Where do I start with Opera?
Mon, Dec 13 2010, 8:04PM
#2
RE: Where do I start with Opera?
As James said, Mozart is a safe and good choice for opera; in my case I think that it is in terms of musical achievement and composition. But if you are searching opera to discover the exciting energy of the voice in it's most deep and amazing expression, you can go two ways (in my personal opinion).
First, searching for a great opera singer, in order to hear de arias that, at certain point, will lead you to their respective opera. Pavarotti, Domingo, Corelli, Sutherland or Caballé are good examples.
The other is, hear Verdi or Puccini. Great melodies, amazing orchestrations and must of all, great voice challenges. Go with the classics; Traviata, Rigoletto, Aida in Verdi or Tosca and Turandot in Puccini. If you want to go wild, search deeper and look for some Massenet... Werther will drive you nuts.
Most of all, enjoy it!!! Best Wishes!
Tue, Dec 14 2010, 7:05AM
#3
RE: Where do I start with Opera?
Last month, I took my girlfriend to an LA Opera production of Le Nozze di Figaro. We are going to Rigoletto this weekend, our third opera. (Lohengrin was second.) Figaro was a great first opera for her. My first opera exposure was Achim Freyer's Ring cycle last summer. That's more to my taste: very heavy metal!!
Sat, Sep 17 2011, 12:01AM
#4
RE: Where do I start with Opera?
Well thanks to everyone for ALL your help here.
One year on and I still don't get opera.
Done Cosi Fan Tutti, Rigoletto, Magic Flute, Idomeneo, La Traviata ...etc.......yadda yadda yadda....
Just don't get it!
Ho Hum!
Sun, Sep 18 2011, 12:03AM
#5
RE: Where do I start with Opera?
You gave it a shot and that's what matters. Don't sweat it. In a couple of years you might want to revisit some of those that don't click with you right now. Tastes change, and I'm sure every contributor to this forum could give you his/her personal story of suddenly finding the key to unlock a piece, a composer or even a whole field of music hitherto unfathomable.
Just one comment. All the operas you named are mainstream works written within a period of 80 years (late 1770s to mid 1850s). Many great operas were created either side of that period, back to Monteverdi and up to the present day. If you haven't already done so (and I recall you've sampled Britten) you might want to check out early and late works next time you feel like experimenting. Good luck.
Sun, Sep 18 2011, 1:41PM
#6
RE: Where do I start with Opera?
Despite I gave you a short and maybe indirect reply in the thread I created and you recently visited (with some kind of vehemence), I wish to share and expand the very kind and pertinent points of Tagalie.
It's not a big deal if you don't get Opera, although it is the most popular form of what is called Classical Music, as long as you keep having a genuine interest and give a try, whenever you feel you may be able to do so.
Apart from Tagalie's points, my tips can be:
-First of all, read, study, learn as much as you can about Opera in general and for the particular work you are to listen.
-Try to mingle, get contact with musicians, singers or any professional in the business. They may guide you in ways and means you will never encounter by yourself.
-You have to accept that Opera is Theater where the "actors" sing instead of speaking. That means singing is the key to penetrate it and voices (good, meaningful, appealing, etc.) are crucial to guide you at least to "get in". If you don't love (with some passion) voices or you are not that interested in singing, then?...Lieder and Oratorios could help, as "outsiders", at least to see the beauty of human singing in forms which are not that far (quite a few times) from operatic ones.
-If you really wish to give a good try, start from the begining, namely Monteverdi and onwards, to find out how Opera was developed and appreciate the different aspects of it up to the present years.
My only difference on Tagalie's comments is about "Tastes". I believe taste, if you really wish to use this word, is a matter of knowledge, experience, learning, etc that lead us to comprehend deeper and, eventually, choose better. As Tagalie put it very wisely: "Rewards can come with efforts"!
Good day and Good luck,
Parla
Mon, Sep 19 2011, 7:54AM
#7
RE: Where do I start with Opera?
If you have watched a good production of Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro", say for example, Pappano's Royal Opera House production from 2006 (Opus Arte Blu-ray) and the Count and Countess's duet within the final chorus did not move you to the point of tears, you're dead to this genre and might as well give up on it.
A pity perhaps, but there's plenty of great music out there beyond opera and there's no law saying you have to enjoy it. And there's certainly no academic route into it, I'd say. Sorry to disagree with you (yet again!) Parla.
Vic.
Mon, Sep 19 2011, 9:14AM
#8
RE: Where do I start with Opera?
Listen to the final scene of Richard Strauss' Salome. Then read the libretto which is pretty much as Oscar Wilde wrote it. Then listen again with an understanding of how the music is heightening the appreciation of the words on the page. Think about why Strauss used the melodies, orchestration and type of singer that he did. Listen to her "line" (the flow of the music) and the statospheic high notes. What is Strauss trying to say here about her and how does it add to our understanding of the character as written on the page.
An actor can of course take the words and bring additional emotion to them through her acting. The sets, direction etc should all add up to provoke a response in you the viewer. Opera does exactly the same thing and uses many of the same tools: sets, direction etc, but critically adds two elements - vocalism as interpretation and orchestral support.
If the last scene of Salome does not convince you that opera is a valid art form then I wouldn't worry about exploring to further. If you are thrilled by it then welcome to a lifetime of pleasure.
