# A Resolution I've Come To (That I'm Not Entirely Comfortable With)



## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I bought the Maria Callas EMI box set a while back and patiently ripped it and put it into my music server. But I have yet to listen to a single note. It's not that I don't love opera. It's that I have pretty much moved on past the CD format for opera. I can't bring myself to sit down with a libretto in my lap and listen to opera on CD any more. I enjoy blurays of opera much more. I look at the hundreds and hundreds of operas on CD that I own and I really feel bad. But I just can't bring myself to listen to them any more. I keep buying blurays, and I've resolved to not buy any more operas unless they are video.

...if I can resist that bargain priced EMI complete Verdi box set...


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

bigshot said:


> I bought the Maria Callas EMI box set a while back and patiently ripped it and put it into my music server. But I have yet to listen to a single note. It's not that I don't love opera. It's that I have pretty much moved on past the CD format for opera. I can't bring myself to sit down with a libretto in my lap and listen to opera on CD any more. I enjoy blurays of opera much more. I look at the hundreds and hundreds of operas on CD that I own and I really feel bad. But I just can't bring myself to listen to them any more. I keep buying blurays, and I've resolved to not buy any more operas unless they are video.
> 
> ...if I can resist that bargain priced EMI complete Verdi box set...


But that means you are missing out on so many great performances from the past.


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## dionisio (Jul 30, 2012)

So...are you thinking about selling them?


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## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

I am not very knowledgable or experienced about opera at all, so what I say counts for very little, but what I like to do is have the operas I have on cd on dvds as well. When I listen to them on cd, I don't follow the libretto or anything, just listen to the music, not always with full concentration (say in the background while working). But this means that when I come to watch them on dvd again I am more familiar with the music and hopefully enjoy it more. I guess this isn't a great way to treat the great recordings of the past, but with my whippersnapper ways, I enjoy watching them on dvd more, and it is a way of enjoying the music more and more often.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

dionisio said:


> So...are you thinking about selling them?


seconded. If you're ready to ebay them, let us know. I bet you've got some out of print stuff


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

Opera is a visual media, just like Shakespeare is. Shakespeare wasn't meant to be read just as opera wasn't meant to be merely listened to (unless you got really cheap seats). It is perhaps a strange holdover from a time of more primitive recordings that opera has been mostly enjoyed blind. That said the visuals usually bore me during opera if I watch it on video and I tend to tune out and just listen to it anyway. It is surprising so few actual opera movies are made rather than just filmed stage performances.


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## sharik (Jan 23, 2013)

bigshot said:


> I have pretty much moved on past the CD format for opera


to be honest i've never listened to opera on cd, i only watch opera on video.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

moody said:


> But that means you are missing out on so many great performances from the past.


I know... I need to find another way to listen to opera besides sitting with the libretto with total focus on creating the drama in my head. I've always resisted "backgrounding" opera, because drama is such a big part of it, but I get so much more out of the drama on the screen with subtitles.

I might try setting my opera iTunes library on random play by album and have it play operas from beginning to end one after another throughout the day. That's what I do with orchestral music and I love it. I'll have to see if I can appreciate it just as pure music.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

quack said:


> It is surprising so few actual opera movies are made rather than just filmed stage performances.


I agree that is the best even with lipsyncing. Losey's Don Giovanni is coming out soon on bluray with a restored 5:1 soundtrack taken from the original 16 track masters. That one is going to be great. I also love Domingo in Zefferelli's La Traviata. Are there any other filmed operas I should check out?


