# How did you first get into operas?



## Physix (Feb 14, 2014)

Personally, I have hard time appreciating operas. The overtures i have no qualms with. The overtures for Tristan und Isolde or Barber of Seville are some of my favorites. But its the actual singing that bores me. I can't understand a word of german/italian. So I have no idea what the opera is about, unless either there's a subtitle or I really study the wiki page the night before a performance. Maybe this is controversial but I find the singing not _as _ evocative as your ordinary orchestral pieces, because it is somewhat subsumed by the story plot.

So I'm interested: how did you first get into opera? And if so, what did you like about it?

This question is a selfish one, because what I"m actually asking is, How do you appreciate opera?


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Physix said:


> Personally, I have hard time appreciating operas. The overtures i have no qualms with. The overtures for Tristan und Isolde or Barber of Seville are some of my favorites. But its the actual singing that bores me. I can't understand a word of german/italian. So I have no idea what the opera is about, unless either there's a subtitle or I really study the wiki page the night before a performance. Maybe this is controversial but I find the singing not _as _ evocative as your ordinary orchestral pieces, because it is somewhat subsumed by the story plot.
> 
> So I'm interested: how did you first get into opera? And if so, what did you like about it?
> 
> This question is a selfish one, because what I"m actually asking is, How do you appreciate opera?


The film ,"The Great Caruso", if you are bored by the singing leave it alone,it should grab you immediately.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

Several years ago I was probably in a very similar mindset to yours now. I loved the preludes and overtures of many operas, but I was not much moved by vocal works (other than a few choral works). My daughter became very interested in opera, and we started to watch operas either _Live at the MET_ on PBS (in the US) or on DVDs. Both have subtitles so that's not an issue. Also we would read summaries before each act.

I started with what I thought I might like best (a bit of a guess of course). I adore Mozart so The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Magic Flute, and Cosi fan tutti were somewhat obvious choices. My daughter took a course in Wagner's _The Ring_ and fell in love so we also watched a lot of Wagner. Mozart's operas were funny, moving, and powerful at times, but his arias (especially the duets and quartets) were simply gorgeous. I loved them quickly. Wagner took a bit longer to become comfortable with the style although Tristan was amazing from the start. I listened to the Liebestod (end of Tristan) over and over and over after hearing it. There are parts of The Ring apart from the music that I find very moving (Act 3 of Die Walkure is especially powerful dramatically). I loved Carmen from the start as well.

I think for me I first found the orchestral music so beautiful, and then I came to appreciate the singing. Once I became more familiar with the various types of singing, more operas became enjoyable. I think overall the plots or drama in opera I find less interesting although the story can be enjoyable. I mostly appreciate operas with music that fills me with joy. Apparently it's often a learned pleasure, but I don't think it takes too long (at least for some styles).


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Being a huge fan of Tolkien I simply dived into Wagner's complete The Ring cycle headfirst. The DVD of course offered subtitles, so it was a no-brainer. I was swiftly taken in. I confess I have had a slightly harder time with other operas, Monteverdi and baroque in general being a huge exception.

Regarding the operatic singing style, I still find it hit or miss. My way into it was to forget it was a human making grotesque and decidedly uncool facial contortions to emit those inhuman sounds, but rather I just focused on the costuming, special effects and subtitles, and then imagined in my mind the vocals were some kind of weird advanced synthesizer or theremin approximating human vocals. It may seem silly, but this was only way to trick my mind into appreciating the sound. Now some of it is quite lovely, but some is still just a repulsive warbling noise. I think it depends on the context.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

Some 10 years ago I had a connection to one of the Vancouver Opera musicians. I was able to get a $10 ticket to see the dress rehearsal, two nights before opening. They run through the entire opera without stopping, like a performance. 

I saw quite a few operas this way, on the cheap. 

Now I go on a performance night, I love it enough to pay full price, and to support my local opera company.


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

An early 1950s reissue of the 1930 full recording of Il Trovatore, with Aureliano Pertile, Maria Carena, Apollo Granforte and Irene Cattaneo. And then my parents took me to every Mario Lanza movie, movie versions of Aida, Rigoletto and Madame Butterfly, and got me more opera and classical recordings. Now I have that Trovatore in cd format. I agree with Moody: if opera singing doesn't grab you pretty early on in the listening experience, just let it go.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

I've been more into light opera - G&S and Offenbach - starting in the 70's in Durham. Now we're getting into some of the better stuff - Purcell, Handel et al. It's surprising listening to the Indian Queen how some of the "patter songs" could have come from G&S. We've also watched some of the 19th Century repertoire -Carmen, Tosca, Aida, Madam Butterfly. Ultimately, it seems to be Baroque and G&S for me. We're off to a G&S festival in August.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

I got heavy into classical music in college but was slow adding in opera for many of the reasons you mention. Two or three hours is a lot of listening when you don't know what's going on. I don't know any language other than English. The singing was weird, though at times it was incredibly compelling.

