Opera & Political Mazeways
Governance answers are hiding in plain sight
With Miroslaw Manicki
Opera as useful guide
In the Fall of 1990 — thirty-three years ago — I had the great fortune of studying international relations of the Pacific region under Chalmers Johnson. A lifelong devotee of opera, he often coded his presentations in operatic drama. They made sense and were useful to him.
Of all things, Dr. Johnson was enthralled with the stories of opera. They had always seemed silly and trivial. He saw them as keys to great knowledge, in international relations in particular. We had to rush home and look the stories up to know what he was talking about. Even as a musician, I had never come across anyone that took opera so seriously — not just the music, which stands on its own, nor the vocal artistry nor the artwork and costuming.
I don’t remember the opera stories he told specifically. It was a long time ago. I have the class reader, and here are the subjects we studied:
1. Asia’s next giant: South Korea and late industrialization
2. Pacific rim challenges
3. Fear and prejudice in U.S.-Japan relations
4. The Yen bloc
5. Predatory, developmental and other apparatuses: A comparative analysis of the Third World state
6. Four Japanese scenarios for the future
7. The mousetrapping of Hong Kong: A game in which nobody wins (by Dr. Johnson)
8. Reflections on the dilemma of Japanese defense (by Dr. Johnson)
9. Japan’s role in Asia and the Pacific: Its relations with the United States, China, and the USSR (by Dr. Johnson)
10. The patterns of Japanese relations with China, 1952–1982 (by Dr. Johnson)
Japanese-Soviet relations in the early Gorbachev era (by Dr. Johnson)
11. South Korean democratization: The role of economic development (by Dr. Johnson)
12. Power without purpose: The crisis of Japan’s global financial dominance
13. What can economics learn from East Asia’s success
14. The art of economic development: Markets, politics, and externalities
Do these seem like fodder for the opera? Let’s consider the possibilities.
In the face of many important decisions that leaders of countries must make, operatic plots seem to be nothing but nonsense. Perhaps that is far as it goes; operatic themes are wild. There are operatic stories of love and hate, obsession, and turmoil serve as seedbeds for violence and farce. According to Opera Sense (2019), there are almost 6,000 major professional performances of the top ten operas each year. That involves a lot of attention by a lot of people — the cream of society and intelligentsia, some might say.
The fact that so many people take the time and expend the needed resources to attend opera is testament to its perceived value. Furthermore, if the nature of opera’s messages can be clarified, they can benefit that much more from that use of their time.
What would you say to those who say that the worth of the opera is in the settings and the costuming, in the vocal performances, and in the symphonic masterpieces thus represented? What did Professor Johnson thus see in them? As an internationally-acclaimed scholar in world affairs, why did he find it worth his while to continually cross the bay to San Francisco to take in the operas and their silly stories?
Problems faced by people and by countries
He wasn’t subtle about it, he was constantly identifying parallels. I was too obdurate at the time to remember them, but perhaps we can resolve that oversight now. How could operatic stories, the libretto or ‘book’, be relevant to international relations and to politics in general?
As mentioned earlier, they are notably about love, acceptance, rejection, revenge, reward, scandal, tragedy, and a myriad of additional human conditions, experiences, and pursuits. These are matters of universal concern. Perhaps we can take a page from Mitt Romney’s scandalous statement as he ran for US President: “Corporations are people, too” and apply it to countries.
Do countries experience love, acceptance, rejection, revenge, reward, scandal, tragedy, and a myriad of additional human conditions, experiences, and other kinds of pursuits? Well yes, kind of. Their people do; their leaders benefit or suffer from the outcomes of their decisions and action. All these things are more or less transferrable. You can kind of see it in the activities and interactions of leaders. In a lot of ways, they are representative of their countries, too.
The promise of ‘mazeways’
I learned another thing that helps in this matter — not from Professor Johnson, but through him. I learned of another scholar in Johnson’s writings named Anthony Wallace, who dropped a huge hint as to the value of storied artifacts like operas and their impacts through the years.
