I THINK MINING

  I love opera–most of it, at least.  Last night we went to the Vancouver Opera production of Nixon In China.  The part that relates to mining is that Goldcorp, a major Vancouver mining company is a sponsor of the opera.

“Goldcorp’s generous gift, secured through the hard work of VO’s Board of Directors, will help VO to continue to maintain the highest artistic standards in all that we present, introduce students to the world of opera, engage diverse audiences, and – importantly – give back to the community that has supported us for 50 years,” says James W. Wright, General Director of Vancouver Opera. “We’re thrilled that idea of the Community Connections program resonated with Goldcorp. It’s an extraordinary sponsorship, and fitting for our milestone Golden Anniversary.”

   Nixon in China gets a rave review from the Vancouver Sun:

With a bit of help from the Cultural Olympiad, Vancouver Opera offered the first of four performances of John Adams’s 1987 opera Nixon in China at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre Saturday. The demanding work’s very first Canadian production is a brilliantly effective one.

Sadly some of the comments on this complimentary review are shallow and some are downright silly.  Clearly not everyone in Vancouver enjoys opera or even has the capacity to appreciate it.

   Which makes Goldcorp’s sponsorship so much more impressive.   Corporate spending on opera is most unlikely to buy favor with the great majority of people out there.  I bet such expenditure won’t change the mind of a single opponent of mining–they are too busy writing shallow, ill-researched articles and reports. 

For what it is worth, I record that I have done about a week’s consulting to Goldcorp–the income was less than I spend on opera each year, so I believe I am able to be as prejudiced as only an opera lover can be in these opinions.   I confess to being so mad about opera, that I will wax lyrical about anybody with the courage to go to the opera, enjoy opera, and do their bit to support more opera.   I have found few.  The lady with whom I went last night cut herself out from further courting when she remarked in exasperation at the end of the second act: “You mean there is more?”

   I am not sure why I like opera.  Maybe it is the music–indeed it is always the music.  But it is more than the music–it is the story, the drama, the tension too.  Last weekend I watched a DVD of Haydn’s opera Orlando Paladino: 

Joseph Haydn composed Orlando Paladino for the theater at Esterháza, in honor of the expected visit of dignitaries from Russia in 1782. The guests never showed up, but the opera was performed on the name day of Haydn’s employer, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy.

The fact is the music is superb, but the story and dramatic bits are plain junk soap opera stuff.  So this is not good opera and demonstrates why it is music, story, and tension.  Plus a certain insight into human nature that words and drama alone cannot achieve.  Music opens up chambers we cannot otherwise access.  And this happened with Nixon in China.  The music is infinitely fascinating as it segued from romantic to monotonic.  Like all operas of old, we saw inside the minds of the powerful, the rulers, and the villains.  We were left believing we had seen a deeper insight and truth even as the music engulfed us in sound and emotion.

These ideas are not common in mining; some would brand them antithetical to a rugged miner.  Which only makes Goldcorp’s sponsorship of opera so much bolder, braver, and impressive.   I would love to meet the people of Goldcorp who had the courage and commitment to opera sufficient to support this sponsorship.  In the meantime all I can do is blog about them, and admire them from afar, while wishing selfishly that more mining companies would come out and do something that may just bring a few sparks of high pleasure to a small minority.  

Thanks, Goldcorp. 

   PS.   For the record, I do not care if I never see another Puccini opera, except Tosca.  My favorites are the bel canto operas.  Then Verdi–more, more, more.   Then Richard Strauss, Elektra, Salome, and the melodies that arrest and demand attention.   A good bottle of brandy and Wagner mesmerizes.  But for sheer fun, watch Handel–his are the bawdy operas of sex.