I've spent most of my life being an Opera Person, and it's been very rewarding, for the most part — some of the most emotionally and artistically satisfying experiences of my life have been at the opera.
I do love opera, but it's become too expensive for me, and it really doesn't translate well to video. However, I taught a study-abroad course last summer in Rome, with some college students from San Antonio, Texas. The course was on philosophy of film, focusing on Italian cinema. So, to help them understand sound in Italian film, I took them to see Madama Butterfly in the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. I was amazed. They had never been to an opera before, but they loved it. There's hope.
But I wanted to ask you if you have seen the opera Tartuffe, by Kirke Mechem? I haven't, but in digging a bit into Molière I discovered such a thing existed. I wondered how well the play translated into opera.
Those lucky students! I'm glad they got to have that experience. I know of Tartuffe (an aria from it is in a vocal anthology I have) but I've never seen it. Seems like it is rarely performed.
Supertitles increase my enjoyment a lot. I want to know what they are saying (singing), so the story can carry me along. I love the pageantry in opera, which is part of the reason I like to attend baseball games. I quite love The Magic Flute, with its wacky adventurers, archetypal goddesses, Freemasons, all matched to musical styles. Once I was lucky to see it with Maurice Sendak scenery. Sadly my opera attendance fluctuates with my income. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Una_furtiva_lagrima
As an orchestra musician who makes a lot of my money playing opera, I still have mixed feelings about it at times. The singing style and some truly horrid librettos are still big hurdles for me, but I've also had some excellent experiences with opera. I just found your Substack and was about to comment on too many of your individual opera posts so I'll round up my thoughts here:
Figaro was the second opera I ever played in the orchestra for as a student, and I was incredibly impatient with it. It does not help that I'm a horn player and Mozart horn parts are typically quite boring to play.
I've never had the chance to see Nixon in China, and I've never listened to it in it's entirety, but I absolutely adore so many of the selections from. Definitely a masterpiece that should be firmly canonized.
I saw a student production of Eugene Onegin at Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara in the summer of 2022. I went in having no idea what it was about, and was just very lost in keeping track of what was actually important to the plot and what were random digressions. I liked some of the music, but couldn't really say much for my experience. A couple months later I landed in San Francisco with a contract to play in San Francisco Opera's production of Dialogues of the Carmelites. The day after I arrived I went to watch their final dress rehearsal for a run of Onegin, and with my previous familiarity with the plot and the music, it was a completely different experience. Later on in the run I covered a few shows of Onegin while someone was out sick, and that opera has a real place in my heart now.
I went through an introductory opera phase a couple months ago - cut brief by my lack of time to watch them (all of my non-book media consumption is with my SO who has no interest in opera).
I only got to watch 3:
Il Travotore (probably my favorite - crazy plot and both anvil song and deserto sulla terro were bangers)
L’Orfeo (most boring at times but also most moving. From the scene after euridyces death to orfeo pleading with the boatman, my throat feels welled up)
Carmine - Very good but probably my least favorite. Our protagonist (the soldier) was a little too cringe.
Hope to get to see an opera in real life some day…or at least just get time to watch some at home. Not sure which one to seek out next. Am I too new for Wagner?
I used to be an opera omnivore but in my thirties my taste for live vs. recorded classical music changed a lot. I just don't get that much more from seeing a Mozart or Gluck opera live vs. listening to a recording, but Wagner, Mahler and twentieth century works in this tradition of intensity (like Wozzeck or Moses and Aron) really grip me. (Also Britten and Janacek. They aren't Wagnerian but there is an almost cinematic unity to their operas that works in a similar way on me).
I saw The Marriage of Figaro a few years ago and the closing harmonies of Act II were as powerful as ever, but otherwise I was a bit bored. I'm almost ashamed to see my taste changing in this way; I don't approve of myself for becoming a Wagnerian. On CD there are many composers I prefer to Wagner (also at the piano, not that I could play Wagner transcriptions in a million years). But even a mediocre Parsifal will absorb me in a way Rigoletto or Don Giovanni won't.
I guess it can get a bit personal. So, I’m just not there with you on Parsifal. I’d shift the guy straight down into Avoid.
And, could we include In Questa Reggia (maybe with Nilsson…?) along with Nessun Dorma.
