The Performing Arts and the Economy

I'd like to share with readers the following essay by my friend Naama Zahavi Ely. This essay appeared in the program for a benefit on behalf of the International Vocal Arts Institute. For the past couple of years, Naama's daughter Kinneret has attended their summer opera workshop, Sadnat Ha-opera, where she has had the chance to study with a stellar international faculty. Last summer in Israel, I attended the workshop's free, end-of-summer concert in Yaffo's Gan Ha-Pisgah.  Joan Dorneman of the Metropolitan Opera, who is also the program's Artistic Director, introduced the performance with the observation that "Sadna ["workshop"] means 'music in Tel Aviv.'  It's not a Hebrew word anymore--it has become international."  The students, backed by the Israeli Cameri Orchestra, performed pieces from Carmen, Die Zauberflöte, Tosca, and Lucia di Lammermoor, as well as other operas.  The standout was Mari Moriya, who already has an impressive professional resume.  Her rendition of "Il dolce suono" from Lucia brought people to their feet.

In this economy, local art cultures around the globe are struggling to operate with fewer resources.  Naama's piece persuasively reminds us that when we attend a show or exhibit, whether at home or away, we're supporting all sides of the stage.   

THE PERFORMING ARTS AND THE ECONOMY

by Naama Zahavi Ely (nxzaha@wm.edu)

Written for Kinneret Ely's recital in Williamsburg, Virginia, May 10, 2009, to benefit the International Vocal Arts Institute (IVAI) In times like these, when millions are out of a job or losing their homes, how can one ask fellow-citizens to donate to luxuries like art, rather than help people make a living? One could argue that the arts are not a luxury but a necessity. My point is far less lofty. I would argue that by supporting the performing arts, we are in fact creating and sustaining jobs – worthy and deserving jobs. Performing artists, by and large, don’t work for the sake of money. The hard labor and the long and costly training required by their professions rarely win adequate compensation in purely monetary terms. Artists choose their professions for love: they love music and ballet and theater, and they want to share that love with you. They want to share with you their music, their acting, their dancing, their vision of a great masterpiece that cannot come fully to life without being performed. In order to do so, they need to make a living. And some of them manage to make their living by performing art. Without an audience, there can be no performing arts. One can’t put a production in a drawer, like a poem or a painting waiting to be discovered in better times, and one can’t perform in a vacuum. So, if you love music – if you love theater – if you love opera – if you love ballet: please do your part. Please come: if you can’t afford expensive tickets, buy the less expensive ones. Please support your local companies, and the national companies we all benefit from. Please enable the musicians to transport you with their music, the actors to perform their magic, the ballerinas to soar, the directors to create their alternate reality, one evening at a time. Please give an opportunity to those who work behind the stage -- the organizers, the builders of sets, the lighting directors, the costume-makers – to do their part. They are skilled in making wonders out of almost nothing; but they do need to be given the opportunity to work their wonders. If you support the performing arts – by attending and buying tickets, and by offering donations – you are sustaining jobs that cannot be exported overseas. There are few profiteering middlemen in the performing arts, either on the stage or behind it: the gleanings are too slim for those not moved by love of the arts. By supporting local companies, you enable dedicated artists to continue sharing the excitement of live arts with you and with your loved ones. By supporting the large, national companies such as the Metropolitan Opera or the Martha Graham Dance Company, you help make the arts available at the highest level to yourself and to millions of others. Every symphony orchestra or local opera company that folds is a major loss. Beginning performers must start somewhere, and so must choreographers, directors, and set designers. If there are no smaller companies for them to begin and develop in, we may find ourselves years from now starved at the top. Even with up-to-date broadcasting like the Metropolitan Opera in HD, which I love and urge you to attend, there is no substitute for a live performance. But for that to happen, one needs to have performing companies within reach. Each such institution holds intangibles that can be lost irretrievably: a hands-on tradition of the craft passed from veterans to newcomers, a spirit of collaboration, an artistic vision, a place in the lives of families. So – please do your part. Go to museums and arts exhibits. Come to concerts. Applaud your favorite opera diva or divo. Support young artists’ programs. Donate if you can. Let Shakespeare go on living, and Euripides, and Sophocles. Let Don Giovanni keep up his catalog of ladies, and Musetta charm her admirers. Let them transport you to a world where there is no recession, and help them preserve the ephemeral thread of the performing arts, one evening at a time. Thank you.