Review by Booklist Review
Sharon, founder and co--artistic director of The Industry in Los Angeles, and artistic director of the Detroit Opera, has a lot to say about opera today, and says it eloquently in this insightful and impassioned book. Once dubbed "opera's disruptor in residence" by the New York Times, he has staged operas in "non-spaces" like warehouses and train stations. What he loves most about opera, he writes, is that "there is no such thing as a final, perfect production of any work." What he hates most is what he calls an autopilot approach, in which there is "thoughtless repetition of how operas are traditionally performed . . . [and] machine-like operation of houses that mitigate risk at the expense of new creative expressions." His ideas draw from an impressive variety of sources, including Brecht, Brook, and Artaud in theatre, Dylan and Schoenberg in music, and Buber, Adorno, and de Beauvoir in philosophy. Required reading for anyone who cares about opera and its future, this rich and rousing work also includes a Spotify playlist of musical examples.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Unsurprisingly, the director known for staging an opera amid Los Angeles traffic (2015's Hopscotch) proposes breaking out of the opera house as a way of reinvigorating an art form associated with stuffiness, elitism, and conservatism. Sharon founded the L.A.-based experimental opera company the Industry and was the first American director to produce an opera at the Bayreuth Festival. He identifies opera's constant struggle for survival as a force that pushes the form toward conservative productions and demands continuous innovation and reinterpretation. His description of the problem is insightful, comprehensive, and occasionally hilarious ("a clown car full of arts" is an apt definition of opera). His notions of how to solve it rest on cultivating an audience without condescending to it and staging productions that expand audiences', artists', and (perhaps most critically) funders' conceptions of what opera can be. Sharon argues that the best opera encompasses poetry and ambiguity, which currently doesn't seem valued in the arts. VERDICT An inspiring treatise that should provoke new interest in opera's potential. For anyone involved with opera or who thinks they might like to be.--Genevieve Williams
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
An argument for the necessity of fresh thinking about--and new approaches to--a struggling art form. Opera can seem like an expensive anachronism in the 21st century. Sharon, a MacArthur fellow and artistic director of Detroit Opera, believes that it is stuck in a creative cul-de-sac, with a small number of classic operas being performed every season. Yes, they are popular--or popular, at least, with the wealthy donors and conservative board members who dominate the opera scene--but they crowd out many of the talented, innovative composers and artists working to move the art form forward. The author chronicles the complex history of opera, underlining its overt artificiality and collaborative nature, and he punctuates his account with snippets about important moments and turning points, revealing some intriguing secrets. Sharon argues convincingly that opera has to get out of opulent concert halls and find alternatives to its image of elitism, an approach that he is pioneering with his work in Detroit. There has to be a new balance of storytelling, performance, production values, and relevance. As he demonstrates in the text, the author has been willing to take imaginative chances in many of his own projects, such as reversing the narrative structure of classic operas or staging an opera in a multilevel parking garage. Sharon offers many interesting ideas about opera and its future, although the narrative is not always easy to follow, with numerous detours and digressive anecdotes. Nonetheless, the author's thesis is valid and relevant for any fan of fine art: Opera must strike out in a new direction if it is to avoid stagnation. A bonus is the Spotify "playlist of musical examples," which is well worth a listen. Sharon provides an authoritative view of how opera can and must return to its dynamic, populist roots. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