Yikes…where’s Elektra? Hey, she’s got to be there as a masterpiece. And while we’re there with those guys: Don Carlo is prima inter pares, no? I prefer the Italian…but, man, I’m good with the French too. I’d have to put a big thwack of verismo in with Cavalleria Rusticana…maybe with a mezzo: Simionato on recording, or the wonderful late Tatiana Troyanos with a hot Domingo in an old Met relay (I know…I know…I’m like hollering my opera leatherman credentials…what can I tell you?)
Now, this may get controversial…but I’d have gone with some Handel…Alcina? Xerxes? Not for everyone, I get it, but very cool.
I could go on…and on…which your piece doesn’t need because it’s so good.
I saw Don Carlo at the Met last year and was seated next to a gentleman who said he'd been three times, but that he always left after the Grand Inquisitor scene. Sure enough, once that scene completed, he got up and hurried away. I think that's the right way to do it; the last act drags on and on!
As for Parsifal, I remember Renata Adler's account of being taken to a performance as a surprise:
"The worst part, I think, comes near the end, when the hermit sings to Parsifal about how wonderful it is that Parsifal has brought the Spear, which will, after so many years, relieve the suffering of Amfortas, the Fisher King. The aria itself lasts many years. One is aware of Amfortas, waiting in pain, while this long-winded hermit and Parsifal exchange congratulations and amenities. Narrative conventions do make it quite impossible for them to bring the king the Spear, and then, when he is no longer in pain, sing about their sympathy for him, in all those years, and their great gladness that a remedy is at hand. The whole magic of a plot requires that somebody be impeded from getting something over with. Yet there one is, with an emotional body English almost, wishing that pole-vaulter over his bar, wanting something to happen or not to happen, wishing somebody well. Amfortas was not even on stage. In fact, there was no Amfortas. Yet, more than I wished that I were elsewhere, more than I wished that the opera were over, I did wish that they would bring that king his Spear."
It does go on…I get it…but if the dude leaves after the Grand Inquisitor (the scary guy) he misses both O don fatale and Tu che le vanità…that’s quite a big deal!
Parsifal…I only have to hear the name…but other Wagner I’ll go with fine. I have a particular soft spot for Ortrud. To say she’s so bad, she’s good doesn’t come close.
I do love opera, but it's become too expensive for me, and it really doesn't translate well to video. However, I taught a study-abroad course last summer in Rome, with some college students from San Antonio, Texas. The course was on philosophy of film, focusing on Italian cinema. So, to help them understand sound in Italian film, I took them to see Madama Butterfly in the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. I was amazed. They had never been to an opera before, but they loved it. There's hope.
But I wanted to ask you if you have seen the opera Tartuffe, by Kirke Mechem? I haven't, but in digging a bit into Molière I discovered such a thing existed. I wondered how well the play translated into opera.
Those lucky students! I'm glad they got to have that experience. I know of Tartuffe (an aria from it is in a vocal anthology I have) but I've never seen it. Seems like it is rarely performed.
Supertitles increase my enjoyment a lot. I want to know what they are saying (singing), so the story can carry me along. I love the pageantry in opera, which is part of the reason I like to attend baseball games. I quite love The Magic Flute, with its wacky adventurers, archetypal goddesses, Freemasons, all matched to musical styles. Once I was lucky to see it with Maurice Sendak scenery. Sadly my opera attendance fluctuates with my income. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Una_furtiva_lagrima
What more need I look for?
What more need I look for?
She loves me! Yes, she loves me,
I see it, I see it.
Supertitles really help, even when the words aren't very interesting! And yes, the pageantry and ritual can be such a big part of the appeal.
Thanks for the _Fire Shut Up In My Bones_ recommendation; never made it on my radar!
(and, one of these days, God willing, I'll finally get to see _Lady M of M_)
As an orchestra musician who makes a lot of my money playing opera, I still have mixed feelings about it at times. The singing style and some truly horrid librettos are still big hurdles for me, but I've also had some excellent experiences with opera. I just found your Substack and was about to comment on too many of your individual opera posts so I'll round up my thoughts here:
Figaro was the second opera I ever played in the orchestra for as a student, and I was incredibly impatient with it. It does not help that I'm a horn player and Mozart horn parts are typically quite boring to play.
I've never had the chance to see Nixon in China, and I've never listened to it in it's entirety, but I absolutely adore so many of the selections from. Definitely a masterpiece that should be firmly canonized.
