once did.
But Wednesday’s Smithsonian Associates program “The Operas of Puccini” is hoping to change a few people’s perceptions.
The event, hosted by opera expert and Library of Congress musicologist Denise Gallo, focuses not only on Puccini’s operas, including the venerable “La Boheme,” “Madama Butterfly” and “Tosca,” but also on his life and career in a way that is engaging and enticing.
“My style is to make it accessible and to take the fear and pain out of it,” Gallo said. “I think [opera] is one of the most dynamic theater experiences you can have because you have orchestral music, sometimes you have dancing and you have incredible sets because opera is probably the most extravagant entertainment there is, which is why it, unfortunately, costs so much.
“You have beautiful costumes, you have amazing singers, voices that are not miked, voices that are just employed in very different ways from how people are used to hearing singers perform. And this all happens at the same time. It’s such a heavy and heady experience that you need a little preparation for it.”
