Replies

Perhaps, Bags; the difference is that Les Mis was composed as a BROADWAY MUSICAL..it actually feels differently than an opera would. Yet, it has the elements that any opera might have..

Around the 2012 season on Broadway, producers attempted to make Gershwin’s PORGY and BESS into a Modern Broadway musical...the story and Gershwin’s music was there... but it FELT entirely different than the original 1935 Opera....

Maybe the difference is between that which can be called HIGH ART as opposed to LOW art... Here’s The Houston Grand Opera’s 1976 production of Gershwin’s PORGY and BESS.. the OPERA... from SPOTIFY.. https://open.spotify.com/album/7dxfSXEyhauxtmyVKOvvpd?si=1nfAlqgdRhq3qhlTBoYXtg I would call this High Art...

Then, here’s the 2012 version that was produced for the Broadway stage.. with Audra McDonald and David Allen Grier ..which was truly exceptional...I very much liked this production; BUT there IS a difference in the presentation, and the VOCALS...BOTH are superb.. yet.. very different from each other. https://open.spotify.com/album/3ZOOWaYSagUYPLUrUiHXeI?si=wj_asybPSzCQLKEgVqUamw

I’ve no quarrel with you, or anyone else who may not enjoy Opera...I probably even felt as you do, at one time.. BUT then.. I started to LISTEN to the music...I read the english translations of the various Opera Librettos.. I eventually came to change my opinion.

Maybe you will do so, one day as well. :>)

Perhaps, Bags; the difference is that Les Mis was composed as a BROADWAY MUSICAL..it actually feels differently than an opera would. Yet, it has the elements that any opera might have..

Well, thanks for the nice post.

I was thinking about this just yesterday. I wanted to solve the riddle of how I could love Les Miserables yet hate opera, since they are the same in many ways. And I figured it out.

Its two things. First and easiest to explain is the language. Part of my enjoyment of music is the vocals and lyrics. The combination of the music and they lyrics paints a picture in my mind and makes me think and/or brings back fond (or terrible) memories.

With opera, I can't do that. The fat guy or gal is telling me absolutely nothing. I cannot subsist on music alone. I can't make the human element manifest.

Now this one is more hard to explain. Its the voice. The SOUND of the voice when singing operaretically seems inhuman to me. In Les Miserable, not only can I connect the story to the sound, but the singing voices seem like a sound that is natural to the human voice.

Opera voices seem disconnected from humanity and I can't connect the human to the sound. I think that's why I don't like hard rock 'devil music' too. Most of the time, they make a sound that is unnatural to the human voice.

I cannot base my enjoyment of music on an appreciation of skill, for surely opera singing requires skill and is art, art being exclusive to people that can do something extraordinary that not just anyone can do.

So yea, I'll cut this short by saying that opera singing just makes me cringe (I hate using that word) inside just like devil music does and for the same reason.

I'm very glad we had this conversation. I like of know why I feel they way I do about this world.

Too bad Queen isn't around anymore. They could write a song called 'Opera Slide' and we could use it as a soundtrack for this convo.