Open AccessSinging beyond the TV Screen: Documentary, News and Interviews as Operatic Material
Author(s) -
Jeleovak
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
dramaturgias
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2525-9105
DOI - 10.26512/dramaturgias.v0i10.24905
Subject(s) - opera , politics , singing , art , realism , power (physics) , representation (politics) , art history , performance art , literature , media studies , visual arts , history , sociology , law , political science , physics , management , quantum mechanics , economics
John Adam’s opera Nixon in China (1987) opened the era of what some critics called ‘CNN operas’ — an operatic mixture of political issues and televisual representation. Since Nixon, various attempts to interrogate issues of world politics, power and realism on the (post)operatic stage took place: video documentary opera Three Tales (1998–2002) by Steve Reich and Beryl Korot, “The News” (2011) by Jacob ter Veldhuis (Jacob TV), five one-minute operas by Michel van der Aa (produced from 2010 to 2014, commissioned for the Dutch TV program Der Wereld Drait Door), Aliados (2013) by Sebastian Rivas, to mention only the few. This article attempts to give a partial overview of different operatic approaches to televisual expression and to illuminate ways of depicting documentary and news in recent opera focusing on the political figures.