Make up blog for late JDA blog

I chose to right about the color of dissonance opera for my make up blog for a couple of reasons. First, I have just recently seen the opera. Second, and more importantly, I think it fits in well with the discussion of gender and disadvantage begun with the Jesse Daniel Ames lecture.
I first became aware of the plans for the opera when my friend Duncan Alexander began working on the media for the show. Duncan used a special (and very complicated) computer program to produce the images that were projected on the screen at the back of the stage during the show and also on separate, smaller screens that were shaped like cubes and moved around the stage according to the action taking place on stage.

The opera was also mentioned during the abstract painting class I am taking this semester, while we were discussing Wassily Kandinsky and his wife Gabriele Münter, two of the artists depicted in the opera. The opera was based on letters written between Kandinsky, Münter, and their friend, composer, Arnold Schoenberg. The opera is set the summer before WWI while Kandinsky explored abstract and non-representative styles of art. The battle Münter faces as a female artist is also quite central to the opera. She fights to be recognized as a skilled painter and provoking, innovative artist in her own right, as opposed to an artist who is “good, for a woman”.
The things I found most intriguing about the opera were the staging and production choices. In a lot of ways the color of dissonance was not like a traditional opera. For instance, three actors portrayed each character. One actor did all of the speaking, and to a certain extent narrated the character’s story. Another actor sang the operatic parts of the character’s libretto, but interacted fairly little with the other actors. Finally, the third actor for each character acted like a mime – often displaying the inner thoughts and emotions of the character in question. Additionally, the mimes interacted with each other a great deal, almost in contrast to the singers who barely did this at all.

There were also a lot of elements in the opera that were reminiscent of Greek theatre. For instance actors used masks during the show, much like actors in ancient Greece did. Additionally the opera had a chorus, which was used both to further the story’s plot and also to add a quality of dialogue to characters’ expressions of their inner thoughts. Although, unlike in Greek theatre the chorus was hidden behind a screen for most of the performances – giving them and their parts a mysterious and ethereal feel.

Another intriguing thing about the opera was the effect it had on me. I am actually not really a fan of opera, especially more modern interpretations and compositions. I was also not so crazy about this opera. This particular opera I found a bit hard to follow especially because there was no explanation of the story in the program. Additionally – as one might expect with a name like the color of dissonance – the music for this opera was jarring and often even somewhat grating. The music, especially its dissonant qualities, made me feel anxious, uncomfortable, fidgety, antsy, and even somewhat claustrophobic. I found this effect very unexpected, but I feel that the claustrophobia-like feeling was quite appropriated given the repression the only woman in the opera Münter was experiencing.