Netflix Download Opera
Ellis Ruan
Software needs to be developed separately for different operating systems. If Opera doesn't work in one of them, it could be either the underlying operating system or it could be the version developed for it.
Both Netflix and the ENO are committed to bringing people dramatic stories that delight, excite and get audiences talking. Historically, opera told dramatic stories as a form of pure entertainment to the masses across Europe and eventually the world. Over time, as musical tastes have changed, so have the mediums in which these stories are enjoyed, the latest being TikTok.
On a recent evening in June, the former federal penitentiary was the site of a film shoot for Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser -- a 12-episode opera created by Bay Area native composer and musician Lisa Bielawa in collaboration with playwright Erik Ehn and director Charles Otte. On set for Episode 9, a chorus of vocalists sang out a dirge-like lament accompanied by hurdy gurdy from one of the cell blocks. Down the corridor, in the decrepit prison hospital, a string quartet played along with the sound of bells. Meanwhile, in a third room, a straightjacketed teen girl with a skull scepter confronted her doppelgänger.
The unusual project is being filmed in 10-to-12 minute episodes -- perfect for the ever shortening attention spans of a new generation. Shot in Southern California, New York, and San Francisco, the series will be broadcast next year on public television and online, and seeks to bring opera to a broader audience by using a digital streaming model a la Netflix and Amazon.
Bielawa shopped the piece around to opera companies throughout the country, but came up short. The project was shelved for 20 years. Bielawa eventually resurrected Vireo as part of her residency at Cal State Fullerton's Grand Central Art Center (GCAC) in Orange County in 2012.
The idea to write an opera in episodes as one might approach a sitcom or telenovela came from Netflix. Specifically, the TV series Arrested Development, which Bielawa loves for its lampooning of life in Orange County's Newport Beach with absurdist wordplay and dark wit.
"I looked around me and realized that one way to make innovative work that engaged with the community was to recognize that many of the smartest and most creative people around were involved in this evolving new form," Bielawa says. "The way to make an opera that was native to SoCal was to embrace its flagship format, the episodic series."
Running at almost three hours -- if you were to watch all 12 episodes back-to-back, that is -- Vireo is just about the same length as the average opera. (Or it will be, once the project is finished, which is expected to happen before the end of next year.) But unlike the other two televised operas mentioned above, which are still occasionally performed on stage, Vireo doesn't fit into a traditional live opera setting. The episodic piece takes place in multiple time periods simultaneously. This time-bending is quite tricky to represent in a live performance. Also, Vireo features a dizzying number of collaborators like the Kronos Quartet, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), the Bay Area choral group Cappella SF, and even a marching band from a high school in Indio.
What the episodic, web-based format of Vireo does provide for fans of opera is choice: the viewer can decide to snack on a single episode, take in a few at once, or binge-watch the whole thing in one go. "Each episode stands alone as a work of art, and yet also presents itself as part of a larger narrative," says Otte, who worked on the globe-trotting remount of Philip Glass' seminal opera Einstein on the Beach. (The production made a stop at Cal Performances in Berkeley in Oct. 2012.)
As with all operas, there are a lot of moving parts and production costs are often high. The budget for Vireo is $600,000. Although the project receives funding from a few foundations and grant programs (most prominently the community television organization KCET and Grand Central Art Center), Bielawa and her team still need at least $260,000 to make it through to the end of the series. And success is certainly not a given. According to a 2015 study conducted by the opera industry organization Opera America, of the nearly 600 new operas premiered over the past two decades, only 11 percent have received a second production.
But Vireo isn't just a point of innovation for an art form that has long struggled to stay relevant. Bielawa is one of very few successful female opera composers in a field dominated by men. As such, she is aware that her work is also unusual in content; her heroine is not simply an exotic Carmen or Madame Butterfly. "I'm working with these very young women who are playing these important and complex lead roles," Bielawa says. "One of my motivations is to insist on roles for women in opera that have depth and breadth of character."
FRANCISCO SALAZAR, (Publisher) worked as a reporter for Latin Post where he has had the privilege of interviewing numerous opera stars including Anita Rachvelishvili and Ailyn Perez. He also worked as an entertainment reporter where he covered the New York and Tribeca Film Festivals and interviewed many celebrities such as Antonio Banderas, Edgar Ramirez and Benedict Cumberbatch. He currently freelances for Remezcla.
Jenna is the editor and co-creator of Schmopera.com. She's a pianist and vocal coach, and her work in opera allows her to present a truly insider look at the industry and its artists. Jenna is also a contributor for The Globe and Mail and Opera Canada magazine.
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As an operatic heroine, the illegitimate daughter of a Spanish officer and Creole mother is a natural both for what we know about her and for all that we can, as is the need and right of opera, surmise. Her precocious genius stunned priests and scholars alike in Mexico City, as did her entrancing beauty. She had a feisty independence yet became a nun at age 19. Presumably, this was a way for her to avoid a stifling marriage and to pursue her scholarly and artistic aims. It is now widely held, and is the central theme of the opera, that Juana was not only a proto-feminist but also a gay one.
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