Anyone like Opera?

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Just started listening to it. Mozart's Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro, Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. Not really digging it except for the overtures. Big problem is that the music is simply not memorable. Singing dialogue seems wasted. Would be better, as is the case in musicals, if the dialogue was spoken and the musical numbers were memorable pieces. Maybe it's because I am following along with the libretto the first time around and need to familiarize myself with the plot and scenes before I can fully enjoy the listening experience.

For those of you who are opera fans, did you immediately like it or did you have to 'train' yourself, and if you needed to work on appreciating it, how did that process evolve? I hope it didn't require learning to speak German and Italian or memorizing the libretti.

I like opera, but I haven't seen one in a while. The first one I saw was La Triviata, which I saw with my mum - I'd bought her a ticket for her birthday, and decided to tag along to see what it would be like - and I think the last one I saw was Rigoletto, which was rather an eye-opener since it featured full-frontal female nudity (I didn't know that when I bought the tickets, I swear ). Not the sort of thing one expects to see in a classical production, really, is it? I'm glad I went by myself, otherwise I'd have been tremendously embarrassed...

I missed the opportunity to go to Die Fliedermaus when it was put on here in my hometown recently, though, which annoyed me.

I love all genres of music, and opera is one of my favourites--next to disco, metal, and techno.

You should listen to "Habanera". That's a really good one for those who are trying to like opera, but haven't managed it yet.

I didn't have much of an interest in opera until I saw "The Fifth Element". The diva scene is badass.

I liked a bit of La Boheme, a recording of the highlights, when I was 15yo. Then bit by bit I got into it. Now I'm a fan. Re lyrics - I was disappointed to find out what the lyrics to La Boheme really mean. It sounds divine and the words are mundane. But then I realized it might be that the music is how they really feel while they say these ordinary things ("I lost my key").

I found that watching movies that had Mozart's Don Giovanni or the Marriage of Figero really helped to put the stories and the staging in the right context. Milos Forman's "Amadeus" really helped - seeing it in the proper context of what they were, and how they evolved into the grand productions we have today.

The best opera I have seen is when they have the subtitle machines. I was laughing so hard to Barber of Saville tears were rolling down my face and I have seen it several times just for the 'experience in Italian. and I knew the story. . but actually understanding the words at the action was GREAT!

Also Cher in "Moonstruck" has a recurring theme of "La Boheme" and if you know about the story it is fun to watch the movie and see the parts of the opera that is shown in the story. I always thought, oh, how cool, this Italian family KNOWS what the words mean.

I must have listened to Tristan and Isolde hundreds of times. . and Tannhauser! The Ring Cycle. . yes, four nights running on PBS! is sorta slow moving and the Yaggsdradl tree etc. etc, well, I am an Anthropologist so I just put on my 'study' mode and just let it wash over me.

I have a book with all the plots of the great operas. . and I listen to the PBS station locally that carries the Met on Saturdays. . .I have listened since I was a young girl, and read the stories while listening and heard the commentary. . .you have all sorts of opportunities to learn to enjoy!

I always liked the GRAND opera for the SWELLING music and the grandiosity of the stories.

Merle

oh, yes, La Boheme is the base story for the musical "Rent"! The aria when Rudolpho sells his coat for money to buy medicine for the tubercular Mimi is passion and regret and funny as heck in the right mood. . .

and I saw Miss Saigon in New York, I realized it was the modernized story of "Madame Butterfly"

I used to love it.

If you're just starting out, Mozart is awful, too many notes, too clever-clever. no surprise at all if you don't like it. Wagner is probably not a good 'starter' either.

Stick with the Italians, Verdi and Puccini if you're just starting out.

'Best of' collections of great voices doing arias can be a good intro too. Some people love Callas, or Caruso or whoever, some of those older singers recordings can be great. I don't like Joan Sutherland, she's awful.

Richard Strauss is a good composer too, in a more modern style, but maybe not for everybody.

I love music, and Rossini is among my favorite. The soprano pieces always elevate me.

Gioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music and chamber music. His best known works include Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) and Guillaume Tell (William Tell).

Thanks for the responses. DVDs of the operas should be enlightening because sometimes when two female characters are conversing(singing) , they sound exactly alike . The stage directions in the librettos are sparse so visualizing the action and placement of the characters is impossible,especially during comedic portions when I imagine facial expressions are critical.

BTW, a lip-synched version of Rigoletto(movie, not an actual opera), with nudity is on DVD. Apparently that is the way it is performed now a days ala Oh Calcutta.

It's not that the music has to have catchy hooks like pop music. I just listened to Mahler's 4th Symphony and I don't remember any melodies, but it was thoroughly enjoyable. The 4th movement has a woman singing, and it didn't matter that I didn't know what she was saying. The point is, that she wasn't singing dialogue, and in my original post, I had a problem with singing dialogue in opera.

oh, I LOVE Rossini! full of fire and passion!

Heh, when I first saw this I initially read it as "Does anyone here like Oprah?" and then I caught on - Opera...

Ok, I'll say this, I do like musicals like Carousel, Oklahoma, Our Town, or things like that when my parents and I would go to see a live show of some type; just because seeing something like that live really tends to bring out the feel or emotion a lot clearer and crisper. As far as traditional opera per say though I don't think I've ever seen it.

If I did go and see something like La Miserable, Secret Garden, Phantom of the Opera, I probably would really appreciate it though. If I end up dating anyone one of these days soon seeing something like that might be a plan - especially sense they'd probably get a kick out of seeing a guy like not only being open-minded to going to something like that but actually appreciating the finer points and liking it.

When I lived in New York City, I got a really good deal to go see 7 Broadway plays because I went by myself!
they had a program that they wanted to fill in the seats and needed the odd one (boy, where THEY right!) to fill in the spare seats from odd numbered theatre parties. I lucked out because it averaged about $17 a ticket for a BROADWAY SHOW!! and I have all those memories!

some women wouldn't be caught dead going alone. . .me? I walk with purpose and can shriek like a cat if someone even looks like bothering me! They just leave me alone! ( crazy woman alert!!)


Merle

Heh, you could also walk in doing the Jack Sparrow stagger too (kinda make like Sarah Jessica Parker's roommate from Failure to Launch), that could be a classic.

I don't like actual opera but I do very much like the operatic singing style.

I prefer Mozilla but my Vista has screwed it so utterly, I'm stuck with IE. Eh, ReadyBoost makes it tolerable. Plus Aero is pretty.

Speaking of this I was just watching The Sound of Music a bit earlier, tuned in a little late but still - I'll definitely have to watch it all the way through. Seems like most good movies hit on the bigger things a lot that people kinda lose in the shuffle; whether classics or dramas, even some musicals and operas, they're good for getting a refresher on those things.