05. Murdoch at the Opera

[Lucy]

Murdoch investigates the death of a young singer.

[hannikan]

I'm looking forward to this one. There will be more about the Brackenreid's in it.

[shangas]

The inspector and Mrs. Brackenreid are big theatre-goers, if the previous episodes are anything to go by.

[spa]

There will be more of Brackenreid and other characters in this episode as Yannick directed it, so he is behind the camera and well as in front.

[hannikan]

It's not just that YB directed it. Thomas and his wife are the focus of the episode. I don't want to say too much but if you're interested in knowing a detailed plot outline, go here: www.imdb.com/title/tt2198841/

[spa]

Thomas and his wife aren't really the main focus - that is what happens at the Opera House, but yes there will be more of Thomas who "helps" William with the investigation because of his own agenda.

[murdochic]

Thank god we will see more of Brackenreid, he's been really background so far this series. I am dying for more team scenes. I can't wait until we can have all four of the team in scenes again. They have such good chemistry as characters.

[hannikan]

Mar 24, 2012 17:30:22 GMT spa said:

Thomas and his wife aren't really the main focus - that is what happens at the Opera House, but yes there will be more of Thomas who "helps" William with the investigation because of his own agenda.

What happens with the Brackenreid's carries over into another episode, as well. Margaret will figure into this episode and at least another one in S5. Maybe I shouldn't have said main focus but they are a focus.

[murdochic]

Ah now that was a much better episode, it felt like classic MM. It was good to finally see more of Brackenreid this series, and his wife was very funny. It was also nice to see some depth for one of the characters, and for the team to be working closer together. The murderer was a bit easy to guess but it didn't take anything away from the plot. Though you still really feel the absense of Julia, even Emily was only in two very quick scenes, so the team was missing the feminine touch.

While still not quite up to scratch, for me this was the best of the series so far and definitely heading in the right direction. I am glad S5 seems to be getting some steam at last. Good to see George giving more sensible theories even if they weren't right, and nice to see Brackenreid take the lead in an investigation. An amusing and entertaining episode. I wonder if one of the older writers wrote this or if one of the newer writers is starting to get what the shows all about.

[Lucy]

It was nice to see Mrs Brackenreid again and angry at the Inspector again hehe

[shangas]

I just finished the episode.

I must say. This, and the "War on Terror" episode, are my two favourites so far.

I loved this episode. It was so dramatic and fascinating. All the cloak and dagger love-triangles and jealousy and treachery and so-forth. It would've been better with Dr. Ogden in her usual role, but that can't be helped.

This episode was much more of an ensemble performance. You had...most of...the main characters getting fairly equal time on the screen.

I liked...

- Thomas and Margaret's home-life. Poor Mrs. Brackenreid. A long-suffering woman she must be. It can't be easy being married to a policeman. On the other hand, being married to a policeman who can give her SUCH A BEAUTIFUL HOUSE...Well. What one takes away, the other gives.

- The Brackenreids seem to have a lot of musical instruments. They've got the gramophone, but they also have, I think I saw in the background (where Thomas is tying his bowtie in the mirror), an organ. And in the episode "Glass Ceiling", you see a piano in the background when he's in his house. They must be pretty well-off. A good piano is not cheap.

- I liked George's deductions and theorising in this episode. It's much more reasonable and far less fantastical than in previous ones. It makes more sense and it's easy to follow. I like that Murdoch found this engaging and interesting, as well as being plausible. And how he compliments Crabtree at the end of his theorising.

- The bit with the parcel in the dressing-room was interesting. I liked that. I think, however, that there was something missing. There should've been a flashback to what Dr. Grace said, about "something sweet", to make it a bit more dramatic.

- The interaction of the Brackenreids is wonderful. I like how feisty Margaret is. Seeing that she probably doesn't get to spend much time with Thomas as it is, what with his job keeping him away at all hours, it's not hard to see why she might feel incredibly threatened (and angry) if a much grander lady suddenly started making moves on her Tommyboy.

- I like the end of the episode. It was both sad, and sweet at the same time.

************

Thomas Brackenreid must REALLY love the theatre. And famous actresses. I'm sure you all noticed this: He acts the same way in this episode as he does in the other episode which features a play, actors and a theatre; "Body Double". Always acting super-duper polite and gentlemanly, bowing, kissing hands, raining compliments like a tropical monsoon...

...it's quite charming, really.

We don't see this side of the character very often.

[hannikan]

Yes, the Brackenreid's were entertaining together. I look forward to seeing them in the next episode again. I liked this one because it had more of Thomas, William and George working on the case together than any of the previous episodes in S5. This was an interesting concept for an episode. There were black opera singers who gained notoriety as soloists in this period but it was strange to me that Rosa had no trouble with discrimination as a black woman from the white cast, the audience or the constabulary. And it is unthinkable that a black singer would have been cast as the lead role in a opera about white people. It just wouldn't have happened in an American theatre company. Thomas has had prejudices against black characters in the past, in addition to people from other backgrounds. I suppose he was so taken with her, that he thought of her as an exception. In addition to her adoring fans, she would have routinely received hate speech/writings and threats on her life for being a black performer in a sphere thought only for whites. So it was strange not to see that incorporated into the plot.

