Does Opera Make You Smarter?
“Three hours listening to a lady sing in a foreign language, even if she has a knife stuck in her back, can be burdensome,” a gentleman complained. It doesn’t have to be that way. In effect, operas are popping up in unexpected places — warehouses, parks and bars — in shorter versions.
Traditionalists will always have the exquisite and very expensive grand opera. For everyone else, these new boutique operas are a welcome addition. “The idea is to attract younger audiences, millennials, through social interaction,” said Graham Fandrei, founder and director of the Magic City Opera (MCO). “Our purpose is to entertain and educate. An operatic presentation gives audiences the high five of the creative arts: music, drama, visual arts, dance, and the literary arts.”
Speaking of education, Dr. Ami Panel, a neuropsychologist with Tufts University and author of Music, Language, and the Brain (Oxford Univ. Press), observes that music places higher demands on the brain, allowing music to enhance other interconnected networks. Dr. Patel developed the OPERA hypothesis: The networks that process music are not cut off from the networks involved in our daily cognitive functions such as language, memory, attention, etc. That’s the ‘O’ in OPERA — music is not a disconnected island in the brain. The ‘P’ stands for precision. The level of precision in processing music is much higher than the level of precision used in processing speech, which means that developing our brains’ musical networks may very well enhance our ability to process speech. And the last three components, the ‘E-R-A,’ are emotion, repetition and attention. These factors are known to promote what’s called brain plasticity, the changing of the brain’s structure as a function of experience. Brain plasticity results from experiences which engage the brain through emotion, are repetitive, and which require full attention. Experiences such as playing music.
“But, of course,” insists Graham Fandrei, “ultimately music is meant to entertain. We endeavor to give audiences an experience that will stay with them for a lifetime, and we want to do it in casual settings, having a beer or as a family affair in a park by beautiful Biscayne Bay.”
A Brief History
Born in Italian palaces of the Renaissance, opera mainly reenacted ancient Greek drama with music. As the 17th century arrived and advanced, from the cultured nobility it moved down to a growing class of merchants, and a less serious variation emerged: the opera buffa or comedic.
Opera spread to France, Germany and limitedly to England, adopting on the way baroque characteristics. The predominant figure was the castrato — prepubescent singers castrated to retain the soprano voice. Opera became the castrato’s showcase at the expense of drama.
The age of reason, the 18th century, was opera’s classic period. Reformers aimed to have music, ballet and staging subservient to drama. These changes resonated among music giants, among them Mozart, who combined his magnificent sense of drama, harmony, melody and counterpoint to compose a series of comedies, notably The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni.
The 19th century gave us Verdi, Wagner, Rossini’s Barber of Seville and Puccini’s La Boehme. Dear to many aficionados is Carmen. Bizet turned a novella about a gypsy temptress into the glorious opera. Carmen’s Habanera and Toreador are two of the most loved and performed arias.
Lastly, the 20th century legated us, among many great operas, Madam Butterfly, Salome, Gershwin’s jazzy Porgy and Bess and Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw.
Opera in the Park
For the first Opera in the Park, MCO brings to downtown Miami hits from both the opera and Broadway, including The Barber of Seville, Carmen, Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera. “Graham Fandrei has assembled a truly outstanding troop that includes tenor Martin Nusspaumer, mezzo Caitlin McKechney, mezzo-soprano Shanna Nolan Gundry and soprano María Atúnez,” prompts Downtown’s Neighbors Alliance’s Amal Solh. “Bring the family, friends, bring children to enjoy a wonderful musical journey under the stars. Remember, Mozart increases your IQ.”
March 1, 6:30–8:30. Tina Hills Pavilion, Bayfront Park.
