# What is your Modus Operandi for Approaching an Opera?



## KRoad (Jun 1, 2012)

Hello,

I'm curious as to how fellow opera buffs tackle an opera.

This is my approach:

1. Research history via: Grove Book of Operas / Penguin Opera Guide / Wikipedia

2. Obtain copy of the libretto (where and whenever available in translation) No libretto = none satisfying/fulfilling/complete operatic experience.

3. Read carefully said libretto 

4. Re-read said libretto

5. Obtain recording(s) having first read recording reviews on-line (the latest, as we all know, are not necessarily the greatest any more than those by La Divina are the best - some being in fact pretty awful if we are honest)

6. Listen to recording while following libretto (allowing for possible cuts in the narrative for different interpretations)

7. Listen without libretto to enhance appreciation of opera music (orchestration and vocals) in its own right.

8. Listen again without libretto - but checking where necessary to accommodate any gaps existing in understanding of plot details.

9. Obtain DVD/Blu Ray of said opera and watch w/o break.

10. See the opera live (as a resident of Berlin - not usually a problem for me - sooner or later)

11. Compare mentally live performance with personal aurally/visually generated experience/interpretation (together with viewed DVD/Blu Ray televisuals)

12. Allow mental and musical marination of all of the above...

13. Decide if it was something you would recommend to others.

And you...?


----------



## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I do step one/five when I initially shop for the opera set to buy. From time to time (memory fades ), I will go back to Wikipedia to refresh myself about the composer and the opera, as well as referring to the album booklet. I read the synopsis before listening. Ideally, I follow along in the libretto as I listen the first time; but, when I'm lazy, I'll just listen to it _as music_ the first time(s) and then listen with the libretto on a subsequent listen.


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Love your approach and attention to detail KRoad!

If I haven't already got a recording I'll buy one which is recommended on here.

I'll listen on mp3 player while walking to and from work (= 1 hour per day) over and over again until I know it off by heart. I don't mean I know all the words and often mis-hear them but listen until I'm really familiar with it and know what's coming next.

If I'm travelling by train or waiting in airports I use the time to listen while reading the libretto.

I'll maybe get a DVD but this isn't crucial.

Get traumatised by opera house online booking system and collapse in a sweaty heap once tickets are obtained. Find cheap hotel near opera house but get put off by "suitable for back-packers" and "shared toilet facilities" comments and find expensive hotel near opera house. Look up flights and make the harrowing decision of whether or not to risk flying on the day of the performance or to fork out for another night in the aforesaid expensive hotel near opera house.

Arrive at hotel feeling ridiculously excited. Change into opera going togs. Slap some war paint on and off I go.


----------



## gHeadphone (Mar 30, 2015)

Wow, that is a detailed approach.

Mine is 
1 purchase a well recommended version as per the thread on Talkclassical.com
2 Listen to the opera
3 see 2


----------



## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

I know most operas now, but if a performance of one I don't know is coming up and I'm interested in seeing it I do no preparation at all. (I like to approach a new opera with an open mind and I don't want any 'spoilers' when it comes to the story.)

If I like the music, then I buy a version on CD or DVD.

N.


----------



## Faustian (Feb 8, 2015)

I always follow along with a libretto, but if its my first time listening to an opera I will read over a synopsis of the plot as well. Mostly because when Im trying to follow along with choruses and ensembles during a first listen I find its easy to lose my place and sometimes miss out on some of the nuances of the story.

And I almost always rip the CD to mp3 so I don't have to deal with changing discs in the middle of an act.


----------



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

1. I go to the second hand CD shop
2. I look at what is in their half price sale and costs no more than £5
3. I check to see if it has a libretto with it - if not I haggle over the price
4. I buy the opera concerned 
5. I take it home on the bus as I have a pensioner's free bus pass.
6. I put it into the CD player
7. I listen to it.


----------



## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

The 'libretto' is irrelevant to me—the music is the most important thing.


----------



## gHeadphone (Mar 30, 2015)

Morimur said:


> The 'libretto' is irrelevant to me-the music is the most important thing.


Me too to be honest, if i really get into the music ill read a synopsis, ive not read a libretto yet


----------



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Morimur said:


> The 'libretto' is irrelevant to me-the music is the most important thing.


Well it s nice to know what is going on!


----------



## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Alas for me, nowhere near the first approach.

Mostly, I just like the way opera sounds, and of course it sounds better when you know it better. If I'm going to see an opera live for the first time, I'll check out a recording or at least some highlights, and digest the synopsis. Pretty much the same as I'd recommend to any newcomer.