Mon, Sep 19 2011, 10:19AM
#9
RE: Where do I start with Opera?
Nice write-up on Solome Martin, makes me want to give it a go. I know Richard Strauss' orchestral stuff but not his opera. Do you (or anyone else) have a favourite version or could recommend one (on Blu-ray or dvd - makes all the difference to see it, I think.)
Vic.
Mon, Sep 19 2011, 10:30AM
#10
RE: Where do I start with Opera?
A clarification Vic: I don't think I defended any "academic route". I suggested some "tips" for someone who might wish to follow a rather "safer" way to comprehend and possibly start liking a form that obviously does not work with him.
I hope you share the view that knowledge, experience, learning, study and... effort help us to..."attain" this goal and, then, enjoy anything in music, arts and so on. Martin_opera apparently did his "homework" and now has a "lifetime of" (not accidental) pleasure.
Parla
Mon, Sep 19 2011, 1:35PM
#11
RE: Where do I start with Opera?
-First of all, read, study, learn as much as you can about Opera in general and for the particular work you are to listen.
Not an academic route?
Vic.
Mon, Sep 19 2011, 3:14PM
#12
RE: Where do I start with Opera?
I don't know whether you should necessarily be self-critical over not 'getting' opera, especially since you appear to have taken a lot of trouble to try. It may not be for you now, but it may well find you eventually rather than your finding it.
However long we'ver been listening to music, I'm sure that we all have our own individual lacunae where we've never 'got' either a composer or a particular musical form. I've been listening to and attending opera for 40years or more, but even now there are works that i wouldn't necessarily cross the street to hear. For example, baroque opera generally tends to leave me cold and I am not desperately upset if I don't get a daily dose of early Mozart. I could go on with other examples, and the same is true of orchestral music. Try as I might, and sacrilegeous at it might seem, Brahms is a closed book to me, as is most of Elgar - yet Vaughan Williams I regard as a truly great composer.
As both Vic and Malcolm have illustrated from very different perspectives, there are as many 'routes' into opera as there are operas themselves - the examples they both give are astonishing achievements, but absolutely poles apart.
Vic, if you're after an 'introduction' to Salome, the Solti recording is, in my opinion, still one of the great recorded achievements, but the Sinopoli with Terfel as John the Baptist gives it a run for its money. I'm not so familiar with the DVD versions, I'm afraid, but if the ROH production with Terfel and Malfitano is as good as it was live, that may be worth catching. And try 'Electra' too.
JKH
Mon, Sep 19 2011, 3:22PM
#13
RE: Where do I start with Opera?
Hey - keep me out of it guys. Parla - sincerely thanks for (and I understand why you are) imparting some academic aggrandisement on me, but I hate to disappoint. I just bought the CD because Brittania Music was, at the time, selling it cheap and I loved the cover of Cheryl Studer. I think that all I needed was the libretto and the CDs. The rest is common sense - isn't it? Honestly, the final scene gripped me from the offsetbut it took a few years to fully get to grips with the rest - a journey well worth taking. But I kind of did it alone and without "Cliffs Notes" or a musical academic basis for appreciation of what I was hearing. That is what you are saying isn't it? Oh and by the way the Sinopoli is the one to go for.
Mon, Sep 19 2011, 4:03PM
#14
RE: Where do I start with Opera?
It was a tip, Vic. Just an obvious tip, if you don't wish to wonder in "accidental" choices. If you prefer the "trial and error" method or any other that the undefined "taste" dictates, fine.
However, don't be surprised if you miss the incredibly important output in Opera by R. Strauss. Der Rosenkavalier is an amazing one, Ariadne auf Naxos too, Arabella, Capriccio and, from the early ones, Elektra, of course. (However, Elektra and Salome are considered and sound like symphonic poems with voices)!
As for the versions of Salome, I agree with JHK for the old Solti/Nilson and I love the most refined Karajan/Berhens. Possibly, the Leinsdorf/Caballe is a very good one, as an alternative. I prefer by far the CDs rather middle of the road DVD productions.
Mon, Sep 19 2011, 4:51PM
#15
RE: Where do I start with Opera?
Firstly, sincere apologies to Martin for calling him Malcolm. It just shows that the memory cells are fading fast!
What he says about buying something because it was cheap and worth taking a punt at struck a chord. I've lost track of how much music I've come to cherish that I've first discovered that way. Of course, there are the inevitable failures (if I never hear another note of Stainer's Crucifixion or Pfitzner's Palestrina again, I'll not shed many tears) but the 'suck it and see' approach is, in my opinion, as good as any other, and better than some.
The only thing that lets down the Karajan Salome (apart from Karajan) is Van Dam's Jokanaan. To my ears he's rather overparted, fine singer though he undoubtedly is in the right role
JKH
I'm not sure I agree that it is snobbery to prefer an opera in its original language. To my way of thinking, any music with libretto HAS to sound better in the original language, because that's what the composer was using when writing the music. (Not many pieces of music appear before the libretto or text). In any other language, no matter how skilfully the translation is executed, the libretto will not stand comparison.
Words sound different in non-original languages. Indeed some vowels sung in their original language, especially in higher registers, sound fine, whilst in translation the word might employ a different vowel, which does not sound so good.
It is not so difficult to acquire a smattering of Italian, German and French (the major operatic languages) in order to appreciate the piece being performed.
Ruref