Wallace wrote that stories as embedded in culture provide guidance and direction. It is as if they help the youth of that culture to find their way through life, providing guidance and direction. He called these multigenerational hints “mazeways”, as they provide means by which the members of one generation can instruct or prepare their descendants to make decisions (Wallace, 1956). The two images below demonstrate the nature and benefit of mazeways. The unannotated maze on the left provides no assist to viewers, while on the right, we can see three mazeways that lead to the prize.
Consider the challenges of life as complex mazes that are difficult to understand from within. At every turn, a challenging maze will provide right or wrong options that provide no inherent clues. It is possible that some patterns worked out by predecessors are the same or nearly so over time. The teaching of habits, education generally, and established patterns of living can embed knowledge of which choices to make.
By guessing or through intuition alone, a person or group might never make the needed choices to navigate through the maze once embedded within it.
One thing to keep in mind is that the course in question above, which took place in 1990, did not yet consider the rise of China — as it had not yet happened. The question at the time, with regard to a Pacific emphasis and generally throughout the world, was the rise of Japan and the other “four tigers” of South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore.
Now, the question of the Pacific is risen in importance — not only geopolitically but culturally. The rise of the South is well under way. Who are the suitors? Who are the attractive ones? I think that many will agree on who the predators are.
This begs the question of what international relations represents after all. It is an aspect of human relations and bears some resemblance to all human existence and behavior. Opera codes adult human relations in terms of desire. There are desirable woman and desirable men. Desire is typically represented by beauty on the part of women and wealth with respect to men. These are to be shared. Aloneness is the bugaboo of operatic stories. The soundscape is important, but that is universal to all operatic performance — there are no bad sounds, per se, unless it is a shout or a scream, of which there are some in the operatic world.
As to countries, aloneness is also a problem for a variety of reasons. Sharing can be represented through trade and international visitation, education, general openness, and cultural interactions. Protections can come from military preparedness and by encouraging friendships or coalitions with others. As to desire, this is a feature to be found in abundance in international affairs. I choose to be vague about this; beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say.
A few years ago, I saw a newspaper article that indicated that Europeans viewed Swedes as being particularly attractive and Germans as being convivial hosts. Who could complain about that? Just as in opera, there is a whole panoply of preferences and conditions around the world as to how countries behave, individually and severally. They even host parties to which the guest lists are jealously guarded. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were ways of navigating the mazes in question with some enlightenment.
Operas do not in their own right editorialize. There are many critics whose commentary crosses over to elements of the plots. Mostly, though, opera- goers are left to sort out the plots on their own and how they may apply. Often, they are left aghast and open-mouthed.
Plot summaries of the ten most-produced operas are included below (Cummins, 1997). I have added possible mazeways in each case.
The ten most-seen operas and governance-related messages
Following are the top ten operas by performances around the world in the 2017/2018 season.
- The Magic Flute
Mazeway. It is important to learn the back-story of the people you meet and the histories of the countries you encounter.
Summary. A two-act opera by Mozart, set in Ancient Egypt. It was first performed in 1791.
Act 1. Prince Tamino is rescued from a serpent by three ladies (attendants of the Queen of Night), but the bird catcher Papageno boasts that he was responsible. Tamino is shown a portrait of the abducted Pamina and, falling in love, vows to rescue her. The men are given a magic flute and magic bells and are led by three boys to Sarastro’s palace, where Pamina is held captive. The wicked Moor Monastatos, in Sarastro’s service, assaults Pamina but Papageno intervenes. Tamino meanwhile is told by a priest at the temple that it is not Sarastro who is evil, but the queen. Pamina and Papageno charm Monastatos and his threatening slaves with the magic bells. When Tamino and Pamina meet they fall in love and place themselves under Sarastro’s protection.
Act 2. To enter the brotherhood, Tamino and Papageno must first undergo a trial of silence. The queen gives Pamina a dagger with which to stab Sarastro, but he says that the brotherhood knows no thought of revenge. Papageno is deemed unworthy of his ideal, Papagena, and Pamina is in despair when she interprets Tamino’s silence for desertion. The three boys prevent her suicide and lead her to Tamino and they successfully undergo trials by fire and water; Papageno is united with Papagena and Sarastro’s enemies disappear in a clap of thunder. Sarastro himself leads to celebration of light’s victory, over darkness, the gods, ISIS, and Osiris are praised in a final chorus. - The Traviata
Mazeway. Do not waste time by not getting along.
