From The Top: Spontaneity is a virtue in a world based on routines

I’ve experienced more in the last two weeks than I have the entire year. With as much as I have going on right now — school, a full-time job, plus three freelance writing positions — it’s been excruciatingly difficult to find inspiration. I feel like I’m constantly moving on to the next thing before I can even start to feel settled in the present. But I also feel as if inspiration is waiting in the most unlikely of places. I just need to tap into a place where creativity can flow through my body like water. And lately, that place has been the opera house.

I recently began a new position at the LA Opera in its public relations department. Though I’ve only been employed for a little over a week, I’d say my favorite part of the job thus far has been exploring the halls and corridors of Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. True, many of these behind-the-scenes spaces are just offices and practice rooms, yet there is still something magical about them. I’m no stranger to the opera house (or opera in general), but experiencing these unknown areas has made me realize that there are still things to learn about this industry and art form. It’s in these areas where the performances begin to bloom, and it’s also where I feel the most comfortable.

Not many people realize how much work it takes to put on a full-scale production, especially through a professional company. What is seen onstage during the performance is probably about 10 percent of the total result. Most of the planning and execution happens off the stage, in said office spaces and rehearsal rooms. Rarely does anything in the opera house happen by chance — seasons are always planned years in advance.

As you read this sentence, contracts are already being drawn up for the productions set to premiere five to six years from now. It makes sense, to a degree — why would a professional company leave its planning to the last minute? It is much more beneficial to overcompensate than to leave everyone scrambling at the eleventh hour. I admire this attention to detail because it means opera companies are really investing all their efforts to make sure even the most minute details receive equal attention.

But then again, how beneficial is it to plan this far in advance? Sh-t always comes up that we can’t predict. For instance, the Metropolitan Opera opened its 2017-18 season last week with David McVicar’s new production of Bellini’s Norma, with soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role. Radvanovsky is a reputable singer and also a favorite at the Met, and ended up garnering favorable reviews for her interpretation of the Druid priestess.

However, Radvanovsky wasn’t originally cast in the role. In fact, the entire production was created around another singer, Russian soprano superstar Anna Netrebko. Plans for the new production had been set in stone for a few years, and the ink on the contracts had been dry for some time. But last year, the Met dropped a bombshell that Netrebko had pulled out of the production, as well as all further productions of Norma across the globe.

Netrebko stated the reason for her cancellation was that her voice had “evolved in a different direction,” and that she had not anticipated this growth at the time that she had agreed to the role. Though it was later revealed that Netrebko actually pulled out because she hated the role (which is a story for a different time), it is not at all uncommon for a singer’s voice to drastically change within only a few years. Speaking from a vocal pedagogical standpoint, it is absurd to think that one’s voice will be in the same place in five years. With this in mind, what’s the point of the contracts then? It’s going to be a gamble no matter what.

I can’t help but relate this principle to aspects in my own life, such as graduate school or even the job I just got. I can’t predict how I’ll change or feel in the next five years, let alone the next year in general. Why am I expected to map the rest of my life in my early 20s when I can’t even stick to a daily routine? By changing things up, even on a day-to-day basis, I feel like I’m cheating adulthood by delaying the process as long as possible. Maybe that’s why it’s taken me so damn long to finish my bachelor’s degree — I’m deliberately trying to shake things up.

Even though it’s been hard to find inspiration, I find it even harder to stay positive. With Sunday’s tragedy in Las Vegas and yesterday’s campus scare, feeling off-balance has started to become the norm. Every time I feel like things are on the mend, or they will finally get better or improve, something happens that completely unravels my optimism. My silver lining, however, is the opera house. In a world where everything and everyone is expected to adhere to an agenda, opera is my primary source of spontaneity.

Arya Roshanian is a “senior” majoring in music. His column, “From The Top,” runs Tuesdays.