My family has probably heard enough of me squealing over sexy male opera singers who possess even sexier voices. At least three of my Top Seven Favorites have appeared shirtless on stage or in music videos. While I find that rather awesome, I do have a few problems with it.
Some of the newest operas appear to be little more than an excuse to push the envelope and make something darker and edgier with shirtless men or even full-out nudity on stage (which is absolutely unacceptable). The same is being done to some of my favorite operas. I'm okay with some new productions (i.e. setting Carmen during the Spanish Civil War or Rigoletto in 1960's Las Vegas), but I'm not okay with others.
It appears to me that many new productions are being done simply to show off some hot baritone's abs. I'd like some actual context for that, and when I say that I mean a legitimate reason for some character being shirtless. Juan Diego Florez is probably going to be shirtless when he sings the tenor role in Bizet's lesser-known opera The Pearl Fishers this summer in Las Palmas, and I think that's cool. But that's because the opera is set in Sri Lanka. Of course you're going to have shirtless guys there, because it's tropical and humid. No one in that kind of country is really going to be wearing a turtle-neck.
But many operas are being used as excuse for shirtlessness. As much as I'm okay with some productions having the tile character of Don Giovanni do it sometimes, I'm not okay with that being done in operas such as L'Elisir d'Amore or The Abduction From the Seraglio (seriously, you don't want to know). And some don't even want to be reasonable. The newest operas that I've seen pictures of have shirtless and even naked men in rather weird settings. Seriously, that is just disgusting. All it's meant to do is shock and I hate that. I have heard people want to make an opera in the standard repertoire shocking. That's inappropriate and should not even be mentioned. Oh, and some where already considered shocking when they first appeared, so it's not a good idea to make it shocking.
Honestly, this has to stop. If someone wants the male singer to be shirtless in scene, that's fine provided it makes sense and is not meant to be edgy. I loathe and despise edgy. And when it comes to making an opera shocking, with operas like Carmen, it's bringing coals to New Castle. Carmen was already shocking for it's day simply because the protagonist was a gypsy seductress. The opera does not need to be anymore shocking than it already is. The director of the production of Carmen that I saw live said he wanted it to be shocking. It did not shock me one bit, nor does it need to be, so don't even bother.
What's really worrying me is that some of these awful shocking, Huge-Amount-Of-Shirtlessness-With-The-Male-Singers productions might appear at the Met. Every time you make an opera edgy that isn't supposed to be, the composer rolls in his grave.
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