Summary. A dramatic three act opera by Giuseppe Verdi. It was first performed in 1853 and is set in Paris at about the same time.
Act 1. The consumptive courtesan Violetta is courted by Alfredo Germont who urges her to abandon her way of life. Violetta is intrigued by her suitor but decides on a life of freedom.
Act 2. Alfredo and Violetta have been living together for three months at a country house in Paris. Alfredo’s father Georgemont calls and pleads with Violetta to give up her relationship; the scandal threatens the marriage prospects of his daughter. Violetta reluctantly writes Alfredo a letter ending their affair, and leaves before he can dissuade her. At the house of her friend Flora, Violetta is partying with Baron Duphol, her former protector who has now returned. When Alfredo arrives, Violetta urges him to leave, but, announcing to the guests that he is paying her for past services, he flings down the money he has won at cards. Alfredo’s father arrives and everyone comments on his insult.
Act 3. Lying in her sickbed, Violetta reads a letter from Germont saying that he has told his son of her sacrifice. Alfredo begs her forgiveness when he arrives, and they briefly look forward to the future. Violetta collapses suddenly, but before she dies, expresses the hope that Alfredo will find a wife more worthy of him. - Carmen
Mazeway. Left on their own, some relationships just do not work and never will. It is better to not enter into them.
Summary. Four act opera by George Bizet, set in Seville, and about 1820. First produced in Paris, and 1875, the opera was initially slated by most critics.
Act 1. Micaela comes in search of a corporal Don Jose. He is provocatively thrown a flower by Carmen, the most flirtatious of the girl workers leaving a cigarette factory after work. Carmen is arrested after wounding another girl in a fight, but Don Jose, already infatuated, allows her to escape.
Act 2. Carmen dances with Frasquita and Mercedes at the inn of Lillas Pastia. Carmen and the bullfighter Escamillo are attracted to each other, but Carmen waits for Don Jose (who has been released for a short prison sentence), and then encourages him to dessert. When Don Jose threatens his captain Zuniga, who has come to court Carmen, he is obliged to dessert and join Carmen and her gypsy band of smugglers.
Act 3. Tiring of Don Jose, Carmen scorns him but still helps to break up a fight between him and Escamillo. Micaela then brings news to Don Jose of his dying mother, and he leaves with her.
Act 4. Carmen and Don Jose meet outside the bull ring in Seville. When she refuses to return to him he stabs her and she dies as the crowd in the ring acclaim their hero Escamillo. - La Bohème
Mazeway. Take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves.
Summary. A four-act opera by Giacomo Puccini, set in the Latin Quarter of Paris in about 1830. The first performance in 1896 was a comparative failure, but this opera, about a tragic love affair soon became an established favorite.
Act 1. The impoverished poet Rodolfo and the painter Marcelo are joined in their garrot by two other ‘Bohemian’ students, the musician Schaunard and philosopher Colleen. After his friends go out to the cafe, Rodolfo answers the door to his neighbor Mimi, who asks for a light for her candle. Mimi and Rodolfo soon fall in love.
Act 2. At the café, Rodolfo introduces Mimi to his friends while Marcello’s old flame Musetta shows off her elderly admirer Alcindoro; Alcindoro is left to pay the bill after everyone leaves.
Act 3. Already ill from consumption, Mimi seeks Marcelo’s advice after a quarrel with Rodolfo; the couple agrees to part in the spring.
Act 4. The four Bohemian students meet in their garret and Rosetta arrives to say that Mimi wishes to return to be with Rodolfo. Marcello leaves to buy medicine, but before he can return Mimi dies; Rodolfo collapses heartbroken over her body. - The Marriage of Figaro
Mazeway. It is wise to assume that secrets will someday become public.