To sit through a live opera where I've never heard a note of it before, is pretty much a waste of money. The same goes for any live classical music now I think about it. Music is a puzzle for the brain to solve, and it can't be done on the first exposure... perhaps that's what musicals are for?


----------



## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Don Fatale said:


> Alas for me, nowhere near the first approach.
> 
> Mostly, I just like the way opera sounds, and of course it sounds better when you know it better. If I'm going to see an opera live for the first time, I'll check out a recording or at least some highlights, and digest the synopsis. Pretty much the same as I'd recommend to any newcomer.
> 
> To sit through a live opera where I've never heard a note of it before, is pretty much a waste of money. The same goes for any live classical music now I think about it. Music is a puzzle for the brain to solve, and it can't be done on the first exposure... perhaps that's what musicals are for?


I find this quite sad, whilst some music is so intellectual it can only be understood after a few listenings, much music works on a number of levels and I think a lot of opera is incredibly tuneful. Verdi held back the music for 'La donna e' mobile' until the last moment as he wanted it to be a surprise for his audience. He knew that the gondoliers would all be singing his 'hit' tune and everybody would know the tune before the premiere of the opera. At that point in his career Verdi believed that if the simple shoe shine boys couldn't whistle his melodies after one hearing, then he had failed.

Perhaps opera in Italy was the 'musical' of the 19th century!

N.


----------



## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Don Fatale said:


> To sit through a live opera where I've never heard a note of it before, is pretty much a waste of money.


That depends what opera it is.
I would say to do that is very much a lottery to be safe I think it is to listen to the opera first.


----------



## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Sadly Conte, I fear you've chosen the exception to the rule as your example.

If we didn't enjoy an opera more through subsequent listens, then we'd probably not be fans of opera. Do you really not think it repays repeat listens, or have I missed your point?


----------



## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Don Fatale said:


> Sadly Conte, I fear you've chosen the exception to the rule as your example.
> 
> If we didn't enjoy an opera more through subsequent listens, then we'd probably not be fans of opera. Do you really not think it repays repeat listens, or have I missed your point?


If I like the opera or at least find something likeable with the opera then I listen to it several times othervise not. Yes several listenings pay both to hear something I like several times and in some cases the appreciation of the opera becomes larger.


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Sloe said:


> If I like the opera or at least find something likeable with the opera then I listen to it several times othervise not. Yes several listenings pay both to hear something I like several times and in some cases the appreciation of the opera becomes larger.


The first forum meet up I went to was for _Les Troyens_ at ROH. It wasn't an opera I knew and after the first listen I didn't like it at all and said to the others that I'd meet up with them but I couldn't possibly sit through 4½ hours of _that_! But I decided to persevere and forced myself to listen over and over again and I fell in love with it. I did see it at ROH and we had a superb time.

It has subsequently become one of my favourite operas.


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

The Conte said:


> I find this quite sad, whilst some music is so intellectual it can only be understood after a few listenings, much music works on a number of levels and I think a lot of opera is incredibly tuneful. Verdi held back the music for 'La donna e' mobile' until the last moment as he wanted it to be a surprise for his audience. He knew that the gondoliers would all be singing his 'hit' tune and everybody would know the tune before the premiere of the opera. At that point in his career Verdi believed that if the simple shoe shine boys couldn't whistle his melodies after one hearing, then he had failed.
> 
> Perhaps opera in Italy was the 'musical' of the 19th century!
> 
> N.


Interesting that you mention _Rigoletto_. A colleague of mine, an opera virgin, asked to go with me to an opera and as she'd heard of _Rigoletto_ she thought it was a good one to start with.

I loaned her this










and suggested she listen in her car and just become familiar with it before we went. She did and also read the synopsis.

She loved it and loved the fact that the music was familiar.


----------



## KRoad (Jun 1, 2012)

Music is for me too is unquestionably the most important element of an opera. 

As a songwriter though, it is very interesting for me to listen to how a given composer has musically interpreted different dramatic aspects, moods, shades of meaning in the libretto. E.g. Handel's/Mozart's et al. word painting in the form of descending chromatic scales as characters make their descent into Hades, etc. Though this may come across as a little cheesy at times, it nontheless adds an extra dimension to it all.

In terms of allocating importance for the over all appreciation of an opera, the visual aspect for me is generally the least important. The power of one's own imagination seems far greater than the ability of a given director or actors on the stage to interpret it in any one particular way. In a way this is not dissimilar to the experience one encounters upon seeing the film version of a novel one has especially enjoyed only to feel let down in the cinema. Of course, there are exceptions to this as well where the reverse is true.


