Anyone remember my old opera thread

[Al B. Sure!]

They cut that scene too early. I wanted to hear what the guy was about to say... "What is that.."

[DaShi]

Waaaay back when I started a thread in which I began summarizing the great operas, laying out the plots and noting the musical highlights and such. I can't seem to find it in the archives... do they not go back past a certain date?

I wish JohnT was still around, he said he had saved it.

And is anyone interested in me doing that again?

If it makes your feel any better JohnT did not actually save it. He just said that to make you feel better because of the lack of interest.

[Boris Godunov]

I use Opera, with Chrome as a reserve, and Firefox as a backup reserve. I'm anal

As far as opera, I like Ravel's "Bolero". No, I'm not into opera. Yes, I first heard it in the movie "10". The fact remains, I like it even without Bo Derek.

And what does Bolero have to do with opera...?

[Boris Godunov]

My father once called me culturally illiterate for not being intimately familiar with (or indeed, ever having watched) Gilbert and Sullivan. Do you feel that goofy British comic opera is a priceless part of Western cultural heritage?

Eh, I wouldn't really agree. The big three G&S operettas (The Pirates of Penzance,HMS Pinafore, and The Mikado) have some musical worth, and an imaginative modern production can make them very enjoyable evenings. But since G&S is all heavily satirical, and it's satirizing late Victorian England, it often comes across as dated and unfunny. I certainly don't think anyone who hasn't seen one is missing out on some important part of culture. Still, Sullivan could definitely write a catchy tune.

[Boris Godunov]

a much more interesting discussion than operas

The only people who don't find operas interesting are uninteresting people. FACT.

[EPW]

this one?

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?t=136480&highlight=opera

[Al B. Sure!]

Boris, Any thoughts on Josh Groban?

However, to all the opera haters, I dare you to not get chills down your spine on the climax of this famous aria:

[SlowwHand]

That confirms my existing opinion. I much prefer it to Rap, but that may be about all.

[Al B. Sure!]

That confirms my existing opinion. I much prefer it to Rap, but that may be about all.

And your taste in music is otherwise reasonable. Nothing wrong with either rap or opera... it's techno, metal, and punk rock that have issues.

You at least have to appreciate the emotional response something like that elicits. You'd have to be soulless to not feel it, to not have your eyes water, a lump in your throat, and your breath taken from your lungs.

That point just before the famous climax... when the female voices sing softly off in the distance... and then... Dilegua, O notte! then the great "Vincero!" WOW.

[Asher]

rap, opera, techno, metal, punk rock. All issue-filled.

[Boris Godunov]

Alright, so I think the best way to start is with my "Top Ten Operas Everyone Should See." This would not be my top ten list of personal favorites, as I fully realize that some of the works I enjoy most aren't the most accessible to the general public with little/no background in opera. I'll also ignore Wagner, for now, as his stuff generally resides in a category all by itself, and I think it's also far too daunting to most initiates.

So is opera just a bunch of fat Italians singing at the top of their lungs for hours on end? Well... sorta. Except it's not just Italians. While Italy is the birthplace of opera, almost all major European countries developed an opera culture. Certainly the Germans, the French and the Russians follow right behind Italy in terms of operatic genius, and there's also quite a few English, Czech, and, yes, American operas.

What are they singing about? Pretty much everything. Most of the great operas performed today are probably tragedies that involve love, lust, hate, sex, violence, murder and just about anything else you could want in a potboiler of a plot. Body counts tend to be high. But there are also plenty of comedies for more light-hearted evenings, and the greatest of these still evoke laughter from audiences, even more than a century after composition. I've yet to see a production of Gianni Schicchi, for example, that didn't have the viewers cracking up throughout.

I won't bother with a history of how opera came to be, as it really isn't that important to know for being able to enjoy it. Quick summary: Began in Italy around 1600, spread quickly to the rest of Europe, was THE form of musical entertainment for the 18th and 19th centuries, and today continues to be one of the most popular of the "classical" arts, although new compositions rarely get much attention or widespread popularity.