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

deggial said:


> seconded. If you're ready to ebay them, let us know. I bet you've got some out of print stuff


The vultures are circling! (Smiley here)

I can't ever seem to part with any of my libraries. That's why my house is so packed from wall to wall. However, I am looking for people who would be willing to participate in an offsite backup program with me. I'm always afraid my house might burn down and my years and years of collecting and ripping would go up in smoke. It would be good to have a safety copy of it somewhere else for safekeeping. I'd be willing to store a backup for others in exchange.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

I have to smile when I read the posts on this thread.
When i started taking an interest in vocal music the records were made of very heavy,highly breakable vinyl and the 12" disc played for five minutes per side so you can work out how many discs you would need for your favourite opera, 
As for information,the sleeves were cardboard and the only information on them was the name of the retailer.
When I was eleven I went to the cinema and saw the Mario Lanza film "The Great Caruso"...that was it!!
I had heard arias but often didn't know what they were all about. There were no second hand shops locally, so I used to jump on a steam train up to London and visit the famous Foyle's bookshop
There you found thousands of second-hand 78's at a few pence each,I swear I used to choose by labels that attracted me--labels were very attractive then.
I was fortunate in that I had an uncle who was a music critic and through him I met many well-known artists, this meant I could ask questions.
The next landmark was the film of the 1953 Salzburg "Don Giovanni" conducted by Furtwaengler with Cesare Siepi,Elisabeth Grummer,Lisa della Casa,Erna Berger,etc.
It haunted me for years but now I have it on DVD.
There are two different types of people as far as opera is concerned,those who want to see the opera and those who want to devour it .I want to know what every famous singer back to the beginning of recording did with that opera and I also wanted to know the correct way to sing that opera---and now I do.
But it has taken so long and most people won't behave that way,only with their hobbies be they stamp collectors or model soldier collectors.I bought books,listened to the BBC's wonderful Third Programme (now BBC 3) and bought libretti.
In those days the Gramophone Magazine was magnificent,their critics are now legendary and they taught me a lot.
By the way DVDs are a mixed blessing,there aren't many Frederica von Stade's or Franco Corelli's about.
I remember an "Aida" where Pavarotti and Margaret Price could not embrace due to their girth,they tried to do it sideways--if you know what I mean.
Also Pavarotti did not make a very good callow youth as Nemerino,nothing wrong with the singing.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Back in the day, imagination was required.


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

Vaneyes said:


> Back in the day, imagination was required.


Back in the day before wax cylinders and such, if you wanted to hear an opera you had to go to the theater and look at the damn thing anyway. So we are really coming full circle.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

bigshot said:


> It would be good to have a safety copy of it somewhere else for safekeeping. I'd be willing to store a backup for others in exchange.


that's a great idea


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## dionisio (Jul 30, 2012)

Yeah...but about selling? None at all? Oh well...

Honestly i go for the CD myself. Not because i don't have a DVD player nor a fancy TV. I just prefer to imagine how the _mise en scene_ would be.

It's like reading a book or seeing the film. I prefer always the book.

I hope someday to be able to read music sheet well enough to explore countless operas that have not yet been recorded.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

bigshot said:


> I bought the Maria Callas EMI box set a while back and patiently ripped it and put it into my music server. But I have yet to listen to a single note. It's not that I don't love opera. It's that I have pretty much moved on past the CD format for opera. I can't bring myself to sit down with a libretto in my lap and listen to opera on CD any more. I enjoy blurays of opera much more. I look at the hundreds and hundreds of operas on CD that I own and I really feel bad. But I just can't bring myself to listen to them any more. I keep buying blurays, and I've resolved to not buy any more operas unless they are video.
> 
> ...if I can resist that bargain priced EMI complete Verdi box set...


I'm with Moody in that if you by-pass all but videos of productions you will miss out on a trove of brilliant and moving performances of the past.

Having just had the pleasure of attending a really fine "La Boheme" and realizing that in the theater, I could more than 'take Puccini' while out of it I could / would not, that for a lot of 'great operas' the listen alone is just not enough. This could account for my having only a handful of operas I care to listen to on recordings, i.e. the music alone is enough to hold my interest throughout.

