At the Opera

In high school, a date took me to Kleinhan’s Music Hall in Buffalo for the opera. I cannot remember what we saw, only that the highlight of the evening was the hot fudge sundae on the way home. That night, I discovered that opera was definitely not in the top three of my favorite music genres. 

Yet the idea of telling a story fully through song is powerful. Washington Post opera critic Anne Midgette suggests that unlike the stereotype of opera as the fat lady in the Viking Helmet, opera has historically been “a thrilling, contemporary, immersive stage presentation that’s a union of story, text music, image and movement, and that gets under the skin and into the blood of a wide audience that feels it speaks profoundly to them.”.

If Midgette is right in her description, then Larry and I went to the opera this weekend, as did the majority of my Facebook friends. As one friend commented, “I scrolled through Facebook tonight and realized some people didn’t watch “Hamilton.” I don’t know what to do with that.” Since 2015, it’s been nearly impossible to get a ticket for the Broadway production, but thanks to Disney+, “Hamilton” came to our own living room – and we loved it. This week’s hot topic at the waterer cooler would have been “Hamilton” if only we weren’t avoiding the water cooler like the corona plague. 

With the closure of the cinemas and the darkened lights on Broadway, Americans are thirsty for theater, a thirst not satisfied by re-runs of Property Brothers (sorry, Jonathan and Drew). Whether we call it an opera, a musical, or simply an amazing experience of theater at its finest, Lin-Manuel Miranda has allowed us to drink deeply of the magic of “Hamilton.” Originally scheduled to be shown in movie theaters in October 2021, Disney+ decided to release it early, a gift of sorts to American audiences staggered by the dual viruses of corona and racism. Thanks, Walt.

Of course, the show – and film – has its critics. Some take issue with Lin-Manuel’s voice, perhaps forgetting that any man who can write lyrics and music with the skill and emotion he did is surely welcome to sing anytime he wants, even if he’s tone-deaf, which he’s not.  

Others express concern with the glorification of founding fathers who were slaveowners, and the failure of the show to address the question of slavery in a more comprehensive way. Perhaps if Miranda had been writing the script in the summer of 2020, it would be different, but “Hamilton” was birthed more than a decade earlier. Miranda creatively covered a lot of ground in the show, and the challenge of a 2.5 hour screenplay doesn’t allow every facet of a story to be explored. Hamilton II?

Yet as Roxanne Gay noted, [Hamilton] is not “some vulnerable upstart. The show can handle critical engagement and the performances and book and music will still be absolutely incredible.” That critical engagement is already happening, and will continue in the weeks ahead. Chec out Miranda’s Twitter threads.

History, whether form the late 1700s or the last seventeen days, is as much story as fact, influenced by the perspective of both the storyteller and the listeners. A good history presentation, whether seventh grade American history or a Broadway show, leaves the student with as many questions as answers. 

That is my hope with “Hamilton.” As we watch it and re-watch it, belt out its songs in the shower or on the street corner, and imagine what it would be like to be in “the room where it happened,” we can also use this magnificent work of art to invite dialogue about wealth and poverty, about principles and compromise, and about slavery and privilege. We do see the glaring reality of flawed people, but we can also appreciate the ideals they cherished and the sacrifices they made. 

After working a full day in 2009 on a two-line couplet about George Washington, Miranda tweeted: “Hamilton is slow-going, my friends, but I promise you it will be worth it.” Thanks, Lin-Manuel, for keeping your promise. You did not throw away your shot.