ATTN JMS: B5 Opera
richard...@my-deja.com
If somebody were interested in adapting Babylon 5 into an opera, what
would be the first set of steps that somebody would need to take?
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Maagic
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-Maagic
aka Bryan Foster
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Jms at B5
>would be the first set of steps that somebody would need to take?
Pony up the dough to license it. Nothing else can legally be done unless you
have the rights to do it.
jms
(jms...@aol.com)
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Richard Tibbetts
>Making a REALLY big stage...
It'll be destroyed during construction.
--
Richard Tibbetts
http://www.primepeace.ltd.uk/
Jon Green
> richard...@my-deja.com wrote:
> >If somebody were interested in adapting Babylon 5 into an opera, what
> >would be the first set of steps that somebody would need to take?
>
> Pony up the dough to license it. Nothing else can legally be done unless you
> have the rights to do it.
Time to mortgage Switzerland, then?
Jon <grin>
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Matt Ion
>Maagic <ma...@cybrtyme.com> wrote:
>
>>Making a REALLY big stage...
>
>It'll be destroyed during construction.
Yeah, but only the first three...
----------------------------------------------
Your friend and mine,
Matt
"Reality is in alpha test on prototype hardware."
John W. Kennedy
> would be the first set of steps that somebody would need to take?
My advice, frankly, is to sit down, have a stiff drink, and come up with
a new idea.
In the first place, the chance of production is extremely low. There
was a serious attempt made only a few years ago, by real opera people,
with Paramount's cooperation, to get a "Star Trek" opera done, and it
fell through. In order to sell a B5 opera, you'd have to solve the
problems that they encountered, you'd have to convince the people with
the money that you'd actually solved them, and you'd have to fight the
uphill battle against the greater public recognition of "Trek" (much
worse than that which JMS faced, because _he_ could say, "We can
succeed, as 'Star Trek' did," whereas _you_ have to say, "We won't fail,
as 'Star Trek' did." So if you don't control your very own opera
company, it's already almost impossible.
You'd also have to fight the existing popularity of Christopher Franke's
score (most of which is not very singable -- it wasn't, after all, meant
to be -- so it couldn't be adapted very well, even with Franke's full
cooperation).
Other issues depend on your position.
Are you just a B5/opera fan? Then, unless you're willing to sink
$10,000,000 or so into the project, forget it. You don't have the power
to get this done.
Are you a poet? Then (JMS and Warner Bros. won't mind as long as you
keep it in the privacy of your own home) sit down and write a libretto.
(And then despair, when you discover that it's _much_ too long for
production.)
Are you a composer? Then first find a poet, or become one, and then
refer to the previous paragraph. And don't even think of trying to sell
a B5 opera until you've actually had several less expensive operas
successfully produced.
Are you a working impressario, with access to sufficient funding, and
the ability to commission a poet and a composer? Then you shouldn't be
asking -- and, yes, as JMS says, the first thing to do is to give WB
money for the rights.
--
As a Christian, I wish to register both my disgust at George W. Bush's
attempt to exploit the name of my Lord and my God for its brand value,
and my horror at the fact that a major candidate should be so deeply
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Otto Martin
>On 26 Oct 2000 07:42:10 -0700, Richard Tibbetts wrote:
>>Maagic <ma...@cybrtyme.com> wrote:
>>>Making a REALLY big stage...
>>It'll be destroyed during construction.
>Yeah, but only the first three...
And then the fourth one disappears just before opening night, to be used
in a Star Trek opera 20 years ago? :-)
Otto Martin, who's never watched an opera in his life :-/
--
"Deo odibilem ballistariorum et sagittariorum adversus Christianos et
catholicos exerceri de caetero subanathemate prohibemus"
richard...@my-deja.com
> >would be the first set of steps that somebody would need to take?
>
unless you
> have the rights to do it.
Who would one contact to initiate this process?
Steven C. Britton
news:8taft0$d02$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...
> In article <20001025232324...@ng-fk1.aol.com>,
> jms...@aol.com (Jms at B5) wrote:
> > >If somebody were interested in adapting Babylon 5 into an opera, what
> > >would be the first set of steps that somebody would need to take?
> >
> > Pony up the dough to license it. Nothing else can legally be done
> unless you
> > have the rights to do it.
>
> Who would one contact to initiate this process?
You have GOT to be kidding. B5 works great on TV; I just don't think a
stage production would be in the cards.
