Two diametrically opposed views of an introduction to opera

Washington Post ^ | 10/1/12 | Anne Midgette

[Borges]

Loving opera is such a simple thing. And yet the conventional wisdom seems to strive to make it complicated. Opera, and classical music, are elitist and arcane: This view is held both by people who don’t care for them, and by many of those who do. How many fans have you heard using words like “passaggio,” “portamento,” “tessitura,” as if to signal their insider knowledge? Even an innocuous mention of “Beethoven’s Op. 111,” which seems like a perfectly reasonable way to refer to that composer’s final piano sonata, earned me a snort of suppressed laughter from a non-specialist friend the other week during a discussion of whether classical music can ever really rock.

So how do people actually become fans of such off-putting stuff? If you look through a bookstore, you can find an entire literature of classical-music introductions and “Opera 101s,” most of it at least tacitly based on the idea that you need to grasp this specialized knowledge to enjoy, or even to partake of, this refined fare. Well, you need specialized knowledge to watch a baseball game, too, but people don’t generally seek out books called “An Introduction to Baseball” to understand what they’re supposed to be getting out of a game.

[discostu]

And once sanctification starts you lose the masses. The masses don’t like having to dress up just to go sit in the dark. Maybe some of the theaters should start having “no tie” nights, get the “ra” back in “opera”, something to eject the stodgy atmosphere, and the people that like it, get the t-shirt crowd. The t-shirt crowd is willing to sit through Queensryche playing all of Operation Mindcrime, or Pink Floyd playing The Wall, or The Who playing Tommy or Quadrophenia, they actually can handle the big long musical story thing so long as they can dress comfortably.

[Roccus]

Love the music (instrumentation).
Aside from a handful of pieces though, abhor the vocals.
When I lived in NYC, would go to the Philharmonic several times a season and would attend many concerts “in the parks”, but once to the Met was more than enough.

.....and what’s with all those extended, drawn out, seemingly contrived ovations? I just don’t get it.

[irishtenor]

Oh, that was one of the Ring operas? Didn’t know. Just saw it on the TV and watched. Took a long time for four or five pages of script.

[oldsicilian]

Try Looking up Anna Russel. She does the 20 hours of Wagner’s Ring in 20 minutes. Hysterical (and accurate).

[SuziQ]

I have a DVD of a skit where a woman holds up paper cutouts on sticks of various opera characters, all the while describing the plots of the operas in which they appear. It is hilarious! I don’t know if it’s the same one, or not. I was just looking on You Tube, but couldn’t find it.

[SuziQ]

Thanks, ExGeeEye!! I knew you’d sent me the DVD, but I couldn’t remember what the name of the piece was!!

[Secret Agent Man]

Hating opera is such a natural thing.

[irishtenor]

Don't think so, I ain't dead yet.
Irish ancestry and sing tenor in the choir :>)

[Leep]

I was always afraid to try hard drugs or opera.
I think watching old episodes of Tony Randal as Felix Unger in the Odd couple was mostly responsible for my aversion to opera.
That white jumpsuit and white sneakers...yipes.

[SgtHooper]

Agree that Placido is far better than Luciano (sp). Waaay too much hype over the fatman (altho he has his moments).

[Borges]

The thing is you don’t have to dress up. I go in jeans. I’ve been to the Met in jeans.

[huldah1776]

Thanks!

[count-your-change]

Other than the sound of it opera isn’t too bad.

[ExGeeEye]

Prole.

(IR12)

[SamAdams76]

It is not easy to get into opera. The best way to learn to appreciate it is to choose one opera (preferably a good one) on CD and listen to it over and over again until it clicks.

Sometime in the mid 1990s, I got Marriage of Figaro from the library and listened to it in my car to and from work. After about two weeks, I was hooked.

Why Marriage of Figaro? It was featured in the great movie Shawshank Redemption. In the movie, it is the record that Andy chooses to play when he takes over the prison PA system. After watching that movie, I just had to listen to the opera in its entirety and I'm glad I did.

[TrueKnightGalahad]

I love opera, but I can also laugh at some of the silliness. Some dialogue from an hilarious episode of Frasier perfectly captures Rigoletto:

Frasier: Well, it's about Rigoletto, the hunchbacked jester in the court of the Duke. He has a daughter, Guilder, who's secretly living with him. But everyone thinks that she's his mistress. In this opening scene, Rigoletto mocks the Duke's enemy, who puts a curse on him.

Martin: A cursed hunchback dating his daughter - well, nothing screwy so far!

[Borges]

You do know tunes like ‘The Flight of the Bumblebee’ and ‘Here Comes the Bride’ comes from operas right?

[sitetest]

Dear Borges,

Thanks for the ping!

Classical Music Ping List ping!

If you want on or off this list, let me know via FR e-mail.

Thanks,

sitetest

[Emperor Palpatine]

None of them could touch Bjoerling, Windgassen, or Del Monaco.

[count-your-change]

The “Bumblebee”, yes, the other, no. Earlier I was putting a twist on, “Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.”