Two things drove me forward. One was Wagner's music; I knew nothing like it. So I kept listening. Then I saw a copy of _Nixon in China_ used in a CD shop. That really threw me for a loop; it was about something that happened just a few years before I was born. I didn't realize they could do that.

I kept watching DVDs and then moved to NYC where there are more than 300 live opera performances a year and have been able to see operas from Montiverdi to Muhly live.



Revenant said:


> I agree with Moody: if opera singing doesn't grab you pretty early on in the listening experience, just let it go.


I would disagree completely.

Operatic singing is very different from the singing styles used in pop, rock, jazz, etc. It can take some time to get used to. There is a lot to opera (like any other genre) that you miss out on if you dismiss it because you don't love the singing on first listen.

The music, the drama, the singing, the staging... when everything is working together the result can be rapturous.

My advice would be to keep watching, listening, reading (synopsis, subtitles, etc.) and keep paying attention. Opera certainly rewards concentration.


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## mirepoix (Feb 1, 2014)

I used to live somewhere very cold. So cold, that the best course of action during the evenings was to stay indoors. However, we'd try to get out at least once a week on the weekend. This meant buying a couple of season tickets for the local concert hall. The weeks passed with a variety of works, some more memorable or to my taste than others. Then one week we discovered an opera was to be performed. 
We arrived, had a drink, and took our seats. I sat there, through the Sinfonia. Then Oroveso(?) started to sing and I knew almost instantly that this was something that had been missing and needed to become a part of my life.
'Norma' - Bellini. The first opera I ever attended a performance of.


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## clara s (Jan 6, 2014)

fourteen years old, my teacher took me to a concert hall

Nabucco of Verdi

my first opera and still my favourite


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## katdad (Jan 1, 2009)

I was a choirboy in a fairly large Episcopal church that had a first rate sacred classical venue. So I was taught how to read music by age 8-9, and was singing Mozart, Haydn, Bach, Handel, etc from the beginning, both in English translation or in the original Latin or German or whatever.

Thankfully I thrived on classical music and loved it from the beginning, and since I was a singer, I naturally transferred that pleasure into an early appreciation for opera. That being said, my home town was Kansas City and although it had a decent mid-rate symphony, there was usually only the Opera in English that seemed to eternally be performing Carmen.

But I was an avid fan of the Met radio matinees, and spent many a Saturday sitting in our back yard, enjoying the fresh air while listening to the Met performances on my headphones.

I maintained my church singing and when I was a teen, my voice migrating into baritone slowly, I was a soloist in our choir and sang in local chorales and other groups, not really too good by pristine standards but "decent". And of course I slowly began to collect LPs of operas, such as Nozze (my fave), Rigoletto, and the Ring.

So, to answer the question after some drifting... ha ha... I've been a classical vocal fan since I was a child in the boy's choir in my high church Episcopal home from the start.

In recent years, after singing very amateurly in local civic chorales and in the church choir, I took a more deep dip into singing and began to study professionally. At the same time, I auditioned and was hired to sing in the chorus for a Houston-based local small opera company. Small the company was, but they performed complete operas in the original language, with sets, costumes, the whole thing. After 2-3 years of pro lessons I became a fairly decent semi-pro baritone, and sang several roles in the local opera (mostly comprimario) plus found myself paid for weddings, funerals, other venues (my teacher had 3-4 of his best pupils on a waiting list and we apparently did okay, because we -- a soprano girlfriend of mine, a tenor, and another baritone -- had a pretty steady series of happy clients).

A few years ago I regretfully had to hang up my opera "quasi-pro" ha ha, skills due to a bad heart attack. Results were that I lost about 60% of my wind permanently and therefore limit my singing to the shower and times when I scare my girlfriend and the cats by launching willy-nilly into some aria at a whim. Thankfully I've retained good pitch, it's the volume I can't muster.

So... I've loved classical vocal from childhood as I sang it, and therefore, I suppose I've loved opera from the start, too.

Finally, I'd add that the pinnacle of my musical joy was to sing the role of Antonio (the drunken gardener) in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. It's my favorite opera, and if you can just imagine the joy of seeing a performance of your fave opera, multiply that by ten thousand and you won't begin to reach the utter joy I had, standing there with the other 10 roles (no chorus in the finale), singing "Perdono" for the Count and Countess. What a treasure to keep!


