Vivaldi’s Griselda From the Pinchgut Opera of Sydney by Andrew Miller
"Modernized Opera" can sound a little scary, especially if implicitly (mis-)associated with the term "upgrade" which came out of Hollywood and Silicon Valley almost simultaneously in the last several years. Perhaps this is why some people are so against it: it sounds as if their changing the notes to modern notes! Or completely reversing the tone of the opera in some sardonic way. Operas should not be modernized because they are old but because it makes sense to do so. The two terms in quotes shouldn't be associated at all: the former is a style, the latter a consumerist slogan and a euphemism for dumbing-down. Bringing the action of the opera into the present either explicitly or in some less realistic or even abstracted way, where there is a motivation, can be a wonderful thing and be high art. When the imagery the designer and director create make poetical and musical sense in the way it unfolds through the piece, with its own internal logic compatible with that of the music, it is a wonderful thing and there is no reason modern images are necessarily excluded from this (there is the problem of literal contradictions in the libretto, references to "pastorella" or "boschi" or "selva" in an opera taken to the modern inner city, but those are a separate matter). The modern setting if anything makes the opera more complicated as a genre of music and should not therefore be used in an attempt to make the opera 'more understandable to the masses' or the monolingual. Only a good music teacher will let a person understand opera well. In this case we have a seldom played late Baroque opera played on period instruments with a modern setting, sometimes quite explicit (clothes, mobile phones, etc.), but the opera, music and story, is strong enough to take almost anything from the director and designer. We are still confused about the nature of the complementary and individual strengths of men and women, often degenerating into a false dichotomy when talked about, and no closer to solving the problems now than in Vivaldi's day of trusting both intellect and intuition, rational thought and wisdom in the personal or social planes, and everywhere between. If anything these problems are worse in today's prosaic and material times. This opera which touches on these problems (as most do) in its own special way is well suited to be sung in a modern setting; Pinchgut has recognized this and accepted the challenge.

