WASHINGTON POST – A strange package arrived on our doorstep last week. Strange because it didn’t contain masks, or disinfectant wipes, or even another jar of that chili-crisp paste we keep blowing through. It was a box of opera.
The Beauty That Still Remains: Diaries in Song is the latest experiment by the New York-based On Site Opera, a company that stays true to its name, even as it eschews that most foundational of operatic conventions: the stage.
It’s also the latest example of the many ways opera is reinventing itself amid a pandemic that kept houses shuttered for the better part of a year. Without audiences filling rows in real life, opera companies are experimenting with ways to keep fans engaged.
Current projects: “The Lost Art of Dreaming,” including “The Dictionary of Joy and Pleasure” (micro-commissions to 10 artists seeking a source of pleasure for every letter of the alphabet); “Video Postcard” series
“Our most recent project, ‘Boys in Trouble,’ did sharpen focus and shift direction upon the election of the last administration. The emboldening of white supremacy and specifically proudly anti-trans, transphobic values and strategic planning by the administration meant that I really wanted our project to stand up and speak back to that.
“(‘The Lost Art of Dreaming’) also is informed by living through this last administration. We had very little time to dream or imagine or feel joy or pleasure. It felt really important and radical to begin the project during that administration to of course continue organizing, educating and fighting back but also to claim the importance of joy and pleasure and dreaming in our lives.”
Theater to Stream: Festivals, Festivals, Festivals
The Under the Radar, Prototype and Exponential festivals are ready to open our minds with experimental work, even if their doors are shut.
Alexi Murdoch in “Wide Slumber for Lepidopterists,” part of the Prototype Festival.Credit.Pierre-Alain Giraud
Set dates for previews, openings and closings. Fall and spring seasons. Heck: turning up somewhere on time!
Until the pandemic occurred in 2020, many of us perhaps did not realize how much theater relies on appointments. Now that most of them have vanished, with theater and time itself becoming somewhat amorphous, it’s comforting to see that the January festivals are still happening.