Opera and Catholic Culture

A very Catholic friend (a priest, in fact) recently declined my open invitation to the Metropolitan Opera because he thought opera is too sensual. This was my response is defense of opera as a very high form of art.


That's fair. But all art and entertainment have gratification as part of their purpose, with the higher forms being for the up-building of the human person.

My introduction to the opera was the oratorio: Handel's Messiah. I attended a Messiah sing-in with my father when I was eighteen, and then some fine records of operatic Masses, Magnificats, etc. came into my hands. From there I became captivated with the beauty of sung drama with full orchestra without amplification and often in a foreign language (especially Italian and French, the sacred music usually in Latin) sung by the greatest voices of the world often in magnificent sets, dress and choreography: opera.

Before participating last year as a minister in the Solemn High Traditional Mass I saw the opera as the highest art form, incorporating all of the other arts into it. But after experiencing the sublime beauty of the Solemn High I see that the stage is a manikin in comparison with the flesh and blood living and divine reality of the Mass. Some say that the operatic Mass is opera applied to the Mass. I think that is a bit exaggerated. Music, the development of tales, performing come only from the heart that is in love, and especially from the heart in love with God. Only the lover sings. The saints are the true singers! The historical development of opera and orchestra comes from the Catholic civilization and not the other way around. Opera is one of the fruits of Christianity. First Gregorian chant, then polyphony, then oratorio, then opera, and all are most perfect in the divine worship.

I love opera for it's enlistment of the greatest talent in the expression of the deepest human and supernatural ideas and emotions. In general, it is great art. There are base operas and composers and even opera companies, but I have found that most of the operas are very decent and most edifying. I'll give you one example.

Last spring I went spontaneously with my aunt and cousin (from North Bergen) to the Met for Manon Lascaux by Puccini. First, it served as a first class occasion to get together with my relatives. We got great prices ($20 each) for orchestra seats. The show was good and the plot was edifying (Manon, a girl who was going to the convent, falls in love, but runs away with a rich man instead of her young lover, then leaves the wealth (to which she could never adjust) to live and die in exile with her impoverished original lover. The moral of the story seemed to be, she should perhaps have gone to the convent, or parents should not force their children into religious life, that wealth cannot buy virtue, and that neither can passion alone cannot make one happy). Additionally, I really appreciated seeing that show because it introduced me to the tenor Marcello Giordani whom I would see and hear again at Yankee Stadium for the Papal Mass. He is an excellent young talent, an even and strong tenor voice.

It's art, at least that, and as such it is at the service of the human person and of humanity for the glory of God. It is certainly a higher art form than the Broadway "musical" which, in general, is a cheap, Hollywoodish imitation of opera.

That is my spontaneous explanation. Let me know if or when you consider revisiting the opera stage!