Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

Opera by Television BV COMBINING SIGHT AND SOUND, NBC HAS PROVED THAT THE AGE-OLD CLASSICS CAN BE FURTHER POPULARIZED By Dr. Herbert Graf Director of Operatic Production, Natio7ial Broadcasting Company TELEVISION has taken the first definite step to lift opera out of the "old fashioned" phase into the form that makes it acceptable to Broadway standards. This pioneer- ing move, made by NBC through its television station WNBT, will, 1 feel certain, have the same popu- larizing eff'ect upon opera that standard radio has exerted upon concerts. Thousands of people, to whom the best music was something intended only for a select group of erudite music lovers, are now regu- lar listeners to symphonies and re- citals. By combining sight with sound, television makes the picture of an opera performance complete. After many weeks of exjjeriments and trial rehearsals, NBC, late in 1944, produced several scenes from "La Boheme." Success of this at- tempt was followed in turn by a dramatized aria from "Barber of Seville"; a condensed version of an entire grand ojiera, "Carmen," with a cast selected mostly from mem- bers of the Metroi)olitan Opera Company, and a condensed version of an entire light opera, Johann Strauss' "The Bat." Later, we pro- duced Stephen Foster's "Swanee River." The writer adapted these produc- tions into English, using spoken dialogue where desirable and em- ploying stage sets designed to tele- vision studio requirements. These experiments proved that opera can be a "natural" and that television forces it to become so. For one thing, we learned that the new medium reciuires methods of jjroduction diff'erent from those usu- ally applied in legitimate operatic presentations. Good Looks Essential Television, we discovered in our early rehearsals, calls for a differ- ent type of singer. Good looks is one prime re<iuisite for the new medium; a relaxed facial expression while singing is another. It is not a simple matter to find vocalists who have this combination of good voices, good looks, and good acting abilities and who also have the in- herent ability to memorize new ver- sions and the willingness to work long rehearsal hours for compara- tively modest remuneration. From these pioneering experi- ments we have learned much about the methods of television opera pro- duction. For the finest development I if the art we must have fewer pro- ductions, and better quality of voice, diction and gesture and an attrac- tive appearance. Television, in my opinion, settles by itself the long debated question about the language of opera. For television, being a technicjue which stylistically lies midway between opera comique and film, is a natural technique favoring realism more than the usual grand opera produc- tion. Television, too, gives prefer- ence to dialogue over the recitative and to the use of the native lan- guage of the audience rather than to the language in which the origi- nal was written. Grandiloquent ges- tures which have been considered natural to opera also must be re- placed in television versions by realistic action. All Details Must Be Planned But this is not all. Television will reach its ultimate audience accept- ance only when it is able to present a well-rehearsed ensemble w i t h exact planning of all details includ- ing the placing of every detail of action for the establishment of camera shots. In television, unlike the making of films, a "shot" cannot be greatly changed once the per- formance is under way. This situa- tion jiractically excludes last minute impi'ovisations by the stars, how- ever brilliant these same improvisa- STUDIO SETTINGS RECREATE THE ATMOSPHERE OF PUCCINl'S "LA BOHEME" I.\ Tins SCENE FROM A RECENT TELEVISION PRODUCTION. [22 RADIO AGE]