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

katdad said:


> I was a choirboy in a fairly large Episcopal church that had a first rate sacred classical venue. So I was taught how to read music by age 8-9, and was singing Mozart, Haydn, Bach, Handel, etc from the beginning, both in English translation or in the original Latin or German or whatever.
> 
> Thankfully I thrived on classical music and loved it from the beginning, and since I was a singer, I naturally transferred that pleasure into an early appreciation for opera. That being said, my home town was Kansas City and although it had a decent mid-rate symphony, there was usually only the Opera in English that seemed to eternally be performing Carmen.
> 
> ...


Sorry to hear that your heart problems have limited your singing now but it's a great story.



katdad said:


> Finally, I'd add that the pinnacle of my musical joy was to sing the role of Antonio (the drunken gardener) in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. It's my favorite opera, and if you can just imagine the joy of seeing a performance of your fave opera, multiply that by ten thousand and you won't begin to reach the utter joy I had, standing there with the other 10 roles (no chorus in the finale), singing "Perdono" for the Count and Countess. What a treasure to keep!


That's so lovely! I can understand why singers love their job so much.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

My sister was an opera star in Europe. Other than Leontyne Price, this was a great rarity in Mississippi in the 60's. What cememted my love was the Bell Telephone Hour with Sutherland, Nilsson, Tebaldi and Price as a youth. Zowie! I began in earnest in high school and actually my HORRIBLE high school had a decent opera library and I remember listening to albums by Callas and Nilsson which they had. I am willing to bet this would NOT happen today. Other kids hung out at pool halls and sports arenas. I hung out at the classical record store and my mother was generous with my record allowance. I even got a Ponselle recording back then! At 15 I went to Europe and saw my sister in 2 performances. I had a 3 octave range then and could sing higher than she could... up to G6. I pity her hearing my Hojotoho in a VW bug;-)


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## Fairyqueen (Feb 19, 2014)

mountmccabe said:


> The music, the drama, the singing, the staging... when everything is working together the result can be rapturous.
> 
> My advice would be to keep watching, listening, reading (synopsis, subtitles, etc.) and keep paying attention. Opera certainly rewards concentration.


I agree entirely with you mounmccabe:
I started listening to "bell canto" , with colourful arias, as Carmen, La Traviata, Rigoletto, Il Trovatore ... but over the years, my tastes evolved. Now I prefer Baroque opera.
Before going to a performance, I usually listen to that play several times, to get familiar with text and music. I need a good understanding of the plot, and focus on the most critical moments to fully enjoy it.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

A friend in the '70s was into opera. He used to subject me to it mercilessly and I endured it ungraciously and with due invective. Over the years, I have come to sort of enjoy it now and again, so long as it is in German. The works of Wagner and Berg are almost favourites, if I can say that of a genre that holds only shallow interest for me. I appreciate it with some teeth-gnashing and raised hairs, but, if I find myself in a patient frame of mind, I can lose myself enough to enjoy it. I don't listen to it often.


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

My mother, a native of Germany, loved opera and listened to recordings as she went about her housework. (These were the '50s and '60s, and she was the traditional full-time homemaker.) So I heard opera from the time I was in diapers. As a pre-schooler, I loved listening to excerpts from _Rigoletto,_ _Die Zauberflöte_, _Le Nozze di Figaro_, and _Fidelio_. Later on, I went through the usual stage of listening to pop/rock music -- the Beatles, Monkees, Supremes, Mamas & the Papas, et. al. Around my sophomore year in high school, I listened to _Die Zauberflöte_ again on a whim, then discovered Fritz Wunderlich. I was permanently hooked at that point. The first full-length opera recording I bought was the LP set of _Die Zauberflöte _with Wunderlich as Tamino.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Physix said:


> Personally, I have hard time appreciating operas. The overtures i have no qualms with. The overtures for Tristan und Isolde or Barber of Seville are some of my favorites. But its the actual singing that bores me. I can't understand a word of german/italian. So I have no idea what the opera is about, unless either there's a subtitle or I really study the wiki page the night before a performance. Maybe this is controversial but I find the singing not _as _ evocative as your ordinary orchestral pieces, because it is somewhat subsumed by the story plot.
> 
> So I'm interested: how did you first get into opera? And if so, what did you like about it?
> 
> This question is a selfish one, because what I"m actually asking is, How do you appreciate opera?


You might find some more answers on this thread from a few years ago.