Summary. One of Mozart’s best-known works. This four-act comic opera was first produced in 1786. It is set in Count Almaviva castle near Seville in the mid-18th century.
Act 1. While count Almaviva’s servants Figaro and Susanna prepare for their wedding, Marcellina wishes to use an unpaid loan as forfeit for marrying Figaro herself. The count arrives to pay court to Susanna, and Cherubino is forced to hide, having just expressed his love for the countess. When Cherubino is exposed, he is sent off to the army.
Act 2. The countess, Figaro and Susanna planned to trap the count by dressing up Cherubino in Susanna’s clothes and arranging a rendezvous with the count. When a suspicious count enters later, he forces open the dressing room door expecting to find Cherubino. When Susanna emerges, he has to apologize. Figaro covers up for Cherubino’s commission, which has been found by a gardener, but is set back by Marcellina and Dr. Bartolo entering with the legal claim on him.
Act 3. A birthmark on Figaro’s arm identifies him after all as Marcellina’s long-lost son, with Bartolo as his father. Susanna misunderstands when she enters as Figaro is embracing Marcellina.
Act 4. At night in the garden, Susanna and the countess exchange clothes and at first Figaro is suspicious of Susanna’s attentions. The count plays court to his wife, under the impression that she is Susanna, and he has to apologize once more when the countess herself appears. All ends happily on a ‘mad day’. - Tosca
Mazeway. There is no reason to believe the words of a liar.
Summary. A three-act opera by Giacomo Puccini which tells of love, murder, and suicide. It is based in Rome in 1800 and was first produced there, a century later.
Act 1. An escaped political prisoner, Angelotti, seeks refuge in the Attavanti Chapel. His friend, the painter and republican Cavaradossi gives him the keys to his villa. When Cavaradossi’s lover — the singer Floria Tosca — arrives, she is jealous that the portrait of Mary Magdalene has been modeled on the Marchesa Attavanti. Cavaradossi has to leave with Angelotti for his villa, and the cruel chief of police, Scarpia tries to get information from Tosca by arousing her jealousy; he has her followed when she leaves.
Act 2. Dining alone, in the Palazzo Farnese, Scarpia expresses his violent desire for Tosca. She is brought in while Cavaradossi is tortured in the next room. Unable to bear her lover’s cries, Tosca reveals Angelotti’s hiding place. She realizes that she can only save Cavaradossi by giving herself to Scarpia. He rises from the desk at which he has been writing a safe conduct and Tosca grabs a knife and stabs him.
Act 3. As Cavaradossi awaits execution, Tosca tells him that it is only a sham, but he must fain death. Cavaradossi falls as the squad fires, but when Tosca goes to him, she finds that he is indeed dead. Scarpia has cheated her. As soldiers rush in to arrest her, she throws herself from the parapet. - Don Giovanni
Mazeway. There may come a time for consequences. That cannot be ruled out.
Summary. A two-act opera (drama giocoso) by Mozart dating from 1787. the action takes place in Seville in about 1600.
Act 1. Don Giovanni rushes from the house of Donna Anna, whom he has attempted to seduce. Challenged by Anna’s father, the Commendatore, Don Giovanni kills him in a duel. Donna Anna and her betrothed Don Ottavio swear vengeance. Donna Elvira, an old flame of Don Giovanni, comes in search of him but — aided by his servant Leporello — he escapes and pays court instead to the peasant girl Zerlina. Elvira intervenes and is followed by Ottavio and Donna Anna, who realizes the Don’s identity only after he has left. Elvira, Anna, and Ottavio wear masks to attend Don Giovanni’s party. They unmasked themselves as he attempts to drag Zerlina away and she resists, but he escapes.
Act 2. Leporello and the Don exchange clothes, and Elvira is tricked by the deception. Leporello abandons his disguise when he encounters a vengeful Zerlina and her betrothed, Masetto. Leporello and his master meet in a cemetery, and when they are interrupted by the statue of the Commendatore, Don invites him to supper. The Don clasps the Commendatore’s cold hand but refuses to repent his crimes and is dragged down to Hell to the relief and delight of the other principles. - Madame Butterfly
Mazeway. Pretending to be what you are not can result in tragedy.
