# Music and Theater



## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

I've seen the argument made, that opera is more difficult than other music. I know I found it difficult, and (as previous posts indicate) I still struggle with access.

But I can't really see why this should be so. Most of the music all around us is essentially theatrical. Words accompany our most popular music, words with theatrical meaning, so much so that I begin to wonder if the first revolution in music, back before history began, wasn't to remove the words and just have the music.

Obviously it's more expensive to stage one's words, and provide moving and meaningful illustration, and I suppose it's a tribute to our imaginations that so little illustration is usually required to get meaning out of most worded music.

But it's also true that staging a previously only imagined work is bound to damage it for some of its audience. Books seem to convey so much richer scenes than cinema, because our imaginations supply every thing.

But in any event, what I'm really wondering is, since you became interested in opera, how much non-opera do you still enjoy? Vesteralen left a blog post about chill-inducing moments, and none of them were operatic. I could never leave the Addio, or the Soave venti (don't know if those are PRECISELY the right names, sorry), from Cosi fan tutte, off such a list. Or the grand quartet, from Fidelio. I've been to a few non-operatic concerts, here, without having much to write home about afterwards. The one exception - in having a very memorable experience - was the Egmont overture, by an ancient-music group.


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