Notes to a Life-Long Learner #2: Opera
It was Samuel Johnson who famously referred to opera as “an exotic and irrational entertainment.” No part of that definition would necessarily suggest that you should stay away. In fact, referencing opera as entertainment brings to mind my comment in a previous post that Shakespeare wrote for the masses and shouldn’t scare us off as being too difficult. Opera is so expensive to produce that it is vitally important that opera composers attempt to appeal to an audience. If it doesn’t already, opera will appeal to you too if you figure out a way in. Which is what I’m here for today.
Where to begin if like so many, you have little if any experience of opera? I didn’t make a conscious effort until my 20’s to try to figure out opera, but once I did, I fell in love with the form. Here’s a bunch of strategies that worked for me.
1.) Find a composer you love and explore one of their operas
Even before my 20’s, I bought (and played constantly) two opera albums, drawn in by my affection for the non-vocal works of their composers. The first was Don Giovanni, Mozart’s comic/dramatic masterpiece. Without my realizing it, Don Giovanni was an inspired choice for my first opera. Mozart separated the richly-melodic arias, duets, and ensembles with sections of recitative, where the singing is more conversational and the accompaniment is simply a harpsichord. This helped me pick out even as a classical-music beginner where the melodies started and ended, so that magical duets such as “La ci darem la mano” stood out clearly. For you Mozart lovers, maybe The Magic Flute would be an even better choice, since the musical numbers, separated by dialogue, stand out even more clearly.
My second early opera resulted from my affection for Emerson, Lake, and Palmer’s prog rock album Pictures at an Exhibition (1971), which led me to Modest Mussorgsky, the composer of the piece which inspired that album, which further led me to Boris Godunov, Mussorgsky’s massive opera on the life and times of the early 17th century Russian Tsar. Now, Boris Godunov is hardly the ideal first opera for anyone, much less a new-to-classical-music teenager, but Mussorgsky’s sound world from Pictures at an Exhibition carried over to Boris closely enough that after a couple of times with the recording I bought of it, I was hooked. Catchy numbers like Varlaam’s Drinking Song were immediately attractive; the longer scenes, such as Boris’s guilt when considering his past sins, took more time but eventually worked their magic on me too. The point here is find that composer you already have a taste for, and if they composed an opera, start your exploration there.
2.) Find a good book on the history of opera
I cannot recall the title of my first book on opera, but I’ll never forget the impression it left on me. It was basically a coffee-table book, lavishly illustrated, ranging through the entire history of opera, with enough about the story and musical style of the operas it touched upon that I felt ready to seek out recordings. I’m guessing the book I read is long out of print, but if you visit your local library and rummage through the opera section, you’ll find plenty of similar titles.
Here’s two titles that go beyond the coffee-table genre and engage with opera history intelligently, without assuming you know anything:
Ethan Mordden has written approximately a dozen books on the American Musical Theater, and he brings a theater fan’s sensitivity to his Splendid Art of Opera (1980). He also has a sometimes snarky sense of humor (note the subtitle of his book in the photo above) that makes his history anything but dry. You’ll have most luck either finding this book in a library or buying a used copy online, but it’s well worth the effort.
If it frustrates you that Mordden’s history stops at 1980, then Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker’s A History of Opera (Updated Edition) will bring you to practically the present day. I will save for a future post the whole discussion of contemporary opera, which remains unexplored territory for many opera traditionalists. Suffice it to say that Abbate and Parker’s book is comprehensive and fantastic.
3.) Borrow or buy a recording and then listen to it two or three times right away
Once I finished reading about opera and felt ready to listen to some music, I visited my local bookstore, which had a small section of recordings, and bought the only two opera albums they had, Verdi’s La Traviata and Richard Strauss’s Elektra. To the uninitiated, La Traviata sounds stereotypically operatic and Elektra sounds like noise rather than music. But trust me, when you listen a second time, you’ll begin to hear where melodies begin and end with Verdi, and you’ll hear musical motifs that repeat themselves powerfully with Strauss. By the third listen, you’ll be humming along with Verdi and conducting with your hands with Strauss. One suggestion: On your first listen, follow along with a booklet with the text of the opera and the translation, but on your second time through, ditch the booklet and just listen to the music.
4. Find a singer you like and dig into their repertoire
Those last two YouTube clips feature singers that are highly regarded: Renee Fleming for her dramatic artistry (and that voice!) and Birgit Nilsson for the sheer power of her vocal instrument. Obviously not opera singers sound alike. If you’re lucky, you’ll discover singers whose sound moves you powerfully and whose recordings and videos you can seek out.
5. Find a good source for opera videos and enjoy
I’ve mentioned before OperaVision, a service where each week a live performance from a European opera house is broadcast live and then kept available for around six months. What that means is that the link here (to last week’s broadcast of Rossini’s Barber of Seville, an ideal first opera by the way) will no longer be active by Spring, 2025, but if you go to YouTube and subscribe to OperaVision, you’ll be able to stay up to date on new videos.
I’ll end with five additional suggestions and brief commentary on each:
6.) Listen to live Metropolitan Opera broadcasts:
Every Saturday afternoon, from late fall to early spring, the Met radio network broadcasts live, complete with informative intermission features
7.) Listen to or watch an opera with music you might actually be familiar with already
#1 suggestion: Carmen
8.) Listen to or watch an opera in English
Suggestions: Any opera by Benjamin Britten, often adapted from literary masterpieces (Billy Budd, The Turn of the Screw, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Death in Venice), and/or find an English language version of the German opera Hansel and Gretel.
9.) Find a course on opera (on the web, on CD, in person)
Suggestion: How to Listen To and Understand Opera, Robert Greenberg, The Great Courses
10.) Go see an opera, any opera, live…
…but read a little about it ahead of time, and make sure the theater projects the translation above the stage or, even better, on the seat back in front of you.