What that may say of all the others I would not sit through without 'the stage / the story' I don't really know, or care enough, maybe. I do love the human voice, but too, am not too thrilled with all the repertoire for it. Some measure of degree of what floats your boat will help you decide what you want to do. I'd think that would include listening to some CD's, whether for one particular singer, overall performance.... So recently reminded myself in 'being at the opera', that only confirms "there is nothing like the full operatic affair." ...so I find your thoughts on it more than reasonable while I wonder if their is a good video of Boris Gudunov with all or most of the choruses, or what could 'replace' some of those older recordings, audio only, with the great voices and performances.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

dionisio said:


> It's like reading a book or seeing the film. I prefer always the book. I hope someday to be able to read music sheet well enough to explore countless operas that have not yet been recorded.


Maybe you'd find you prefer the "book" of the opera better than hearing or seeing it performed!


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## dionisio (Jul 30, 2012)

bigshot said:


> Maybe you'd find you prefer the "book" of the opera better than hearing or seeing it performed!


Hehehe, yeah!, hearing and seeing opera is too mainstream! (A internet meme that young ones use nowadays)


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## sabrina (Apr 26, 2011)

I keep part of my ripped opera CDs on my iPhone, and I love to listen while I am away. Most of the time I listen to operas with Maria Callas. I also sometimes compare that audio with what I have on DVD. I have to say, the best Barbiere is the one on CD with Maria Callas, Tito Gobbi, the same goes for Rigoletto.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

bigshot said:


> I Are there any other filmed operas I should check out?


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## Guest (Jan 27, 2013)

bigshot said:


> I bought the Maria Callas EMI box set a while back and patiently ripped it and put it into my music server. But I have yet to listen to a single note. It's not that I don't love opera. It's that I have pretty much moved on past the CD format for opera. I can't bring myself to sit down with a libretto in my lap and listen to opera on CD any more. I enjoy blurays of opera much more. I look at the hundreds and hundreds of operas on CD that I own and I really feel bad. But I just can't bring myself to listen to them any more. I keep buying blurays, and I've resolved to not buy any more operas unless they are video.
> 
> ...if I can resist that bargain priced EMI complete Verdi box set...


Now I understand ............................................


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## Hesoos (Jun 9, 2012)

I watch opera on dvd in my livingroom when I have free time. I sit in my rockingchair with my headphones. 
I listen to opera on cd (sometimes with the libretto) when I go to work by subway.
I listen to opera on cd when I am cooking, or doing something. In this case, I put my cd's on the compter, and I select with my computer the best songs of each opera and I listen my selections of arias on mp3 (this is sometimes hard work, I have in my computer hundreds of my own selected highlights)

If in the evening I watch on dvd Rigoletto with Alfredo Kraus, tomorrow in the morning I listen on mp3 Rigoletto with Pavarotti.

I do prefer the dvd's, but the cd's are really handy when I can't sit and I have something to do.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

Hesoos said:


> I listen to opera on cd when I am cooking, or doing something.


cooking, doing the dishes or any other boring house work  it also makes commuting faster. To be fair, I rip all my CDs to the hard drive as soon as I get them and from there they get their turn on my phone. However, this reminded me I had a Magic Flute CD in this very computer's disc drive....


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## Bill H. (Dec 23, 2010)

I have bought many operas not on CD but as downloads, and then listen to them on my phone's music player. In some cases will edit the files (especially for older recordings) to re-equalize them and even put in my own track splits, which I then re-rip to my phone or even to CDs for friends. I listen to the music in the car when commuting or taking long trips, when out walking the dog etc. I do tend to listen to many of them as "pure" music in the sense that I don't have the libretto handy with me, but in some cases I know the story line and the music well enough that I know what's going on. It's not always that I can listen to entire operas that way, but full Acts are certainly possible, and in any case it makes it more accessible to me than it would be trying to find time to sit in front of the stereo with the libretto in hand.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I guess I've never listened to opera as pure music or background music. I've only ever listened to it as drama with my full attention on it. I'll try backgrounding it and see how I like it.


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