PSU Opera’s The Merry Widow

From PSU Vanguard.

"A major inspiration behind Miller’s vision for The Merry Widow was the French movie director Jacques Demy, particularly Demy’s film The Young Girls of Rochefort. 'There’s an aspect of Demy’s films—the concern about world-[rending] events is assuaged with excessive amounts of aesthetic beauty,' Miller said.

And yes, this opera is aesthetically beautiful—though, this also speaks to the inherent satire of opera itself. 'It creates a world in which we shouldn’t think about global conflict and a lot of horrible things happening, because everyone is so distracted by trying to appear glamorous,' Miller said.

While the production takes a new approach to classical themes, opera itself remains somewhat removed and inaccessible for many people—particularly younger generations. 'The level of cultural evaluation of an art form like opera is on the decline in the United States,' Miller said. 'It is something that is lacking from our early educational systems.'

If U.S. society’s esteem for performance art is, in fact, dying, 'it is a cultural community issue,' Miller said. 'Our civic arts—like opera houses, which exist as part of a city’s identity and infrastructure—need to be supported by educational efforts and by granting access to folks who might not have it.' [...]

For Miller, this simple act of exposure to an opera production could open the door to an unknown passion. 'I’m a firm believer that if you get a kid in a seat to watch a show, at the very least, that they probably won’t hate it,' Miller said. In fact, Miller noted that 'the most effusive audiences of all my productions everywhere I go is always from the student audience.'"

Read here.