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## Yardrax (Apr 29, 2013)

I'm just a simpleton who loves classical music and the sound of a well trained voice (And stories about magic swords and rings of power...)


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## Xavier (Jun 7, 2012)

Yardrax said:


> I'm just a simpleton who loves classical music and the sound of a well trained voice (And stories about magic swords and rings of power...)


And yet your avatar image is of Alban Berg...


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Back in the early 1980s I needed more stimulation than classical music could provide (was ruined by the fast-paced action of TV and the hammering beat of rock music), so I decided to do opera since there would be music, singing, and acting. Went to a number of operas in the 1980s then was out of it for 25 years. My deep interest in Beethoven brought me to Fidelio and finally I bought a DVD of Fidelio and love it. I don't know at this time if I will explore any other operas, and the subject matter of many operas does not interest me.


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## Dongiovanni (Jul 30, 2012)

The first opera sounds I heard were in the movie "Amadeus" that was shown in school as part of the music programme. I was probably 13-14 and I was very impressed by the Commendatore scene from Don Giovanni that is completey played in the movie. It kept thinking about it and so I found a CD of the complete opera in the local library which I copied on tape. I played it over and over again and I loved every second. For years I enjoyed opera mostly from CD. The music, the voices. 

Later I got more into the theatrical part of opera. The stories, characters and staging. I also started to attend live performances. 

It took me some time to get used to the operatic way of singing, especially the sopranos. I can't help you to learn to appriciate this. It will probably grow on you as you listen to it. What helped me was the utterly gorgeous music that comes with opera. You like the opening of Tristan, how about the ending ? It helps to approach opera piece by piece. Start with some arias. 

For me it will always be the music and the voices that attract me to opera. But as I found out, you can only really understand what it's all about when you attend live performances. The drama on stage, the voices that can reach all over such a distance and rise over a full orchestra. It's all live AND acoustic. Live opera is magic.


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## katdad (Jan 1, 2009)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Other kids hung out at pool halls and sports arenas. I hung out at the classical record store and my mother was generous with my record allowance.


Ha! I somehow managed both, being a fairly good natural pool shot and amping that into a good semi-pro. I supplemented much of my college side expenses by winning games at local taverns. I also played in tournaments, my high run in "14.1" or "straight pool" being 87. I still play a "mean stick" but not for money these days...


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## Romantiker (Feb 23, 2014)

The Flushing Branch of Queensborough Public Library in NYC. Thank you! It was in 1957, when I was 12. I was just curious what all those records were about. We did not have an LP changer in those days, so at first so I borrowed _Il barbiere di Siviglia_ and _Die Walkuere_ in volumes of 12-inch 78s. I just loved whatever I heard. It was magical for me and never ceased to be. Not long after I started listening, the library built up a collection of operas on LP. The first two of those that I heard were _Carmen_ and *La Traviata*. The latter was the Toscanini version with Licia Albanese whom I adore. I am glad that she is still with us at 100 years old.


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## Donata (Dec 28, 2013)

I saw my first opera, _Carmen_ when I was 10. Though, I didn't really get into opera until I came across a YouTube video that was a compilation of the supposedly hardest arias in opera. After watching it I was inspired to learn more about the operas they came from, and it went from there.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

The first opera I acquired was part of Act 1 of Mozart's Figaro conducted by Gui. It was a one sided LP - yes, you could get those thongs in those days - which was passed on to me as unwanted. 
Opera LPs in those days were tremendously expensive but I saved up for Solti's Rigoletto and played it and played it. I have it now on CD for old times sake. Sadly, Solti's faults as a conductor are only too evident but the singing - Merrill, Moffo, Krauss - is excellent.


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## perempe (Feb 27, 2014)

senza sordino said:


> Some 10 years ago I had a connection to one of the Vancouver Opera musicians. I was able to get a $10 ticket to see the dress rehearsal, two nights before opening. They run through the entire opera without stopping, like a performance.
> 
> I saw quite a few operas this way, on the cheap.
> 
> Now I go on a performance night, I love it enough to pay full price, and to support my local opera company.


I heard some CDs, then searched for tickets. the cheapest tickets are $1.5 to Erkel Theatre (Budapest), so I went to see Rigoletto in november. (I usually buy $2.2 tickets to gallery side boxes.) My mother wanted to see Carmen, and she liked it so much that she asked me to buy tickets to the performances I bought tickets to earlier. we have 30+ dates this season with some balletts. (Opera House tickets are expensive, but sometimes we can get premium tickets for cheap.)

we live in a town 130 kilometers away from Budapest, the whole day (tickets + travel expenses) costs us usually about $12.


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