By Justin G.
“Opera Italiana is in the Air” is all about bringing back the origin and popular music of our past. The use of the word popular music is very different from what it was in the past. Right now our most popular genres are rap, pop and rock and people wouldn’t take a glance or even respect the genre we now call classical but “Opera Italiana is in the Air” is about making sure we don’t forget and disrespect the origin for a lot of the music we listen to now by clearing up misconceptions and urging a young audience to enjoy and appreciate where it all came from, all while being free to watch and listen. I wrote this paper because I appreciate what they do as they do it for free and it’s all about keeping the music that they love alive and thrive in this world and as a musician this is the exact thing I would want to do if my favorite genre is being under appreciated.
The musicians playing at this event were from diverse areas like Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, The Metropolitan Opera and plenty of other places, and the conductor for this entire evening was Alvise Casellati, who was very enjoyable to watch, The singers were George Andguladze, bass, Kang Wang, tenor and Lotonia Moor, soprano and their performances were great especially Kang’s performance.
Though I have some opinions on opera (mostly negative), I do believe it’s best sung by women because I find their voices to have more clarity and are more soothing. Lotonia Moore delivered with her performances. As I am typing this it sounds like I’m eating my own words but I really did find her performances more incredible and I would even say fascinating. I heard in an interview that the desired effect you want to give to the audience is to feel something, and she did that perfectly when she was singing Alfredo Catalani “ebben ne andrò lontana”. It was captivating but it wouldn’t captivate you because its dramatic or wild. No, it captivates you for how calm it makes you feel and how it relaxes your body. That’s the charm from her performance that I really want to highlight.
Beyond, Ms. Moor’s aria, I didn’t like the performances that included any type of voice, and for the most part it was because I couldn’t understand them, due to it being in Italian and words being stretched. Perhaps due to my own biases I do believe that’s where they fall short. I think almost any type of classical music gets ruined by a voice, except for Mozarts “Queen of the Night” aria. The instrumentalists in this event were the highlight of it all and their greatest performance was also the surprise ending of the event when they played the William Tell Overture and it was a save the best for last moment where it was super dramatic, loud and recognizable.
Some highlights of this performance that helped me understand their motive and made me more appreciative of them was when they spoke about why they do this and their love of wanting to share this music. They brought up a young boy named Issac to share his composition named “Echoes of the Land” . When I was Isaac’s age I figured out that glass is not fun to walk on so to make something as good as “Echoes of the Land” at his age is incredible and he received such a great compliment from the maestro deeming Isaac to be the ‘Mozart of our times”.
I see any classical musician or any classical music enjoyer to be threatening because I thought they would be overly serious maybe a little pretentious about their work but the maestro and my wonderful teacher, Ina Litera, who also played at this event are just a huge breathe a fresh air. Each time the maestro spoke into the mic, a smile didn’t leave my face because he is just so wholesome. Some of the things the maestro said was that he believes that opera and classical music is made for everyone of all ages and its not targeted for an older audience. That type of mindset aligns completely with mines, I would like to make music for everyone of all demographics and I would say thats a huge motivator. The maestro was a little funny too because he was speaking in Italian and had to stop himself halfway and said that he realized he was speaking Italian to an English speaking audience, and that made everyone chuckle.
The venue was beautiful, I wish it was bigger because I didn’t expect that many people to be there and I was surprised because I thought the support for classic music was drowning but the amount of people gave me hope for this genre. I felt like a fish out of water in the crowd of people in this event because the audience was handsome and beautiful and dressed nicely and all I was wearing was a sweater, sweatpants and crocs so I felt uncomfortable but I had to remind myself that I’m not there to be around other people. I’m there to enjoy the music being played and I also related to their calmness and positivity so that helped me from leaving.
Is “Opera Italiana is in the Air” worth watching and listening to? Will I recommend this to a friend? The answer to those questions is a loud yes, though there are things to hate like the vocals and the lack of seating. The good overwhelms the bad here with the instruments being so unbelievably good, the maestro being a breath of fresh air, the people in the crowd being calm and quiet. The most important thing here is that they do it to share their favorite genre of music, while preserving its history and wanting to share this music to the youth, assuring them that this music was made and is still being made for everyone of all ages. These people bring us to the past and show us the history of the thing we love most, MUSICA.
“There’s opera for all kinds of people, you just have to open your mind and give it a chance”-Latonia Moore
