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Some stray anthemic thoughts.
Published: 2/22/2011 2:12 PM
Last Modified: 2/22/2011 2:12 PM

Tulsa Opera began its performance of “Don Giovanni” Saturday night the same way just about every Tulsa Opera performance I’ve attended over the past couple of decades has begun – with “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

I mention this because, thanks to Christina Arugula’s – oops, sorry, Aguilera’s – very “original” rendition of the song at the Super Bowl, and a number of Letters to the Editor about that performance in particular and other issues about when and if the National Anthem should be performed at public events has prompted some random thoughts about this song.

First of all, I will say this about Ms. Aguilera’s performance, which I saw after the fact: The way Christina Aguilera sang the National Anthem at the Super Bowl is proof that, in some small way, the terrorists have won.

I say that not because she forgot the words, and made up a couple of sentences of her own out of the phrases that managed to stay within whatever grey matter was buried beneath her peroxided skull.

I say that because of her attitude. Everything about her performance spoke of a casual contempt for what and where she was singing. Ms. Aguilera was not performing the National Anthem of the United States of America before one of the largest audiences in history. She was just doing another gig, and the tune she had to perform was simply a vehicle for her to show off her undeniably powerful and wide-ranging voice, along with her complete and total lack of good sense and good taste (and that includes what she was wearing and whatever wild animal she allowed to gallop through her hair).

Yes, “The Star-Spangled Banner” is difficult to sing. Yes, its phrases do not flow as trippingly off the tongue as “America, the Beautiful” or “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.” But it is the National Anthem. And because of that, it deserves to be performed with respect – something that Ms. Aguilera’s “Look At Me! Listen to Me! I’m a Star!” performance utterly lacked.

So where does Tulsa Opera’s tradition of performing the National Anthem fit in with all this? Simple: it began with Carlo Moresco, the Italian-born conductor who served as Tulsa Opera’s music director for 16 years. Moresco, who came to America in 1947, was very proud of his adopted country and shared that pride by insisting that every performance he conducted would open with “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

I can only remember one time when that tradition was suspended – when Tulsa Opera presented its new, minimalist production of “Don Quixote” last April. Because of the way that opera was staged, there was no opportunity to perform the anthem without compromising the atmosphere the company’s artistic staff wanted to create.

But the anthem’s absence was duly noted, and the next Tulsa Opera production began with the Anthem.

And with the audience on its feet, singing along. That is what an anthem is supposed to do – bring a group of individual citizens together through words and music to express in this small way their respect and loyalty to their country.

It is a sound, for all its cacophony, that lifts the heart more profoundly than the caterwauling of some egomaniacal pop star, wanting only to be noticed for her “originality.”









Reader Comments 1 Total
senor notas (last year)
I have commented previously in the TW that since the Super Bowl and NFL honors our servicemen and women, and rightly so, that a choir from one of the service academys or from a branch of the service should be selected to sing the National Anthem. I assume there are also many, qualified and talented men and women who would do a marvelous and memorable rendition of our National Anthem. Many yeasrs ago the Music Educators National Conference tried to get the anthem changed to America The Beautiful but alas to no avail.
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ARTS

James D. Watts Jr. has lived in Oklahoma for most his life, even though he still has people saying to him, "Don't sound like you're from around these parts." A University of Oklahoma Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Watts has received the Governor Arts Award, Harwelden Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Beth Macklin Award for his writing. Before coming to the Tulsa World, Watts worked for the Tulsa Tribune.

Contact him at (918) 581-8478.

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