--
It's A Time for Change: Join the Canadian Alliance
Steven C. Britton
Calgary
John W. Kennedy
"Steven C. Britton" <s...@scb-group.com> wrote:
> You have GOT to be kidding. B5 works great on TV; I just don't think
a
> stage production would be in the cards.
The essential problem is that it's too long. B5 is already a drama; we
_know_ how long it is in that form. As an opera, it would be about
twice as long, even with massive cuts. (Am I the only one here with any
practical knowledge of theatre and opera?)
An examination of the extant material shows that one episode of B5 is
equal to about four comic books. The 17-hour, four-night opera "Der
Ring der Nibelungen" is currently being adapted as 14 comic books. Do
the math.
However, my wife pointed out to me when I mentioned this thread to her
that "Sleeping in Light" could be the source an excellent (but legally
unpublishable) student exercise in opera. (By the nature of the
exercise, it would have to be done by a single librettist-composer or by
a close team.) Oscar Hammerstein II used to give technical assignments
of that sort to the young Sondheim.
--
A vote for Nader in 2000 is a vote for Buchanan (or worse) in 2004.
Andrew Swallow
><richard...@my-deja.com> wrote in message
>news:8taft0$d02$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...
>> In article <20001025232324...@ng-fk1.aol.com>,
>> jms...@aol.com (Jms at B5) wrote:
>> > >If somebody were interested in adapting Babylon 5 into an opera, what
>> > >would be the first set of steps that somebody would need to take?
>> >
>> > Pony up the dough to license it. Nothing else can legally be done
>> unless you
>> > have the rights to do it.
>>
>> Who would one contact to initiate this process?
>
Do you have a plot? Or will you be asking JMS for an outline?
Andrew Swallow
Stellijer
"Jms at B5" <jms...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20001025232324...@ng-fk1.aol.com...
> >If somebody were interested in adapting Babylon 5 into an opera, what
> >would be the first set of steps that somebody would need to take?
>
> Pony up the dough to license it. Nothing else can legally be done unless
you
> have the rights to do it.
>
> jms
>
richard...@my-deja.com
a
> stage production would be in the cards.
My thinking is essentially that a musically dramatic adaptation (to
paraphrase Wagner's terminology) would need to pick one idea from the
series as being the focus, and trim characters and other plots
accordingly. There are things that obviously you wouldn't be able to
do; Starfury battles, for example. Shadow ships. But... if you look at
one of the basic conflicts of B5 as being a conflict of ideas -
say, "What do you want?" vs. "Who are you?" for example - and not a
conflict of spaceships, then it is suddenly more easily transformed for
the stage. Or, another tactic would be focus on the journey of a
specific character - for example, the transfiguration of Jeffrey
Sinclair. Doing it this way, you'd probably need to eliminate entirely
the character of John Sheridan and assign some of Sheridan's actions to
Sinclair. (This is *not* a cue to start debating over whether or not
this is the way it was supposed to have originally gone anyway.) In
this context, imagine Sinclair's monologue about the Battle of the Line
set as an operatic aria.
Perhaps it would still need to be a multi-evening event, a la Der Ring,
but it could be done if the creative team picked the right focus.
Just my thoughts...
Andrew Swallow
>
>Perhaps it would still need to be a multi-evening event, a la Der Ring,
>but it could be done if the creative team picked the right focus.
>
Are we talking about a full professional show or some children in the school
hall? The costs are very different.
Andrew Swallow
Rob Perkins
news:8tn8sc$kfr$1...@news.utelfla.com...
> Yep. I guess one can only do B5 is one has the Ko$h.
WHAMWHAMWHAMWHAMWHAM
Rob
richard...@my-deja.com
<20001031201825...@nso-mj.news.cs.com>,
I acknowledge what I speak of is at the very least ambitious. All I'm
doing is some amount of initial exploration of what it would take
even before pen was set to paper.
Maia Bernstein
> The essential problem is that it's too long. B5 is already a drama; we
> _know_ how long it is in that form. As an opera, it would be about
> twice as long, even with massive cuts. (Am I the only one here with any
> practical knowledge of theatre and opera?)
I've often thought that "The Coming of Shadows" "The Long Twilight
Struggle" "Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi" and "The Fall of Centauri
Prime" have an distinctly operatic feel to them.
Andrew Swallow
>>
>> Are we talking about a full professional show or some children in
>the school
>> hall? The costs are very different.
>
>I acknowledge what I speak of is at the very least ambitious. All I'm
>doing is some amount of initial exploration of what it would take
>even before pen was set to paper.
>
You teach at a small school then.