----------



## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Don Fatale said:


> Sadly Conte, I fear you've chosen the exception to the rule as your example.
> 
> If we didn't enjoy an opera more through subsequent listens, then we'd probably not be fans of opera. Do you really not think it repays repeat listens, or have I missed your point?


You've missed my point. Although I like to go to see operas 'blind', if I like an opera, then I will certainly want to hear the music again. I have been listening to opera for 25 years and I now know the most commonly performed works as well as quite a few rarities (especially by composers I like). I now find I can go to even the most complex and puzzling music and know first time round whether it's something that I will enjoy after repeated listening.

I don't think Verdi is the only opera composer who wrote 'easy on the ear' tunes. Carmen, Magic Flute and the operas of Rossini and Donizetti all contain music that an opera beginner shouldn't find problematic.

N.


----------



## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

sospiro said:


> Interesting that you mention _Rigoletto_. A colleague of mine, an opera virgin, asked to go with me to an opera and as she'd heard of _Rigoletto_ she thought it was a good one to start with.
> 
> I loaned her this
> 
> ...


Different strokes... On this forum somebody has posted about their first opera experience seeing Madama Butterfly and how powerful it was as they didn't know the ending. I'm a big fan of narrative both direct and abstract and so I like to avoid 'spoilers'. There are some operas/composers where I might listen to the music (but not the libretto) before seeing them (Berlioz amongst them).

N.


----------



## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

sospiro said:


> The first forum meet up I went to was for _Les Troyens_ at ROH. It wasn't an opera I knew and after the first listen I didn't like it at all and said to the others that I'd meet up with them but I couldn't possibly sit through 4½ hours of _that_! But I decided to persevere and forced myself to listen over and over again and I fell in love with it. I did see it at ROH and we had a superb time.
> 
> It has subsequently become one of my favourite operas.


That is you.
Remember how an other user in another thread said he had listened through Tristan und Isolde six times and still did not like it except for some parts. I thought stop torturing yourself and listen to something you like instead.


----------



## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Sloe said:


> That is you.
> Remember how an other user in another thread said he had listened through Tristan und Isolde six times and still did not like it except for some parts. I thought stop torturing yourself and listen to something you like instead.


Yes, but at least he gave it a thorough chance. He can now say with confidence that it isn't his cup of tea. I did the same with Ariadne auf Naxos (which is possibly my least favourite opera) I listened to it through (on a number of different recordings) and I've seen it twice, I like the prologue, but the very long second half bores me rotten.

Dialogues of the Carmelites was one that I had to listen to a few times before I liked it (and now I love it). Therefore it is definitely worth giving a work a chance.

N.


----------



## Dongiovanni (Jul 30, 2012)

I always start listening until I get acquinted with the music, and this takes most of the 'studying' time. Only later I dive into the action and libretto and finally I try to watch a DVD from start to finish, but sadly I don't have much time to do this, listening is just more convenient. In opera music is the most important to me.


----------



## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

KRoad said:


> No libretto = none satisfying/fulfilling/complete operatic experience.


I'm my earlier days, I was a "the music ought to communicate the story regardless of the language" kind of opera-goer, but now I'm a full-fledged libretto reader. My routine:

1.) Scan the horizon to see what local or destination operas are likely candidates for the coming months.

2.) Scan the semi-organized shelves of my significant other's semi-inherited CD collection for the desired title. (~80% probability at least one version will be there.) Snatch the libretto.

3.) Read the background and historical notes in the CD libretto.

4.) Read Act I in the original language column of the libretto (Italian/French/German titles only) leaning heavily on the translation as needed. For Russian, Czech, Farsi, and others: it's not gonna happen, skip to step 10.

5.) Find the most interesting version of the full opera on youtube. Follow along closely with the libretto.

6.) Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the remaining acts.

7.) Listen to the audio CD during daily commute and become disheartened at how amazingly little of the libretto vocabulary from the previous night actually stuck.

8.) If times allows, repeat steps 5 and 6, maybe with a different video version for variety.

9.) Head to the opera house, doing last minute cramming on my favorite arias and scenes.

10.) Curtain up! Relax, focus, and enjoy. Revel in the music and the emotion and become encouraged and grateful at how much of the libretto vocabulary actually stuck.


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Cavaradossi said:


> I'm my earlier days, I was a "the music ought to communicate the story regardless of the language" kind of opera-goer, but now I'm a full-fledged libretto reader. My routine:
> 
> 1.) Scan the horizon to see what local or destination operas are likely candidates for the coming months.
> 
> ...


:clap:

Brilliant!!

I love (7)!! I think I might try your method of trying to learn an Act at a time rather than the whole thing at one go.


----------

