DAILY CAMERA: The ‘human experience’ of opera
This is not your parents’ opera. Quite literally.
These performers are young. For some, it’s the very beginning of their careers.
Yet, they’re standing under the umbrella of the 125-plus-year-old New York Metropolitan Opera, the “world’s greatest singers on the world’s greatest stage,” as its social media handle boldly and matter-of-factly proclaims.
The Met has not previously put together a show like this: a rotating collaboration of the best, up-and-coming opera singers on tour, featuring classic and new songs, in an attempt to attract new, as well as seasoned, opera fans.
The show, The Metropolitan Opera’s Rising Stars Concert Series, is coming to the Macky Theater in Boulder on Tuesday.
“I’m hoping we can reach people and trigger something inside them that goes, ‘Wow. This isn’t what I thought it was. This isn’t something that’s outside my world view or above me,’ ” says Brent Funderburk, pianist and musical director for the show.
That’s a common misconception many people have about opera: It’s either above them or not relevant to their lives, he says.
“But that’s really false. I want to try to make people realize these are very human experiences that we can all relate to,” Funderburk says.