American opera has experienced some notable upheaval over the past several months, first with the closing of the New York City Opera late last year, then with the announcement that the 49-year-old San Diego Opera will cease operations at the end of this season, resulting in unseemly allegations regarding its management; even the Metropolitan Opera is bracing itself for possible labor disputes. The NYCO’s declaration of bankruptcy brought forth yet again the topic of opera’s relevance as an art form in today’s culture, inspiring one Salon writer (1) to compare the closure of the seventy-year-old company to the extinction of the dodo.
Nonetheless, it would be a mistake to call New York a “one-opera town”(2), as newer and smaller opera companies are flourishing in the Big Apple, according to several opera-makers with whom I recently spoke. A prime example of this flourishing is a consortium of over 30 New York opera companies and producers called the New York Opera Alliance (NYOA), launched in 2013. Speaking on behalf of the NYOA, stage director Benjamin Spierman stated that most of the NYOA members are, “producing opera in non-traditional venues [which] are generally smaller… so the only way to produce opera is to either choose chamber operas or adapt existing operas to chamber forces”. As mezzo-soprano Megan Ihnen put it to me, “The more recent rise of chamber opera is likely attributable to the original reasons chamber opera became popular: smaller ensembles of singers and instrumentalists as well as the ability to perform them in a wide variety of spaces”.
Amber Youell, of Morningside Opera, elaborated on this point: “Historically, grand opera existed as a form of self-representation for the ruling classes. But the trend toward chamber operas...reflects the changing dynamic of opera audiences”, who, she believes, “often prefer a more intimate, up-close experience”. Spierman agreed that, “there is an audience-related reason [for performing chamber opera]; we are trying to get people to see ‘opera’ as having a broader definition than it used to have”. Indeed, some composers, like Experiments in Opera (EiO) co-founder Matthew Welch, feel that the term chamber opera is too limiting, denoting “a pocket-sized genre”, whereas for Welch the addition of voices and a theatrical element to his music was actually “an expansion of forces”. Soprano Megan Schubert, who has performed in past EiO productions, called opera, “a mouldable medium. It's not stuck on a stage”.
The lure of the chamber opera for those I interviewed is truly a mix of financial viability, flexibility of performance, and the opportunities for innovative use of multimedia and other cross-discipline collaborations. Welch said that while “financial considerations do impact the work, in that I maybe only work with smaller forces”, this is primarily due to his desire to “work directly with musicians as a producer, more than seeking much larger instrumentation through more institutional means” and thereby relinquishing some of the creative control. Jason Cady (EiO) similarly asserted that his writing is only impacted by budget in that he might be “more ambitious” with instrumentation if more money were available, though “that does not necessarily entail an orchestra”.
“The ecosystems of the music and entertainment industries have changed drastically,” Schubert stated, and as we see the established mode of opera production slipping, “something more adaptable will have to take its place”. Ihnen pointed out that, as young singers enter into a difficult economy, “they decide to make their own opportunities. I've seen a handful of [smaller chamber] groups come and go since 2007, which is more a testament to their status as project-based groups rather than full-time organizations”. Ihnen continued: “I think the rise of chamber opera is truly due to the ‘maker culture’ influence in classical music”.