A basic issue in the work of NewOpera CO have been the singing style itself. Many love the classic opera way of singing. Its musical accuracy, its strong expressiveness and its refinement helps us to be engaged in musical drama with high complexity and grand narratives, far from everyday life here and now.
At the same time there are people that have difficulties with the pompous in the opera sound, and what they perceive as unnatural, distanced and even tedious. It may require both an open mind and time for those who want to learn to understand this expression. It is also difficult to hear the text in the ordinary opera.
Today almost everyone listens to singing conveyed via the microphone. Singers can then use a voice that is closer to the natural speech in terms of timbre, register and technique.
What happens when you use that kind of voices perform a music drama? Does it become silly when you do not have the opera’s refinement? The answer is no. It works just fine and is very charming. If you then like it or not is a matter of taste. Traditional opera connoisseurs may probably have harder to like it. The style is definitely more homey and personal than the sublimity that often characterizes classical opera. And this has been a main objective to explore in the work with the new-opera.