I saw a student production of Eugene Onegin at Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara in the summer of 2022. I went in having no idea what it was about, and was just very lost in keeping track of what was actually important to the plot and what were random digressions. I liked some of the music, but couldn't really say much for my experience. A couple months later I landed in San Francisco with a contract to play in San Francisco Opera's production of Dialogues of the Carmelites. The day after I arrived I went to watch their final dress rehearsal for a run of Onegin, and with my previous familiarity with the plot and the music, it was a completely different experience. Later on in the run I covered a few shows of Onegin while someone was out sick, and that opera has a real place in my heart now.
I went through an introductory opera phase a couple months ago - cut brief by my lack of time to watch them (all of my non-book media consumption is with my SO who has no interest in opera).
I only got to watch 3:
Il Travotore (probably my favorite - crazy plot and both anvil song and deserto sulla terro were bangers)
L’Orfeo (most boring at times but also most moving. From the scene after euridyces death to orfeo pleading with the boatman, my throat feels welled up)
Carmine - Very good but probably my least favorite. Our protagonist (the soldier) was a little too cringe.
Hope to get to see an opera in real life some day…or at least just get time to watch some at home. Not sure which one to seek out next. Am I too new for Wagner?
I used to be an opera omnivore but in my thirties my taste for live vs. recorded classical music changed a lot. I just don't get that much more from seeing a Mozart or Gluck opera live vs. listening to a recording, but Wagner, Mahler and twentieth century works in this tradition of intensity (like Wozzeck or Moses and Aron) really grip me. (Also Britten and Janacek. They aren't Wagnerian but there is an almost cinematic unity to their operas that works in a similar way on me).
I saw The Marriage of Figaro a few years ago and the closing harmonies of Act II were as powerful as ever, but otherwise I was a bit bored. I'm almost ashamed to see my taste changing in this way; I don't approve of myself for becoming a Wagnerian. On CD there are many composers I prefer to Wagner (also at the piano, not that I could play Wagner transcriptions in a million years). But even a mediocre Parsifal will absorb me in a way Rigoletto or Don Giovanni won't.
Hey…
I dig this piece.
I guess it can get a bit personal. So, I’m just not there with you on Parsifal. I’d shift the guy straight down into Avoid.
And, could we include In Questa Reggia (maybe with Nilsson…?) along with Nessun Dorma.
Yikes…where’s Elektra? Hey, she’s got to be there as a masterpiece. And while we’re there with those guys: Don Carlo is prima inter pares, no? I prefer the Italian…but, man, I’m good with the French too. I’d have to put a big thwack of verismo in with Cavalleria Rusticana…maybe with a mezzo: Simionato on recording, or the wonderful late Tatiana Troyanos with a hot Domingo in an old Met relay (I know…I know…I’m like hollering my opera leatherman credentials…what can I tell you?)
Now, this may get controversial…but I’d have gone with some Handel…Alcina? Xerxes? Not for everyone, I get it, but very cool.
I could go on…and on…which your piece doesn’t need because it’s so good.
I saw Don Carlo at the Met last year and was seated next to a gentleman who said he'd been three times, but that he always left after the Grand Inquisitor scene. Sure enough, once that scene completed, he got up and hurried away. I think that's the right way to do it; the last act drags on and on!
As for Parsifal, I remember Renata Adler's account of being taken to a performance as a surprise:
"The worst part, I think, comes near the end, when the hermit sings to Parsifal about how wonderful it is that Parsifal has brought the Spear, which will, after so many years, relieve the suffering of Amfortas, the Fisher King. The aria itself lasts many years. One is aware of Amfortas, waiting in pain, while this long-winded hermit and Parsifal exchange congratulations and amenities. Narrative conventions do make it quite impossible for them to bring the king the Spear, and then, when he is no longer in pain, sing about their sympathy for him, in all those years, and their great gladness that a remedy is at hand. The whole magic of a plot requires that somebody be impeded from getting something over with. Yet there one is, with an emotional body English almost, wishing that pole-vaulter over his bar, wanting something to happen or not to happen, wishing somebody well. Amfortas was not even on stage. In fact, there was no Amfortas. Yet, more than I wished that I were elsewhere, more than I wished that the opera were over, I did wish that they would bring that king his Spear."
It does go on…I get it…but if the dude leaves after the Grand Inquisitor (the scary guy) he misses both O don fatale and Tu che le vanità…that’s quite a big deal!
True! I'll pretend that when he got home he put on a recording of just those two arias.
That’ll do it.
Parsifal…I only have to hear the name…but other Wagner I’ll go with fine. I have a particular soft spot for Ortrud. To say she’s so bad, she’s good doesn’t come close.