J. D. McClatchy: The Opera Chic Interview

In an interview on the blog Opera Chic, J. D. McClatchy discusses An Inconvenient Truth, Robert Lepage, 1984, other poets as librettists, and his own expansion from poetry to opera:

Everything is learned on the job. There are no courses to take. We go to the opera house as kids, and watch and listen. The Met radio broadcasts were a way for me to learn the repertory, but also to listen to the drama as music. Later, in the upper balconies, I could see how people entered and exited, how the soprano’s lonely solo was followed by a chorus, and so on. Operatic dramaturgy has its own rhythms. I think being a poet trains you to be concise, to move in language by images, to understand the dynamic of speech. Advancing a plot and revealing a character in opera—well, there’s very little time to do that. Poets seem best equipped for the task.

Read the full interview.

November 1, 2009, 12:24pm · 1984, an inconvenient truth, frank o'hara, interviews, libretti, opera