Naked Man High Point of Opera

Seattlest, as promised a few weeks ago, recently saw The End of the Affair (by Jake Heggie) at Seattle Opera. We went the last weekend, and we didn’t tell you about it, but here’s the thing: in our opinion, if you missed it, you didn’t miss much. It was well-sung, the sets were quite nice, and we were entertained. But. In this case, the contemporary music did not do it for us. There were few arching melodies, no show-stopping arias. And without those, opera becomes – even to us, aspiring opera singers that we are – boring.

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention a few nice touches: a huge stained glass window which shatters twice (the second time in a flash-back), and shocked us both times – even though we knew it was coming, having seen the movie (the remake, not the original). The score incorporates real air-raid sirens from 1944’s London, which were quite haunting. And, finally, there was a completely naked man on stage! Only from the back, true, but we got full nudity when the male lead dropped trou. We wished we had our binoculars with us.

Seattle Opera’s next big production should be a big party: Die Fledermaus, by Johann Strauss, Jr. It is sure to cure our blasé attitude toward opera, with its huge party scene, wonderful drinking songs, cases of mistaken identity, and its other huge party scene. The fun begins January 14th.