It’s amazing how loud … how vivid …. how powerful … silence came be. At least that’s the case when it’s the kind of profound silence that swept over the 19 young men and women of Carthage’s opera workshop this afternoon.
It didn’t begin in silence. As usual, my colleague Matt Boresi got the class period off to a rousing, entertaining start with a theatrical exercise to get everybody moving and talking and working together.
But then the students settled into their seats for the main task of the day – to watch the Oscar-winning 1999 documentary “One Day In September,” a riveting film about the most terrible tragedy in Olympic history- the murder of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Why were they watching something so tremendously sad- and something that would seem to have absolutely nothing to do with the world of opera? The reason begins with the major opera that we decided to do for J-Term- Puccini’s “Suor Angelica.” Matt and I wanted to do it because we had already done the other two operas of Puccini’s “Il Trittico” (Gianni Schicchi and Il Tabarro) over the last couple of years, and it felt right to complete the trilogy. But it’s an opera with only women in its cast, so the problem was what to do with all of the young men who wanted to be part of Opera Workshop this year. (And as it turns out, we have more men than women in workshop- a rather extraordinary situation.) I only know of a tiny handful of operas for only men – and none that were doable by our students. But neither Matt nor I could bear the thought of all of our talented guys being relegated to the sidelines.
So ….. we are creating a new opera for them – or at least the beginning of a new opera. (We obviously have no illusions of being able to complete anything in this short time frame- but hope to create several scenes for them to prepare and perform- with the hopes that the entire opera will be completed sometime soon.) I should add that Matt is actually quite an experienced opera librettist, so he is the experienced hand at this. I am a composer of sorts but have never composed an opera before- so this is proving to be quite an adventure, to say nothing of a Leap Of Faith!
Because so many of our opera guys happen to be athletes – and really look the part – Matt and I wanted to find some sort of real life story that would involve athletes …. perhaps a football or wrestling story that carried a powerful emotional punch. We looked and looked but could not come up with anything that felt quite right.
And then one day in December, one of my voice students walked into my studio for his lesson- and there was something about his burly frame that brought to mind some of the powerful Israeli wrestlers who were victims of the Munich Olympics massacre. Later that very day, I went to Matt with the proposal that our J-term opera project should center somehow on that horrific ordeal. Matt was completely enthusiastic, and even said something about how he felt like electric current was running through his body. That’s how excited he was about the potential of this story. (We were certainly both aware that at least two different modern operas – “The Death of Klinghoffer” and “Bel Canto” have been composed around stories related to hostages held by terrorists – but I think Matt and I both imagined this story having much richer emotional potential.)
And so …. while the women of Opera Workshop are preparing Puccini’s “Suor Angelica,” the men are going to be on the ground floor of the creation of this one-act chamber opera centered on the Israeli hostages in the Munich Olympics. And that is why we were gathered in the choir room today to watch this extraordinary documentary film.
As I sat at the back of the room, I was almost immediately aware of how completely silent the room had become. And it remained so for the entire length of the film- 97 minutes – and not the silence of disinterest, but the silence of riveted attention. And when the film was finished, it was as though the quietest, most painful silence you can imagine had descended over all of us. And even happy-go-lucky Matt Boresi, perhaps the most energetic, funniest, and most “up” people I’ve ever known, was completely unable to speak as the lights came up- so the silence in the room was sustained for what seemed like hours. It was incredible.
It occurred to me about halfway through the film that I was the only person in the room who was alive when this incident occurred – and I remember when it happened. I was twelve years old, and I can remember being riveted to the television with my mom and dad- not fully understanding what was going on but certainly knowing that it was something truly terrible. Matt was not born until a couple of years later, but he obviously was deeply aware of this event- in part because his parents actually lived in Munich at the time. But our students, I suspect, knew next to nothing about any of this. It’s not the kind of thing that would necessarily be covered in a normal history class- and it’s from far enough in our past that it probably seems like ancient history to the typical 20-year-old college student. So while they had been told the barest facts of what happened at those Olympics, it was only in watching this incredible film that the full weight of the tragedy really hit them. And at that point, even though we had 35 minutes left in class, neither Matt nor I felt like there was anything to do except let everyone go to try and take in and process what they had just seen. So they very quietly left (some of them with tears in their eyes) – leaving in the sort of hushed silence that one might only experience after an especially moving Good Friday worship service.
Of course, we don’t get to remain in our silence for long- but that stunned silence is probably the perfect place to begin what promises to be a powerful and moving journey.