Now for some structural basics:

Most operas prior to the later 19th century are composed using two different types of music: "Recitative" for what would be the equivalent of spoken dialogue that moves the plot along, and set pieces wherein the composer display their melodic talents. Recitative initially was just very simple, nondescript melody over a harpsichord accompaniment that consisted of basic chords. However, as time went on, composers began to orchestrate the recitative along with the set pieces to create a more fluid musical experience. By the end of the 19th century, the old recitative/set piece formula had been supplanted by more-or-less continuous orchestrated music, and the distinctions between plot exposition and emotional music highlights were greatly blurred.

The chief set piece for operas are arias, which are solo numbers for principal characters meant to give an emotional state of mind rather than advance the story. At first arias were opportunities for singers to show off their vocal prowess, and in Baroque opera it is expected that the singers add all sorts of vocal flourishes and runs (known as coloratura) to the music. During the 19th century, coloratura became less fashionable, so arias were chiefly vehicles for the composer to show off his tunesmithing while also being a test of vocal power for singers rather than agility. Other set pieces are duets (esp. love duets between romantic leads), and ensembles for three or more of the principal soloists (Verdi's Falstaff has a nonet in it!). In such numbers, each character singing is usually singing his or her own independent vocal line, rather than them all singing together. This is something unique to opera: multiple characters all expressing their thoughts simultaneously, but done in such a way that totally understand each one.

Lastly, there is the chorus, which is a group of non-solo singers who sing certain numbers together. Some operas don't even have choruses (Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona, Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle), while some have such rich choral writing that the chorus is almost considered a character unto itself (Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov). Sometimes the chorus acts like the old Greek chorus and provides commentary on the action, or it can just represent the local townspeople, or any body of people who are ancillary to the main story.

One important thing to know about opera is the idea of vocal ranges and what type of singer sings what type of part, generally speaking. There is a great amount of incredibly detailed and tedious wrangling over this, so I am just going to use the really basic generalities:

Female Voices:

Soprano (highest voice): Usually the voice type of the female lead of the opera. In earlier operas the quality was lighter and more agile ("Spinto"), but in the 19th century, heavier "dramatic" soprano voices became the norm. Famous operatic sopranos include Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi, Leontyne Price, Montserrat Caballe, Joan Sutherland, Beverly Sills, Mirella Freni, Shirley Verrett and Kathleen Battle.

Mezzo-soprano (medium female voice): Most often these play secondary female characters, but sometimes are the leads (Carmen, for instance). Mezzos have a "chestier" sounding voice in their lower range, but still have the be able to hit what most people would consider pretty high notes. Verdi is considered the master of writing for mezzos and often gave them the juciest roles. Famous mezzos include Cecilia Bartoli, Olga Borodina, Teresa Berganza, Marilyn Horne, Giulietta Simionato, Dolora Zajick, Frederica von Stade and Fiorenza Cossotto.

Contralto (lowest female voice): This is probably the least common solo voice type in opera. When they do appear, they almost always are matronly or villainous characters. Famous contraltos include Marian Anderson, Kathleen Ferrier... and that's all I can think of.

Male Voices:

Countertenor or Castrato (highest male voice): In ye olden days, yes, the Church selected boys who showed exceptional vocal promise to be castrated to preserve their high voices. As a consequence, a great deal of the male leads in Baroque operas are for male castrati. While the practice more or less died out in the late 18th and early 19th century, there were still castrati to be heard up until the early 1900s. Today, such roles are either sung by women, transposed to lower male voices or sung by countertenors, which are just men who sing very high without being neutered. Famous countertenors include David Daniels and Rene Jacobs.

