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<\/p>\nThe Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg opens up gallery space Thursday for a different, yet complementary, art form.<\/p>\n
Texas composer Nathan Felix, inspired by the In Carvaggio\u2019s Light exhibit, created an all-new, site specific opera to be performed exactly once.<\/p>\n
Felix\u2019s The Meta Opera is immersive, in that the audience will move between several spaces along with the cast and the string trio (one scene also includes a piano).<\/p>\n
Which is why the museum is calling Thursday\u2019s event \u201cBaroque Unbound.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Felix (watching rehearsal from upper left) wanhted to bring opera off of the stage.<\/p>\n
During a break from rehearsals Tuesday evening in the cavernous lobby, Felix discussed his innovative approach to opera in unexpected places.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started,\u201d he explained, \u201cbecause I kept seeing opera companies sort of phone it in \u2013 do the whole \u2018aria behind a painting\u2019 thing \u2013 or seeing a classical quartet just sit in a corner. They\u2019re classical musicians just taking a paycheck. I thought, what a waste of an opportunity to have something truly artistic. And I thought \u2018I can pitch something way better than this.\u2019 Way more engaging.\u201d<\/p>\n
Felix, whose CV also includes symphonic music and country-infused Americana (he\u2019s a singer\/songwriter and guitarist as well) has written and produced approximately 20 site-specific operas in the United States and around the world. He also composes and produces traditionally-staged works.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up in Austin, and there was this museum called the Blanton, and it was very formative for me,\u201d he said. \u201cI would go there and see things that were just off the wall. And it really inspired me.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Steven Alvarez conducts the string players.<\/p>\n
His first immersive undertaking happened in 2019. \u201cI think the challenging part is that I want to do things that are more complex,\u201d Felix said. \u201cBut since the pandemic, the budgets have shrunk for art organizations.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that hasn\u2019t deterred me, by keeping my casts smaller. I just keep trying to make the best work I can make. The biggest challenge is trying to navigate that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The St. Petersburg cast consists of six professional singers, the majority either local or regional. Felix hires them through the opera app YAP Tracker.<\/p>\n
He was producing an immersive opera in Orlando last year when he approached the Museum of Fine Arts about the possibility of creating a similar experience here. \u201cI don\u2019t have any idea or conception of what I\u2019m going to do until I go to the space. And that\u2019s the fun part for me. Because we walk through and things just start to open up for me \u2013 \u2018OK, I could put a performer up there,\u2019 \u2018I could do this,\u2019 \u2018it\u2019s going to sound like this\u2019 and so forth. And by the end of the walk, I pitch this idea to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The exhibit consists of Old Master baroque paintings inspired by the innovative compositional techniques of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Italian, 1571\u20131610). At its center is one work (\u201cBoy Bitten By a Lizard\u201d) by Caravaggio himself.<\/p>\n
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Felix works with his vocal artists.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the paintings they sent me were Jesus and his disciples, and so I leaned heavily on that, I don\u2019t want to say religious aspect, but in terms of the context I referenced those religious figures,\u201d Felix said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are already operas that cover all this, so I wanted to find my own angle, but still keep it in that context of that religious iconography.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cast of The Meta Opera, which is sung (and spoken) in English, includers short sections of theater. This is the first time, Felix confessed, that he\u2019s added the theatrical element. Experimentation, he said, is a key element of the process for him.<\/p>\n
He believes the MFA audience will be moved by the dramatic music, and swayed by the immediate, immersive experience. \u201cFrom a selfish perspective, I want them to not just experience opera in a different way, but I want them to engage in more physicality,\u201d Felix said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to set up certain scenes where the audience can be involved. That\u2019s what I\u2019m always trying to explore.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBaroque Unbound\u201d is presented 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday. Find tickets at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n