But then “Tommy” isn’t exactly straight  opera.  The p r o d u c t i on, which opens Wednesday night at the Moore Theater, is something called  “rock opera.”
Bette, the female lead, has never sung in anything operÂatic although she’s “been to a few operas.” “My favorite is Die Frau Olrne Schatten.” That’s Strauss isn’t it?” she said.
And Bette (pronounced Bet because her mother didn’t know Bette D a v is pro nounced her name “Betty”) has a rather unconventional background for “opera”:
She used to sing in men’s steam  houses.
SHE HAS appeared recentÂly on a number of late-night television talk shows. She also sang in New York musical productions of “Salvation” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”
Her hair wanders about a foot out on each side of her head and she looks like a candidate for Barbra Streis and’s youngest, wildest and wiriest sister. She doesn’t sing like Barbra, however. She said:
“I sound like the girl who sings   “Tommy   Can   You Hear Me?” (in the recording of “Tommy” made by its creators, The Who.)
Bette’s publicity describes her sound as “rock blues.” but she says she “sings almost everything -whatever appeals to my emotion and intellect.”
And about every kind of music is represented by the sponsors of  “Tommy”  – The Seattle Opera AssociaÂtion is presenting it. in coopÂeration with The Seattle Repertory Theater and KOL Radio.
Bette considers “Tommy” operatic because, “It is all singing, and no speaking. And because everything flows musically, and it’s as exciting as any opera could be.”
THE PLOT of  “Tommy”  is as complicated as any traÂditional opera plot: Tommy goes deaf, dumb and blind through trauma. Tommy reÂgains his senses after going through a modern sort of Dante’s Hell. He becomes a rock star, and the plots gets even thicker.
Bette sings Tommy ‘s mother as well as the Acid Queen, who seduces Tommy, She said the roles are “the heaviest I’ve ever  had.” And that the queen “has nothing to do with acid or drugs.”
“She has to do with the ferociousness of female sexÂuality. It’s not just a sexual seduction. It’s symbolic of the gigantic commercialization of femaleness.”
According to Bette, “None of Tommy is meant to be taken literally.
It’s all  symbolic  and its message is timeless,  she  said. “It’s about how we covÂer our eyes, our ears and cut off our tongues and how we isolate ourselves and how we are isolated by society.
“The  real  message, I guess, is how important it is to find freedom and that you can’t find it through God or drugs or through anything but yourself.”
SYMBOLIC IT may be, but overtly there are shockers in the production. As to how the audience might reÂact, Bette said: “I think they’ll be wiped out. ‘Tommy’ will open up something people are not ready for.”
She wants “everyone to come,” and – thinks “the freaks will come because they already know the score, But I hope the older, more sedate people will come too, because they are interested in opera and should be curiÂous about what we can  do.”
About herself Bette had two things to say:
“I eat a lot. I am tiny” and the first thing anyone ever says to me is , ‘Oh, you’re so short!'”
She’d rather have people say “Oh you look like Bette Midler, but you’re too short.”
