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My First Taste of Opera
Last night I went out to the local(ish) symphony, where they were doing what can best be called a “sampler platter” of opera music. A few talented soloists joined the choir and orchestra for this evening. Guided by the conductor with information on what we were about to hear, we glided through about a dozen selections.
I sat next to someone who turned out to be a past professional viola player, and we had some great conversations about the music, opera in general, and culture.
For me, I enjoyed the music thoroughly. The first two pieces brought to mind Bugs Bunny and cartoon factory music, likely because I have been playing those cartoons of my youth for my toddler. The opera pieces were powerful – I was filled with emotion during the duet in one of the pieces – but I imagined that I could have been brought to tears if I only understood Italian. The idea behind opera is enticing and fascinating, but I felt unable to experience it fully.
Yes, it was the language barrier that holds me back from wanting to further explore opera. Missing that connection with what was happening took too much from the experience for me.
Below are the pieces that were played for us. What are your thoughts on orchestral music, opera, and culture in general?
Rossini
Overture from William Tell
Verdi
Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore
Puccini
Humming Chorus from Madama Butterfly
Verdi
“Povero Rigoletto” from Rigoletto
Puccini
“Che gelida manina” from La Bohème
Puccini
“Si, mi chiamano Mimi” from La Bohème
Puccini
“O soave Fanciulla” from La Bohème
Verdi
“Va, pensiero” (Chorus of the Hebrews) from Nabucco
Verdi
Triumphal March from Aida
Mascagni
Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana
Verdi
Prelude to Act III from La Traviata
Verdi
Act II, Scene II from La Traviata
I’m not an opera fan, but my wife is.
A small criticism: That wasn’t an actual opera, but a playlist of opera pieces. An actual opera production is very different.
The language issue is more nuanced:
As Sylvia Fine Kaye (Mrs. Danny Kaye) once observed about opera, “If you don’t speak Italian you think it’s about something.” For all you know it’s nothing more exciting than talking about taking a walk down to the drugstore to pick up a tube of toothpaste.
“Honey.”
“Yes, dearest.”
“Oh honey.”
“Yes, dearest”
“We’re out of toothpaste. We’re out of toothpaste.”
“Toothpaste?”
“Toothpaste, toothpaste, toothpaste. We’re ou-ou-ou-ou-out… of toothpaste.”
“Toothpaste!”
“Toothpaste! We’re ou-ou-ou-ou-out… of toothpaste.”
“Did you try to flatten, to flatten, to flatten out the bottom of the tube? Flatten out the bottom of the tube. Tube, tube, tube, tube. Flatten out the bottom of the tube.”
“Of course. Of course. Of cou-ou-ou-ou-ou-ou-ourse. Of course I flatten out the bottom of the tube.”
“Flatten out the bottom of the tube.”
“Tube, tube, tube, tube. Flatten out the bottom of the tube.”
“Don’t we have a travel toothpaste in the drawer.”
“A travel toothpaste in the drawer?”
“A travel toothpaste in the drawer.”
“Drawer, drawer, drawer, drawer. A travel toothpaste in the drawer.”
Italian opera is full of bouncy fun. Yes, the stories can be a bit silly, or simple, but they can still be ingenious. Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro is a crazy romp, maybe silly if you just read the libretto. But the music, what he does with all the parts, is breathtaking.
Opera is a combining of several (all?) of the major art forms into one unified whole. There is nothing else like it. The story is rarely the point; it is how the story is told, presented.
I am also a late student to the glory of opera. I could not recommend to you more highly the lecture series “How to Listen to and Understand Opera” by the incomparable Robert Greenberg. Available at Audible. His lectures on this and all the rest of the glories of concert music will change your life.
Please come back and post about your experience, I would love to hear what you think. I’m not the only one!
(Also, whew … Wagner. Just sayin.)
I don’t get it, and, at my age, probably never will.
I could handle sort of an opera’s greatest hits performance, which you saw, but a long form opera . . . no, based on experience.
The great Bugs Bunny operatic music is Wagner. “Kill the waaaabit, kill the waaaaabit … “
And because I can, I will once again post my favorite piece of opera-used-in-a-movie, and my favorite Wagner. The great Siegfried’s Funeral March from Gotterdammerung:
This is brilliant, I love it! We must find a composer to do it justice. “I’m the dentist of Sevillllllllle!”
Brilliant!
I didn’t grow up exposed to opera, though classical music was part of my childhood. I’m a late-comer to opera and have very little knowledge of it. But Minnesota Public radio features opera on Saturdays, and over the course of time I ended up listening to it fairly frequently – and even liking it. Not all, but certainly Mozart and a number of the Italians.
Have to take this opportunity to promote my niece the opera singer. Currently a Resident Artist with the Pittsburgh Opera.