Andrew Swallow
richard...@my-deja.com
<20001101170848...@nso-cc.news.cs.com>,
Nope. I'm simply somebody who believes that part of the reason
that opera has lost much of its popular audience (or, at the very
least, seen the popular audience migrate to pop singers such as
Sarah Brightman, Andrea Bocelli, and Charlotte Church) is
because the popular stories, books, plays, legends, etc. of the day
no longer become operas (a la La Boheme, Le Nozze di Figaro,
Der Ring, Lucia di Lammermoor, etc.), they become movies
instead. (You can turn around and fire titles such as Streetcar
Named Desire, The Great Gatsby, Amistad, and Dead Man
Walking back at me, but only time will tell if any of those have a
prayer of remaining in the repertoire.)
I will say that I have a certain interest in the long-term viability of the
art form, and I think it is important for people with such interests to
continue to seek out properties that could perhaps be adapted, or
else resign ourselves to the notion that the perception of opera will
continue to devolve into fat men screaming into microphones,
women who are more Enya than Renee Fleming singing tenor
arias with huge amounts of reverb on her voice and children with
wobbly jaws attempting Puccini. Keep in mind, I'm not anybody
with the abilities required to do the adaptation myself, not by a long
shot - I'm just asking the questions.
Besides, I just think that done right, Babylon 5 could make one hell
of a stage work. Picture it - after the overture, a hooded figure
comes out onstage in front of the curtain. We can't see his face,
but we can hear his voice, intoning - "I was there, at the dawn of
the Third Age of Mankind..." Familiar enough text to the
knowledgeable Babylon 5 fan, but then, at the end of this
introductory aria (mostly intact, minus any reference to Del Varner),
we hear the words - "[...] Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon
stations. I was..." - he throws off the cloak to reveal an Earthforce
uniform - "...Jeffrey Sinclair." The curtain opens to reveal... well,
however it is you could realize the necessary portions of a 5 mile
long space station onstage. And off we go...
>From there... well, who knows. Can't legally write anything at this
point, and I wouldn't be able to write the thing anyway. Just musing
here.
So no, I'm not a teacher (heaven help any student I might have), I'm
not a producer, composer, or a librettist. Just a private party with an
interest in opera and in B5, asking some questions.
Pål Are Nordal
>
> I acknowledge what I speak of is at the very least ambitious. All I'm
> doing is some amount of initial exploration of what it would take
> even before pen was set to paper.
You contact WB's licensing department. They give you a price for the license.
--
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Pål Are Nordal
a_b...@bigfoot.com
j...@gte.net
more popular now than it was 10-20 years ago. Our little company in Salt
Lake, for instance, has gone from 3 shows per season with 3 performances
per show to 4 shows with 5 performances. Over twice as many audience
members per year. It is the same over most or all of the country.
I do agree that a good opera could be made from part of Babylon 5. Not
from the whole series. It is far too long.
And you can write anything you want with or without permission. You just
can't publish it in any form without permission.
--
If you give someone a program, you can frustrate
them for a day. If you teach someone to program,
you can frustrate them for a lifetime.
Jerome
Rob Perkins wrote:
> > Yep. I guess one can only do B5 is one has the Ko$h.
>
> WHAMWHAMWHAMWHAMWHAM
Couldn't help it.
Say... I heard a song that we could put in a B5 opera. One day at Halloween, you have Dr. Kyle looking over the bed, eerie music starts... then he sings "He did the monster Kosh.... it was a Vorlon smash...."
Pelzo63
>I do agree that a good opera could be made from part >of Babylon 5. Not
>from the whole series. It is far too long.
how about this, a Narn opera? <g>
yeah, yeah, some trekkers* will probably compare them to klingon operas.
*i consider myself a trekkie. <g> and a babbler.
...Chris
http://pelzo63.terrashare.com
richard...@my-deja.com
j...@gte.net wrote:
> Opera has lost its popular audience? Where did you get that?
Opera is far
> more popular now than it was 10-20 years ago. Our little
company in Salt
> Lake, for instance, has gone from 3 shows per season with 3
performances
> per show to 4 shows with 5 performances. Over twice as many
audience
> members per year. It is the same over most or all of the country.
We're really starting to get off-topic with this one, but please note
that I said "popular" audience, i.e., reaching people who don't
already have a predisposition for it. There is a huge divide
between art music and popular music at this stage of our history.
There will always be people who listen to classical music and
attend performances, but classical music (REAL classical music,
not Charlotte Church or the Titanic soundtrack) still makes up a
miniscule portion of total record sales in this country.