Night at Opera Is No Day at the Beach

Recently I was interviewed on the moribund KFAC about opera and why I liked it. I protested that I knew absolutely nothing about opera, and proved it by saying “Opera never changes.”

But of course it changes. There are new operas. Old ones are refurbished. New producers bring new values to the old. New set designers change old concepts, as David Hockney did for “Tristan und Isolde.” Times are altered. Arias are given new interpretations. Costumes change. Tenors change.

Nevertheless, by and large, in most operas, everybody you care about dies in the end.

I am reminded of Melina Mercouri as the Piraeus prostitute in the movie classic “Never on Sunday.” The title referred to Mercouri’s rule against doing business on that day. Instead, she liked to attend the ancient Greek theater in Athens. Of course, in those old tragedies, everyone dies in the end; but since they were read in ancient Greek, Mercouri never had any idea what was happening; but she remained optimistic, and in the end, when everyone lay dead on the stage, she invariably jumped up and cried, “And then everybody went to the seashore!”

Recently my wife and I went to the Music Center Opera’s performances of “Tosca,” and then “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny,” the first an old opera (Puccini, 1900), the second slightly more modern (Brecht and Weill, 1930). But 30 years into the 20th Century, Brecht and Weill did not trifle with the time-tested ending--the good guys die.

I can’t see any harm in outlining the plots, since they are printed in the Music Center programs. But one must be seated early to read them before the curtain, and at intermission, of course, one must stretch one’s legs.

Briefly, the plot of “Tosca” is this: Tosca, a singer, is in love with Cavaradossi, a painter. Cavaradossi conceals an escaped prisoner, and the brutal bureaucrat, Scarpia, who lusts for Tosca, has him arrested and tortured. To save her lover from torture, Tosca tells Scarpia where the escapee is hidden. But Scarpia orders Cavaradossi executed for treason, of which he is evidently guilty. In return for Tosca’s body, Scarpia offers to spare Cavaradossi (with a fake execution) and to give him and Tosca a note for free passage. She pretends to agree and he writes the note. Then she picks up a handy knife and kills the lecher. Later, Tosca arrives at the prison where Cavaradossi is held. She tells her lover to go before the firing squad and pretend to die. (The bullets will be blanks, and after the soldiers leave, they will run away.) Alas, the bullets are real. It is Scarpia’s revenge. Cavaradossi falls dead. Tosca climbs to a parapet, sings her swan song, and dives to her death (presumably into a concealed net).

Mahagonny is a new town in Florida, Hollywood or the Northwest, depending on how you read the clues. (I thought it was the Northwest; Martin Bernheimer thought it was Hollywood; most people thought it was Florida.)

The town is founded by a madam and a couple of cronies who are fleeing arrest somewhere (Pensacola?). Their truck dies and they decide they might as well stay right there, since the rest of the world is so rotten. Half a dozen girls turn up and the madam opens a house--the first business in the new town.

Four loggers drift in from seven years in Alaska. They quickly immerse themselves in the four pursuits of man--eating, lovemaking, drinking and fighting. One of them, overmatched, is killed in a fight. Another stuffs himself on the entrails of a freshly slaughtered calf and dies. (The plastic calf is wheeled onstage on a table and its white face hangs toward the audience). The hero, sort of, who is disenchanted with a corrupt world, buys drinks for the house to ease the pain. But he is broke and can’t pay. He is tried (the madam is the judge) on a charge of not having any money, for which the penalty is death. Not even the angelic whore with whom he had shared a tender love will speak for him. He is electrocuted. On stage. In the finale, the whole town (except for the three dead men) sing the refrain:

“Nothing you can do will help a dead man.”

And then everybody goes to the seashore.