My Two Cents on the Actor who Doesn’t Like Ballet and Opera

The musical internets are all abuzz about two sentences an actor uttered in an interview concerning his lack of use for ballet or opera. I learned from Michael that this guy (I keep forgetting his name, and have no desire to look it up or plant a link in this post) played the role of Bob Dylan in a recent bio-pic. Unlike many of my peers, I have no interest in Bob Dylan. I thought the film was well made, and well acted, but it did nothing to assuage my lack of appreciation for Dylan, his work in music, or in what has been lauded as his poetry.

I love a great many ballets and a great many operas. I also love the art of ballet, and I love the way ballet teaches people to move their bodies in disciplined, expressive, musical, communicative, and athletic ways. And ballet doesn't necessarily depend on a set repertoire of  “old” music. Ballet companies use all kinds of music for their productions. Sadly not enough of the music that people dance to is made in real time by musicians who are paid for their time and talent, because production costs are too high to hire musicians for performances. Recorded music, even with fees, can work within ballet company’s budget.

My love of opera has a lot to do with loving the music and drama of specific operas, and the deep level of escape that a well-written, well-staged, and well-performed opera gives to me. And I also love the fact that I can listen to a recording of an opera with the libretto, and I can imagine a theater in my head. And when I write operas the theater in my head increases in dimension and in scope, and lets my imagination become boundless.

I have had the opportunity for music I have written be used for ballet, and someday I hope to see and hear one of my operas staged and performed somewhere other than in the theater in my head.

The “death” of institutions that participate in what has had to become the business of classical music pops up its ugly head every once in a while. And this time it comes at a time when we have incredibly high levels of playing, singing, teaching, and scholarship, and when composers are continuing to write excellent, challenging, and expressive new music (in contrast to what people were working with during the serially dominated part of the twentieth century, when tonality and modality were considered either old-fashioned or uninteresting).

My father always said that people will always have musical institutions and religious institutions. I think that he was correct. And people benefit in all kinds of ways by participating in musical activities and musical communities (particularly school orchestras, music school ensembles, bands, and choruses) when they are young.

An encounter I had in high school comes to mind. One of my chorus mates also played the flute a little bit. She asked if she could try mine, and asked what kind it was. I told her that it was a Haynes. She said, "Oh, they make great pantyhose," and blew into my instrument. 

My high school wardrobe consisted of overalls and painter's pants (from the men's section of the Sears Catalog), and I had no more business wearing pantyhose than my friend had playing a Haynes flute.

I believe that this chorus mate grew up to become a pediatrician who designed solar-powered equipment which she brought to areas of Africa that didn’t have conventional electrical power, and thereby improved and saved countless numbers of lives.