There are essentially three kinds of operas: those that glorify the human voice (Bellini, Donizetti), those that glorify the orchestra (Strauss, Berg) and those that glorify both (Mozart, Wagner). What would the ultimate non-or anti-opera be? Obviously, a work that glorified neither singers nor orchestra in fact, had no singers or orchestra at all.
Last week in Germany such a work appeared. The orchestra pit of the Hamburg State Opera was empty, and up on the stage strode the weirdest bunch of non-human heavies since Wagner peopled his Ring cycle with gnomes, mermaids,...
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