Nico Muhly - Naturalism vs. Abstraction in Opera

A year or two ago, I discovered that I couldn’t think of a single musical that didn’t have asides – a moment where a character was communicating their inner dialogue without anyone in-world that could hear them. I’m not very familiar with opera, but I’ve asked my opera-singer friends if they know any operas that fit that description, and so far, we’ve all come up empty – mostly because of arias. An aria, which is at the core of the operatic form, is almost always an aside.

While I don’t think that this is a problem persay, I find it very odd. Why are there are no examples (at least that I can find) of theatrical storytelling through music where the music is just the way people communicate and that’s it? Why can’t composers seem to avoid making their characters talk to nobody? I’ve never been quite sure what to do with this information, but hearing Nico Muhly talk about writing Marnie last Monday felt very relevant.

Rather than merely take this convention of asides for granted, Nico Muhly addresses this problem head on. Near the start of his discussion on Marnie, he noted that traditionally, operatic arias are much less “realistic” than the rest of the piece – the aside is more unnatural than the rest of the storytelling. Instead of simply eliminating the convention, his way around this problem is twofold – 1) he is careful to ensure that the content and placement of the arias are specific and purposeful, and 2) he leans into the abstraction of the form: Instead of just letting the arias be pure moments of ‘telling,’ Marnie utilizes several extramusical effects, such as silent dancers to emphasize the lead’s relationship to world, or the haunting “straight-tone” chorus of her past selves to emphasize her shifting identity and internal struggles.

This conflict between naturalism and abstraction is all throughout Marnie. From the chorus to the orchestra, Muhly is careful to make sure each element of the story has a deeply specific reason to be there and serves a specific function in the story beyond convention.

I should note that for me, it still didn’t really work. I loved listening to Nico talk about music and I loved a lot of the musical moments (especially orchestrationally), but I still found myself getting pretty bored during Marnie. Even with the increased abstraction, I found most of the arias and scenes to be rather static, non-revealing, and generally not that interesting. Stylistically, most of the music felt pretty “washy” to me, and pretty in line with the standard sonic quality I think of when I think opera - a style I don't particularly like that much. I didn’t find of the musical moments, plot beats, or the characters interesting enough to be particularly drawn in.  

Overall, however, in all his considerations for Marnie, Nico seems to be thoughtfully trying to adapt the traditional conventions of opera into something meaningful, specific, and fitting to a more modern and thoughtful sensibility, presenting those conventions as purposefully as he can – I love what he’s trying to do. One thing was obvious in the room with him, and that was how much he simply loves music – old, new, and everything in-between. While Marnie didn’t grab me, much of his other music did, and I’m excited to see where this thinking leads him in the years to come.