I don’t know much about opera, but I’ve seen a few performances she’s been in and it’s always entertaining.
Thank you for your recommendation of Robert Greenberg’s lecture. I look forward to it.
“Whew…Wagner”, as in, brilliant and epic, or “whew…Wagner” as in, long and grueling?
If you live anywhere near Philadelphia, take in a performance by the Curtis Institute of Music Opera Theater. The students are top-notch, and performances excellent.
A few years ago, the Seattle Opera did Boris Godounov, and I went with my then- husband. I was totally blown away. The following week, a friend and I went to a free lecture on the opera at a local bookstore. At the end, we looked at each other and said “We need to see this again”. So we bought tickets and went again. It was magnificent. I went out and bought the music on a set of CDs, and I listen to it every once in a while.
“Richard Wagner. Or as they call him in America, ‘Dick Wagner.’” – Victor Borge
I prefer Pavarotti in “Kill The Wabbit!”
Worked in classical radio for 25 years. Never developed a taste or interest in it, although it was hilarious listening to the opera announcer summing up the “plots.”
I grew up with opera playing in the background and my husband’s and my first date was to an opera. I joke that our biggest argument is Verdi vs. Wagner (but we also have one about the Italian vs Northern Renaissance as the pinnacle of art history); obviously we are far closer to each other than apart. That said, as wonderful as attendance at a real, full-length opera can be, there are wonderful DVD versions taken off the stage. My favorite is the 1983 La Traviata directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starring Teresa Stratas and Placido Domingo. Absolutely gorgeous. I can’t seem to find it available on Amazon for US use, or streaming anywhere, so it may be out of print. Still, it’s well worth tracking down (library?) and watching. It’s fully subtitled, too, so you won’t lose the story.
Here’s a trailer that does not appear to be associated with the film company, but will give a tiny taste:
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a video of this piece from Boris Godounov. But this audio of Varlaam, a priest in a tavern expounding on the Siege of Kazan, is quite exciting. And the pictures accompanying the audio do add some context. I discovered that I loved listening to the Russian language, too.
A friend of mine’s brother once described the long opera “Parsifal” by Wagner as “Five hours of mind-numbing tedium.”
Concerning my own favorite opera, composer Peter Tchaikovsky once wrote this about Wagner “When I heard the final notes of the opera Gotterdammerung, I felt as though I had just been let out of prison.”
I’m afraid Pavarotti never sang German opera music.
Beautiful! My mom’s favorite opera. When I was growing up, whenever my mother caught somebody in the act of doing something naughty, she would exclaim “Aha! Shwizky! That was supposedly a reference to Boris Gudounov where somebody caught a guy named Shwizky doing something nefarious and he shouted those words. I’ve listened to this opera a few times but I never could find this moment.
Okay, is it just me or does anybody else like the J.G. Wentworth theme song?!
I still need subtitles when an opera is in English. I have trouble understanding the words that they’re shouting at me even in my mother tongue.
I didn’t care one wit about opera until I listened to two Great Courses, both by Dr. Robert Greenberg:
https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/how-to-listen-to-and-understand-opera
and
https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/life-and-operas-of-verdi
These two courses made me an opera enthusiast. We now have several opera DVDs, and several CDs of arias sung by the greats.
One of my favorites is Kiri Te Kanawa singing Art is Calling For Me, aka The Prima Donna Song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz6p-VxAzF0
Update: I should add Kiri holds a note for four measures at the end . . .
Your wife also says the same about all Wagner operas. Except Rienzi, which is never performed. I recall Siegfried and two extra-large people bellowing at each other and you turning excitedly to me saying, “This is the love duet!” Um…sure. For sea lions, perhaps.
@quickz , what are your local opera companies?
What are they going to be presenting?
Maybe folks can offer some suggestions.
A quick search shows that the nearest “big” city had a theater group do opera years ago, but even they are defunct. Not much around here, I’d have to travel a distance to someplace like Knoxville, Atlanta, or Greensboro.
I thank everyone for the great responses, and the toothpaste duet! I will have to look into these Audible and Great Courses offers.
My wife played violin and sang in her high school chorus. One of her classmates sang in the Portland Opera chorus. She gave us tickets to all the final dress rehearsals. It was a great experience.
Sometimes an opera/orchestra concert can be fun.
https://youtu.be/POZrgvyCJmA
I’m way out of his league when it comes to Opera like kindergarten versus PhD, but my favorite operas are Madame Butterfly and LaBoheme mainly since my father played them on our stereo when I was a child.
I recently came upon this version of La Boheme on YouTube. As some have said here, Opera is more than just the music. Here the staging ( and the performance) is spectacular.
The opera scenes in the film version of Amadeus were excellent. But fairly short.