Tenor (high male voice): Tenors are most often the male lead and hero of the opera. Of course most people associate Pavarotti with the tenor voice, but his style of full-chested high notes didn't come into being until the second half of the 19th century. Before that, tenors sang their high notes falsetto (or "head voice"). Today, tenors are expected to have loud, ringing voices and to belt out their high notes full-throttle. That makes them sound heroic, hence why lead roles were often written for them. Mozart is an exception to this pattern, however, as his male leads were most often lower voices. Famous tenors include Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Enrico Caruso, Alfredo Kraus, Nicolai Gedda, Franco Corelli, Mario del Monaco, Jussi Bjorling, Jose Carreras, Giuseppi di Stefano, Beniamino Gigli, Richard Tucker and Carlo Bergonzi.

Baritone (medium male voice): Baritones typically play secondary lead characters such as villains, friends, and so forth. Mozart, however, used them for leading roles more often, such as Don Giovanni and Figaro. Verdi also adored the baritone voice and wrote some of his choicest parts for them, including Rigoletto, Falstaff and Simon Boccanegra. Baritones are expected to maintain a deeper, richer sound than tenors while still being able to sing ringing high notes. More often than not, they are also expected to be better actors than most singers. Famous baritones include Tito Gobbi, Leonard Warren, Robert Merrill, Lawrence Tibbett, Ettore Bastianini, George London, Renato Bruson, Piero Cappuccilli, Sergei Lieferkaus, Sherrill Milnes and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

Bass (lowest male voice): Basses typically play authority figures such as kings, priests, fathers and so on. While not as underused as contraltos, they definitely are often stuck with the more thankless-yet-crucial roles. Take for instance The Commendatore from Don Giovanni. He sings for about 5 minutes at the very beginning of the opera, dies, and then comes back at the very end as a walking, talking statue from hell (usually encased in a cumbersome statue costume), where he sings extremely taxing music for 10 minutes and then that's it. Basses are also expected not just to have strong high notes but great low notes. Leading roles for basses are rare but a refreshing change of pace (Boris Godunov and Verdi's Atilla are probably the most famous examples). Famous basses include Feodor Chaliapin, Boris Christoff, Ezio Pinza, Giorgio Tozzi, Cesare Siepi, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Samuel Ramey, Kurt Moll, Gottlob Frick, Jerome Hines, Ferruccio Furlanetto and Matti Salminen.

I'll dive into the operas themselves next. The basic format will be completely stolen from a great book, A Night at The Opera by Sir Denis Forman. When summarizing the plots, he notes the musical highlights with a star system. My system is as follows:

*-noteworthy spot;
**-good stuff, either a memorable tune or emotional high point that deserves attention;
***-excellent part, not to be missed and is likely pretty famous and popular with opera buffs;
****-best of the best, the moments that don't just get opera fans going, but tend to knock the socks of anyone.

First up, when I resume, will be the easy first choice for any new opera goer: Bizet's Carmen.

[Jon Miller]

I saw Barber of Seville last year, I was surprised by how much I liked it.

JM

[Boris Godunov]

Boris, Any thoughts on Josh Groban?

However, to all the opera haters, I dare you to not get chills down your spine on the climax of this famous aria:

Good choice of aria, bad choice of singer. Bocelli is decidedly mediocre. If he weren't blind, he wouldn't have a career.

I'm not a Pavarotti cheerleader, but it's pretty indisputable that he owned "Nessun Dorma:"

[MOBIUS]

Awesome thread, Boris.

Opera is one of those things I really like, but never get around to seeing that much for a whole host of reasons.

So far I've managed only: Carmen, by Bizet; La Boheme, by Puccini; Samson and Delilah, by Saint-Saëns (saw this one at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden).

The ironic thing is that, living in Cardiff, we have excellent access to operas at the WMC - so I guess I'd better make better use of the place!

[Sir Og]

Soprano (highest voice): Usually the voice type of the female lead of the opera. In earlier operas the quality was lighter and more agile ("Spinto"), but in the 19th century, heavier "dramatic" soprano voices became the norm. Famous operatic sopranos include Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi, Leontyne Price, Montserrat Caballe, Joan Sutherland, Beverly Sills, Mirella Freni, Shirley Verrett and Kathleen Battle.

I was hoping that Anna Tomowa-Sintow or Ghena Dimitrova would make that list.