To the Board of the San Diego Opera: As we discuss the dollars spent, the declining donor base and increasing costs of production I’d like to touch briefly on an aspect of opera I feel could use a review. Tracing our history back to the origins of western civilization the arts have been considered integral to society. Aristotle, in his two works “The Poetics” and “The Politics” found deep value in the arts and their ability to build a great sense of community. While the loss of the San Diego Opera is certainly about the loss of the jobs of fellow San Diegans, there is a much greater loss to morn here. It’s one thing to support the artist, and a good thing at that, but it is an entirely different obligation for society to allow that art to be seen and experienced, for that is where the real value lies. Yes, “Whistler’s Mother” is a stupendous painting on its own, but, when a person stands in front of it, is enveloped by its expression and taken inside themselves in catharsis by its beauty, that is where the real value of Whistler’s work comes to flower. Opera is no different. Art in our community is not only salaries, wages and work, but, more importantly, expression and experience. All arts are interconnected and the loss of one art form weakens the standing of the others. Not only as a loss of the jobs themselves but as a loss of the opportunity both of the artist to express themselves and, more importantly, the audience to experience that expression. The greatest power of any art form is its ability to transform the viewer, and the loss of the San Diego Opera closes one more avenue which we, as a species, have to improve the world around us. We have asked over and over if we can produce opera in San Diego. Yet, faced with the relevance of the arts in our community, we can now ask the only relevant question there is: How can we produce opera in San Diego? Michael Harris
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 20:37:58 +0000
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