The idea that a black singer could participate in an American opera company with white performers in 1899 is inaccurate. And again esp. not as the lead role in a play that takes place in Europe, the role written for a woman of European descent. Black singers performed for white audiences but not in a mixed company such as this. I don't know what the statistics are for Canada's segregation of performers and audiences (though I do know there was segregation in schools in Ontario into the 1960's which is the same as the U.S. So I can't imagine their policies were very different about this) but they clearly said this was an American opera company. The Hyers sisters created an all black theatre company in the 1880's but again, it was not mixed. The first integrated Broadway audience was for Porgy and Bess in 1936, but that was a musical written about African American life for an all black cast. And it was only that run of the play that was integrated; then it went back to segregated audiences until the 1950's. The first black singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera was Marian Anderson but that was as a soloist, not in an ensemble piece like a musical or opera. She refused to sing there until audiences were integrated in 1955. This is just way too early to portray an integrated theatre company, a black prima donna in a opera written by a white man that takes place in Europe, and the black performer not even facing any discrimination while performing with white performers. It couldn't possibly have happened.

If I ignore all that, I did enjoy this episode. I liked the sparing between Thomas and Margaret. Thomas' behavior toward Rosa and her feigning interest to prevent his suspecting her was a little too much like Body Double. The actors in Body Double really annoyed me even though I know they were supposed to be melodramatic for comedic value. It was too funny how they were channeling the Whitney Houston/Kevin Costner movie the Bodyguard when Thomas offered to be Rosa's bodyguard. The scene of them leaving the theatre through the throngs of fans and Thomas shielding her was very similar. The twist with the timeline of the poison and that affecting who the killer could be was good. William had some great facial expressions reacting to Thomas' antics and a few things George said. George was back to being funnier in this one. When he mispronounced La Boheme you could see William's ears bleed! I laughed when he was talking about the orchestra pit being an unfortunate term.

[hannikan]

It's strange because they've done a good job showing the difficulties for people of color on the show in the past (the Knockdown, Curse at Beaton Manor, The Great Wall, Werewolves). They could have easily had Rosa be a solo performer and then it wouldn't have been such an issue. Of course, the plot would have had to be somewhat different. I was expecting her to be a solo performer, not part of an ensemble, when I heard the plot synopsis.

[murdochic]

Mar 30, 2012 2:46:18 GMT hannikan said:

It's strange because they've done a good job showing the difficulties for people of color on the show in the past (the Knockdown, Curse at Beaton Manor, The Great Wall, Werewolves). They could have easily had Rosa be a solo performer and then it wouldn't have been such an issue. Of course, the plot would have had to be somewhat different. I was expecting her to be a solo performer, not part of an ensemble, when I heard the plot synopsis.

I wondered about this, and in the end I just concluded that Rosa wasn't meant to be black. That she was meant to be dark olive skinned because she was Italian. So, I quit thinking of her as black when I realised the other characters didn't see her as such.

[hannikan]

Mar 30, 2012 3:54:40 GMT murdochic said:

Mar 30, 2012 2:46:18 GMT hannikan said:

I wondered about this, and in the end I just concluded that Rosa wasn't meant to be black. That she was meant to be dark olive skinned because she was Italian. So, I quit thinking of her as black when I realised the other characters didn't see her as such.

Mm, that's what I thought about Arturo but not Rosa. The singer/actress is definitely of African descent though she may have other cultures in her background, too. Most African Americans today have at least 20% European ancestry anyway. www.imdb.com/name/nm1505297/ ETA: It's true that the character's name is Italian: Rosa Scarlotti. So perhaps you're right. She would still have had to be Italian with African descent (which is very possible if she was from Southern Italy). It's possible that people may have expected her to just be Italian with her name, despite her appearance. And her name would have been well known. In this period, however, Americans tended to assume someone was black if they had dark skin. So a European who had a darker complexion would be discriminated against as if they were black. And having any African background at all, even if you were part European, would still produce the same effect. People who had heard her on records would have been shocked then to see her in person. I suppose her talent could have made her audiences and the constabulary assume she was white. Unfortunately, Americans in this era generally assumed no black person could have same abilities as a white person. I originally thought that perhaps she was supposed to be mixed African and Latin American descent, given her name; maybe coming to the U.S. by way of the Caribbean. That wouldn't help with the integration issue though either. EDA 2: IMDB has her surname wrong. The character was Rosa Hamilton. That's definitely not an Italian last name. The name Rosa could be from several Latin-based language origins.