Opera fans, a question for you.

[raccoon]

Do you enjoy watching opera even if it's in a language you don't understand?

Reason I ask is I don't know anybody and never have known anyone in real life who likes opera, though I'm sure opera lovers exist. I really like some opera music like some of Wagner. But I don't care about watching opera or listening to someone when I don't know what they're singing and don't know the story.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Yes. I enjoy them mostly for the music, since the plots are kind of ridiculous.

But as an opera fan (at least of some operas - I don't like Verdi) and amateur singer I know the stories as well as the music.

[CTyankee]

2. How can you not love "O mio babbino caro"? Puccini!

So, so beautiful...

[fierywoman]

7. ... especially if you know the plot that gets you to that sweet moment, which is pure slapstick.

[CTyankee]

8. Yeah, she's gonna throw herself into the Arno river if daddy doesn't approve of her

marriage!

Still, gorgeous melody, don't you think...

[fierywoman]

9. Oh but it's the subterfuge of Gianni Schicchi that I adore. I played it in

Florence where the backdrop was a medieval view of Florence. So it was like the audience laughing at itself: WILD!

[CTyankee]

10. Hubby and I used to attend an opera series here in New Haven and we truly loved

each season. It was uplifting to the point of sheer joy for me...

[fierywoman]

11. Wonderful to hear!

Do you know the blooper from last spring in Vienna with Jonas Kaufmann in Tosca, where he sang an encore, the soprano apparently was jealous and didn't make her entrance afterward, and instead of her vocal line, he sang (her notes) the sentence "...non abbiamo un soprano..." (We don't have a soprano) --

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. And this:

[2naSalit]

3. I do...

I used to perform and I liked being able to learn snippets of other languages - you have to know the translation - and still enjoy opera when I am in the mood for it, the language doesn't matter if you know the stories, it's the music that counts a little more than the lyrics.

[marylandblue]

4. If you are watching opera

the traditional way to understand the action is to read the libretto (the script) before hand. Usually doesn't take very long to read the whole thing. You won't remember every word, but you can follow along. Most opera houses today use superscripts or little screens at your seat to show you the words.

[elleng]

5. THIS!

I'm very selective, I love the singer AND the song.

[fierywoman]

6. Most of my way through graduate school I thought I hated opera (Master of Music in Performance.)

I had to play opera for my orchestra credit. I bitched and moaned and cursed at the conductor (the wonderful David Lawton, who curated opera scores), who laughed, and said, "If you want the credit you have to play." During that semester I did a 180-degree turnaround. I've loved it ever since and went on to play opera in Florence, Venice and LA.

What's happening right now with Trump, his family, the corruption, etc etc etc: that's pure opera. Opera's a really loony art form, very crazy, but once you get it, it's very alluring. Be aware that, as with most things, there are stupendous performances and there are very mundane performances.

I enjoyed playing it because it's like playing a bullfight: the audience is really involved and they participate in the performance a lot more than they do in straight orchestra concerts.

It's also nuts in this day and age because it takes a long time to perform an opera: average 3 and a half hours (but Parsifal takes the better part of five and a half to six hours, depending on how long the intermissions are; it has four and a half hours of playing...ouch!)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. Opera plots are rife with adultery, murder, treachery,

incest, rape, magic, rejected love, mistaken identity, infanticide and all sorts of twisted, lurid wickedness. And valkyries. They are like very flashy musical soap operas.

Phillip Glass wrote an opera about Nixon in China. Who'll do the Trump opera?

[fierywoman]

14. Oooooo! What a delicious thought!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

17. Opera villains are usually basses, but if I were writing the Trump opera

Last edited Thu Nov 2, 2017, 10:39 PM - Edit history (1)

I'd make him a tenor or a countertenor. It would be orchestrated with a lot of percussion, and cellos playing harmonics, with maybe an ondes-martenot for additional atmospherics. Glass-type minimalism would work, but when Trump is on stage it should be painfully atonal. I'm thinking along the lines of Wozzeck or Bluebeard's Castle but louder and scarier.

[fierywoman]

23. I think a countertenor, for the obvious historical parallels (castrati) ...

With a lot of film score horror movie type music sounds? I wonder if rather "simplistic" tunes to carry forth the story that then devolve into minimalism? Love the ondes-martenot. (Like: tunes you could leave the performance humming ... that would be quite diabolical!) Yeah, crazy huge percussion section.

[cemaphonic]

21. That was John Adams

Glass wrote a bunch of operas, but not "Nixon in China"

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

22. You're right. "Nixon in China" was Adams; Glass wrote "Satyagraha" and some others.

I do think Glass could do a good job with an opera about Trump.

[justhanginon]

15. I love opera and the grander and more over the top

the better. Any language is fine in fact, to me, some of the romance languages give it a mysterious quality. Plus I love the the sheer beauty of some of the voices. Most of the plots are fairly easily figured out and year back when I had season tickets to the excellent Opera Theatre of St. Louis they always gave you a program with all the info you needed.
And now I must go and see Floria Tosca hurl herself off of the balcony in despair one more time.

[CTyankee]

19. Ah, yes...I lived for art, I lived for love...

Another great one from Puccini!

All those open vowels gave opera its beauty...

[kwassa]

16. Surtitles make it completely understandable.

Above the stage at the Kennedy Center Opera the lyrics in English are displayed as the singing happens, same as subtitles in a foreign film. It makes all the difference for me. The productions are outstanding; singing, sets, costumes.

Now, affording the ticket prices is another issue.

[anneboleyn]

18. I trained in classical voice and wanted to be an opera singer so yes I love opera. Great art form.

[Leith]

20. Yes

First, I like to listen to songs sung in other languages, even if I don't understand the words.

Second, the music is amazing.

Like others have noted, most concert-goers already know pretty much what's going on and the exact lines don't matter.

If you want to get an idea of how opera can be enjoyed, you should start with operetta in English: Gilbert and Sullivan. HMS Pinafore would be a good one to start with.