New outlets for opera?

Media, media, media.

To an artist, it means so many things. It can refer to our modes of expression -- visual media, electronic versus acoustic music -- or more readily, television, newspapers, radio, and all those other outlets that bring us publicity and exposure, criticism and accolades, and more recently, artistic possibilities. We've been creating for TV and radio for a long time. Now, with the youtube symphony orchestra behind us, it's easier to imagine creating art and music via web.

It's recently been brought to my attention that artists have begun to move in that direction with the help of the online alternative universe, Second Life. A band that I was researching appears to use Second Life to access audiences around the world, people that might not ever get the chance to come and hear them, or, for that matter, discover them. They take a line out of their real-life studio and basically create a webcast, which is not really a new idea because it's a lot like radio. In Second Life, the music that the community is hearing is being played by real people but also, simultaneously, their Second Life avatars, on a Second Life stage, and the audience is made up of the real people who are listening, and also their avatars. Two universes exist at once, and the venue is the Internet, so that the audience, which has bodies, unlike a radio audience, can be made up of people who are sitting in their living rooms in Cameroon, Egypt, Manitoba, and New Zealand, all at the same time. So it's a whole new level that is added to the performance, and it's mindblowing.

The implications are endless. Think of the possibilities. An entire company of operatic avatars simultaneously online to partake in a performance of Verdi's Requiem -- Jonas Kaufmann singing into his microphone from Zurich while the concertmaster saws away in Mannheim, and Levine conducts into a camera from his Manhattan apartment that broadcasts to each artist - and I can be there, in avatar form, to see their avatar forms make it happen. And isn't it only a matter of time before talent scouts, agents, and publicists begin exploiting online communities like Second Life? I think they probably do already, to some extent -- Facebook is a testament to that. But Second Life goes way beyond Facebook.

Does it scare you? I'm a bit of a Luddite, and it does scare me, a lot, actually. But I think that in order to survive in this fairly hostile artistic environment (or at least that is how I see it), you have to carve out a niche, and if all the real life niches are taken, why not carve out a virtual one?

It may not be for everyone. In fact, it may not be for me. A Met broadcast in HD leaves something to be desired for me; you just cannot beat being there.

But it's a thought.

London-town, endless rain, and facebooking around the planet...

Remember how I said the sun was back out? I lied. That sentence was written in a freak moment in which I looked out the window and happened to see light, and promptly turned back to the screen, thereby missing the sun's rapid escape into the nebulous abyss...

Only kidding. But it rains a lot here! No more than it does in London, I am sure, which is my next destination -- I leave Saturday afternoon for a 5-day trip. Apart from my audition at the Royal Academy, I'll be auditioning for the residencies at the Aix-en-Provence festival and hopefully having a voice lesson, if I can get the scheduling to work out. Some cultural highlights? Well, a staged Messiah at the ENO; the LSO doing a concert performance of Otello; Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park; an Auerbach exhibit at the Courtald Gallery; all kinds of curry on Brick Lane; and let's not forget that Britain's museums and galleries are FREE.
I am also pleased to be able to meet up with some good friends from UWO and one I made earlier on my sojourn here, at an audition. I'll be staying with an old friend from a summer program; how wonderful that I can rely on the people I have met over the years. They are still accessible thanks to things like Facebook.

Let's face it -- Facebook and other networking sites have brought global communication to a new level. I am finding Facebook an extremely useful tool, and it's actually enhancing my experience by allowing me to share my experiences in practically real time with people at home, keep in touch with friends I meet in passing on my travels and keep track of where everyone is. I am currently considering an extended trip through Germany, Switzerland and maybe France and for sure the south of Italy; as I look at the possibilities I realize how many people I actually know here and how many couches I could potentially surf, and how many people I have connected with briefly that I may have never seen again, but now have the chance to develop relationships with. I would hope to be able to offer the same hospitality to them and to others when I am settled into a place.

There are networks such as couchsurfing.org that are set up specifically for connection-hungry people. The main function is to set up adventurous spirits on the move with couches to crash on, complete with a host, where there is ideally some level of mutual interest and a potential friendship that could develop, or just a few days of excellent company and hopefully some stuff learned; there is also an option of meeting someone in your own city, or the city you happen to be in, for coffee or a drink, to do a language exchange or discuss your mutual passion for yoga, or pork dishes, or whatever, or show each other around to your favourite restaurants and art galleries.. the list goes on, but the interesting thing here is that we don't just have sites for keeping in touch anymore, we have sites for facilitating meetings with new people as well. Look at internet dating -- still has a huge stigma attached, but lots of people are taking advantage and quite happy with their results. These sites simply widen our pool of possibilities. It is such a paradox that in a world of infinite possibilities we are increasingly limited by our daily activity: commute, work at computer, send text messages, interact via IPhone, watch Tivo. Life is easier every day, but more solitary.

It won't be long now before I leave Milano. A few trips planned -- two to London and a hiking weekend in Cinque Terre -- and then a week in Florence and Rome with my mom, and a short week after that, I move out. I'll miss it, but it's time, I think.
It's been difficult for me to make friends here. I am hoping that a little couch surfing with friends and couchsurfing with fellow couchsurfers will enrich my final month here in Europe. I am still waiting on audition dates but once they start to come in, the month will take shape.

In the meantime...