Nothing Is
Original
#RipItOff
I recently saw a
tee-shirt on a friend of a friend on Facebook. Very simple “Nothing Is Original”
with “#RipItOff” hashtag below.
Simple
statement. So very, very true.
The challenge,
for us in opera, is to appear original. Most of us know this is not possible
and it’s only an illusion. The score is someone else’s (oftentimes many else’s –
composer, librettist, editor(s), performance traditions by long-ago dead
singers), the staging is derivative of all previous stagings every seen on the
stage (even if updated, characters must still tell a story with lights, costumes,
and sets), the singers’ ornaments are from the past directly, or heavily
borrowed, and the tempi of any conductor is well within most ballparks of what’s
come before.
What gives us
originality is the ever-new collaborations that are put into place for each new
production. New singers, a new design, new ideas on these old ideas, a new
venue, new players, new approaches, etc.
To think that
many young singers don’t want to listen to recordings, or watch older singers
perform to research their repertoire or a new role, is – for me – the height of
hubris.
And the height
of denying the fact that Nothing Is Original.
All operas are
not original. All Art is simply not original.
Opera – all of
it – springs from something else. All contain elements found in previous pieces.
There’d be no opera without the camerata from Florence’s renaissance, but even
those guys were looking way back into time to Greek drama. We have the original
castratis to thank for the later 19th century bel canto renaissance. Mozart begat Rossini who begat Donizetti who
begat Verdi who begat Puccini who begat Menotti who begat Heggie. The ties that
bind, the degrees of separation, are so tight between all of the operas we work
on every year. The dance that happens is a dance between the past and the
future. To find the future, one does need knowledge of the past.
When we see or
hear something new – say an amazing Robert Wilson production or new ornaments
previously not thought of by Bartoli or a conductor flex time in a Mozart
ensemble or a new opera by a young composer – we get excited. Wow! Now THIS is original.
No. Nothing Is
Original
So: RIP IT OFF! Do it with aplomb and acknowledgement for what’s come before. Dare others
to find your “inspirations”. But please, please, do not pretend you’re being
original. You are combining the same ingredients into a new dish to be served,
albeit in hopefully a creative, fresh, and tasty manner that seems beyond
brilliant.
And the flip
side to that is, dare to be derivative. Learn from all the others who’ve come
before you. Working on a Carmen? Have
you listened to every single recording that’s out there? Learning a Mozart aria
for the first time? Have you watched a video of your aria sung by the great
ones?
Technique is an
individual thing, but it is the derivative
tool that powers opera. You take other’s technical ideas and make them your
own. Do the same with your artistic
choices.
Basically, own
your own originality.
