River City Writer

Ladies and gentlemen, Bill Eddins has left the stage. And he has returned with a microphone. With rock star panache, he does the whole, “How are you doing out there?” Weak applause are followed by what is essentially an, “I can’t hear you!” Louder applause…

Eddin’s between-song banter proves again the man’s sense of humour, and ability to make classical music accessible to everyone. (Note to the purists: Yes, I’m using “classical” as a broad-sweeping term to cover a wide array of “art music,” which is not necessarily classical music in the technical sense of the term. Deal with it.)

And now…a piece from what may be the quintessential American opera—Porgy and Bess.

I admit, I have absolutely no knowledge of this song. Hell, I has essentially no knowledge of opera. I respect it as an art form, but I often find that those who perform it almost have too much respect for the music. Rarely do they take risks with it. Rarely do they approach old operas from new angles.

There’s something to be said for purity in art, and I would never suggest that we abandon the traditional versions of our great works of art—opera, theatre, film, whatever—but as society changes and moves forward through history, it would be nice to see how our current sensibilities affect our approach to older forms of “high art” such as the opera.

Of course, having about as much knowledge of opera as the chair I’m sitting on, I has no way of knowing whether Eddins and the ESO are taking any risks with this performance. (I realize that this makes my whole tangent about taking risks with opera a bit ignorant, but I stand by it nonetheless.)

Suddenly, we hit a sequence that rings familiar in my ears. I have heard this song before…or at least something inspired by it (or which inspired it?). I can’t place it, but I’ve got Google and Wikipedia for after the show. I’ll inform myself as best I can and, if I figure it out, I’ll report back.

And with the end of that piece, we’ll call this “Dispatch #2.”

Afterthought: I’m hearing the word “musical” tossed about in blogger’s room. Is it a musical or an opera? Proof of my ignorance, I suppose.