Summary. A three-act opera, by Giacomo Puccini. Possibly based on a real happening. It was a fiasco when first performed (as a two-act opera) in, early 1904, and the work was reorganized into three acts. It is set in Nagasaki Japan early in the 20th century.
Act 1. The American naval officer, Pinkerton ignores the warnings of the American consul Sharpless and marries the underage geisha Cio-Cio-San, Madame, Butterfly.
Act 2. With her son ‘Trouble’, the deserted Butterfly awaits Pinkerton’s return one fine day. Sharpless cannot bring himself to tell her that Pinkerton has taken an American wife. Butterfly and her servant Suzuki see Pinkerton’s ship enter harbor and prepare for his arrival by showering the house with petals.
Act 3. Pinkerton cannot face Butterfly as he approaches her house with his wife Kate. Butterfly tells Kate that Pinkerton may have their child if he comes for him himself. Dishonored by her experience, Butterfly stabs herself with her father’s sword. Pinkerton arrives to lament over her body. - The Barber of Seville
Mazeway. It is pointless to try to dissuade people from doing what they want.
Summary. The two-act opera by Gioachino Rossini set, not surprisingly, in Seville. Despite a disastrous first performance in Rome in 1816, the opera has become one of Rossini’s best and best loved.
Act 1. In disguise as Lindoro, a poor student, Count Almaviva serenades Rosina, the ward of the aged Doctor Bartolo. The barber Figaro pledges his support for Almaviva, who now enters Barolo's house by pretending to be a drunken soldier with a billeting order. Almaviva assures the eager Rosina that he is in fact Lindoro, but Bartolo and Don Basilio, Rosina’s music teacher, are suspicious and Almaviva is placed under temporary arrest.
Act 2. Almaviva enters the house disguised as a music teacher and gives Rosina her lesson. The still suspicious Bartolo sends Basilio for a notary to expedite his intended marriage to Rosina; he tries to convince her that Lindoro does not really love her. The returning Almaviva reveals his identity and is united with Rosina once more. They cannot escape from the house but when the notary arrives, he is bribed into marrying them; Bartolo is then obliged to accept the fait accompli. - Rigoletto
Mazeway. Do not go to war based on assumptions.
Summary. Regulator a three-act opera by Giuseppe Verdi, first produced in 1851 and set in the north Italian city of Mantua in the 16th century.
Act 1. The courtiers of the licentious Duke of Mantua decide to teach a lesson to the hunchbacked court Chester Rigoletto; they will abduct the girl they believed to be his mistress. Rigoletto mocks Count Monterone, whose daughter has been seduced by the duke, and Monterone curses him. On his way home Rigoletto meets a hired assassin, Sparafusile, who offers his services. Rigoletto warns his daughter Gilda, but she keeps quiet about meeting a handsome student (the Duke in disguise). A despairing Rigoletto is tricked by the courtiers into helping in Gilda’s abduction.
Act 2. The Duke entertains Gilda in his palace, and Rigoletto learns of her fate when she runs to him. He weeps at her shame, and when Monterone enters on his way to imprisonment, the jester tells him he will be avenged.
Act 3. The duke sings of women’s waywardness. Rigoletto has arranged for the duke’s murder at Sparafusile’s tavern. His sister Maddalena arranges with him that any stranger appearing before midnight shall be murdered in place of the duke. Overhearing them, Gilda decides to sacrifice her life. Rigoletto duly receives a corpse-filled sack, but he is about to dispose of it when the duke’s song is heard again. When Rigoletto opens the sack, Gilda only has time to ask her father’s forgiveness before she dies.
References
Cummings, D. (Ed.). 1997. Random House encyclopedic dictionary of classical music. New York: Random House
Gillis, T. 2019. Top 10 most popular operas in the world. Opera Sense. https://www.operasense.com/most-popular-operas/
Wallace, A. F. C. 1956. Revitalization movements. American Anthropologist, 58(2), 264–281.