The Komische Oper (Berlin) production of Carmen by Sebastien Baumgaryen, revived this season, is set in a bombed-out urban setting that included a former Santander Bank branch, morphing into the Grand Hyatt Berlin for the bullring scene. The band of gypsies held portraits of Marx and Lenin. Carmen first appeared in a sort of voodoo death mask, wearing naughty underwear, and Micaëla was costumed as Our Lady of Lourdes, complete with crown. The lowlight seemed to come when José pulled down his pants and raped Carmen before stabbing her.
We have reached a point where opera is no longer opera, music is no longer musical, classic plays are unrecognizable, and “fine art” is just there to park the huge sums earned by mega-millionaires who care not for art, but for financial return.
Carmen is a famous opera for a good reason. Epicurus would have appreciated inspired, original art designed to enthrall, would have agreed that we shouldn’t tolerate bad taste masquerading as art.
(Based on a review by James L. Paulk (http://classicalvoiceamerica.org/2014/04/24/review-les-troyens-la-scala-elegy-for-lovers-la-fenice-carmen-komische-oper/ )
Meanwhile, audiences for serious music are declining and music academies are turning out graduates with no hope of a job, because the audiences are not there.
Why? We have now had nearly a century of the musical establishment encouraging a particular type of modern composition that iincludes rhythm, articulation, the use of “extended techniques” etc., but excludes the most vital thing that resonates with normal audiences: a good melody. It isn’t clear whether composers are or are not capable of including melody in their pieces. Some probably are; others are not. But the facts are clear: orchestras present new compositions as long as they only last about eight minutes – and that is often the last you hear of them. The smarter, more market-oriented composers are now getting the message, and the trend is turning back slowly to melodies, judiciously enhanced with some modern chord sequences. But is it too late? Where will the audiences of the future come from? For all of this stubborn modernism blame conformism.
Your observation is already being supported by programming decisions at the Chicago Lyric Opera. You noted that the musical world is “getting the message” and that “the trend is turning back slowly to melodies.” In fact, the musical world is going one better, integrating opera-trained voices with Broadway theater. The opera-destroying Baumgartens of the musical world may well be trumped by developments like this:
http://classicalvoiceamerica.org/2014/04/26/preview-sound-of-music-lyric-opera-chicago-2014/