# Are you a fan of opera?



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

A poll to assess TC's standing on this topic.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I voted A Little for right now. I enjoy Bartok's and Debussy's of the ones I've heard thus far.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Yes! About 95% of my classical listening is opera.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

But choral music seems to do it for me. For example, I enjoy Mozart's Great C-Minor Mass and Requiem Mass. I also enjoy Bach's Masses (St. Matthew's Passion to exemplify).

Gregorian Chants are beautiful to my ears!


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I like opera (from Weber onward), but it is still in terms of percentage not a major genre in my listening time.


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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

If singers didn't use so much vibrato it would help - for me, it can all sound a bit crazy.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Art Rock said:


> I like opera (from Weber onward), but it is still in terms of percentage not a major genre in my listening time.


Pretty much the same here, except I have no opera which predates Mozart. I have to be in a particular mood to enjoy opera, but when I do it tends to lead to an extended burst over the course of a week or so. On the other hand, I can go months without listening to any opera at all.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

I like opera on recording far more than live. I can hear the greatest voices and performers of the past. I can take a break between acts. Often with live opera I find myself thinking more about the lousy, inappropriate stage design than listening. And I can afford it! Going to the opera live at the Met is expensive.

And, I like operas post-Mozart (can't stand any of them) up through Strauss, Zemlinsky, Korngold, Schrecker, Prokofieff, Shostakovich and that's about it, maybe a couple by Menotti. Most modern opera composers can't write tunes. Still learning to appreciate Verdi.


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## Guest (Jul 27, 2019)

The range of options is too limited. If there was a category "_More than a little but not a big fan_", this would have suited me best of all. Since there isn't such a category, I voted for "little".

I'm happy listening to opera from all periods: Monteverdi, Purcell, Handel, Mozart, Wagner, Verdi, Puccini, Webern, Bartok, Adams, to name just some of the main composers.

In most cases I'm only interested in the highlights. By this I don't mean simply a few of the most popular items, but I include all the main orchestral components, arias and duets. I dislike the recitative of pre Wagner opera, so all that gets the chop by me. With Wagner, I only like the trimmed down highlight CDs, as the full works are far long for my attention span, and they a lot contain material that doesn't appeal.

Opera doesn't form a major part of my listening, probably no more than about 5% on average in a typical week. I'm not bothered about collecting umpteen different versions of the same work. I aim for a good one and leave it that. I'm not well enough acquainted with the subject of opera, or sufficiently interested in the plots etc, to have more than a brief discussion with any devoted opera fan.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Partita said:


> The range of options is too limited. If there was a category "_More than a little but not a big fan_", this would have suited me best of all. Since there isn't such a category, I voted for "little".
> 
> I'm happy listening to opera from all periods: Monteverdi, Purcell, Handel, Mozart, Wagner, Verdi, Puccini, Webern, Bartok, Adams, to name just some of the main composers.
> 
> ...


Consider "A Little" to cover all grey area responses and the yes and no to be 100% answers.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

You qualify your response with a response in the thread, that's how we make this a discussion!


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## WildThing (Feb 21, 2017)

It's one of my favorite art forms, and I always make a point of attending at least one or two live operas every year.


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

Your poll is kind of meaningless. You can look at Current Listening or the Opera forum to get a sense of how much interest there is on TC which is quite a lot in my opinion. I listen to at least one opera every weekend which is when I have the time to devote to it. When I could afford it I went to several live performances a year. And to me, Opera and Choral writing are two distinct mediums with little in common though there is some lovely choral work contained within some operas.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I like Puccini. That's pretty much it for me, other than a stray aria here or there.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

With great singing, I love it. With mediocre singing - which it usually gets - I can still enjoy it as theater but don't care to listen to it on recordings. The human voice can be the best of all instruments, or the worst.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

D Smith said:


> Your poll is kind of meaningless. You can look at Current Listening or the Opera forum to get a sense of how much interest there is on TC which is quite a lot in my opinion. I listen to at least one opera every weekend which is when I have the time to devote to it. When I could afford it I went to several live performances a year. And to me, Opera and Choral writing are two distinct mediums with little in common though there is some lovely choral work contained within some operas.


I think it'll be interesting to see the numbers. A Little and Yes are neck in neck, which is surprising to me. I thought it would lean heavily to yes.


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## ECraigR (Jun 25, 2019)

I’m a big lover of opera. I have been since I was a teenager. Probably 50% of listening, on average, is opera.


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## MrMeatScience (Feb 15, 2015)

I love watching opera, but I rarely just listen to it. Losing the staging robs it of a big part of what it is as an art form -- although I can think of a few productions I've seen where I would have had a higher opinion had I not seen it... Like some others here, though, opera before Mozart, with just a few exceptions, is a major blindspot for me. Anyone have any baroque opera they would recommend to someone with only cursory familiarity with that repertoire?


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

I also voted a little. I've seen a half-dozen in my life onstage, a few more on TV, and own a similar number of recordings with bleeding chunks or selections from operas. I do not own a full recording of an opera though I have in the past. I will occasionally watch the closing scene from Don Giovanni or opening scene from Otello on YouTube but nothing else.

The people I know that love opera don't seem to have the same love for the rest of the world of classical music. And it is rare for me to find someone that wallows in that big world that also loves opera.


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## Kollwitz (Jun 10, 2018)

I answered yes due to enthusiasm for it, but should maybe have put a little due to a rather narrow range. Opera has been a relatively recent discovery on my classical music journey. Preferred instrumental music very strongly at first, finding voices distracting. Got into Wagner, from a Brucknerian beginning, and then started to appreciate the fusion of music, libretto, story and voices. Have only listened to a few operas properly (Tristan, Ring, Parsifal, Meistersinger, Don Giovanni, Zauberflote) but have listened to them fairly intensely and they are amongst my very favourite works. Have just bought a recording of Norma as the start of exploring Italian opera.

In the past I had been quite dismissive of opera, viewing the plots as trite and the singing as overly mannered. I now realise the error of my ways. Once I approached it on its own terms, rather than unfavourably comparing it to late 20th century novels and film, its ability to address fundamental human questions in a unique and profound way became apparent. It is this quality that makes opera challenging: by engaging one is forced to reflect on one's own life, loves, values and character. Instrumental music can seem like an escape from the quotidian, whereas opera is a more raw distillation of humanity.

As an aside, opera threads on here have been enlightening.


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## Clouds Weep Snowflakes (Feb 24, 2019)

While there isn't a type of Classical music I don't like, opera for me is one of the better ones, I especially liked Rimsky-Korsakov; I had the previledge to attend the opera "The tale of tsar Saltan" with my mother on June 2018.


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## NightHawk (Nov 3, 2011)

I'm a retired instrumental musician, but my listening habits are all over the map. Over the last 20 years opera has figured much more heavily in my CD collection. Not just Golden Age opera, but also Monteverdi thru Alban Berg. Have acquired Dvorak's 'Rusalka' recently and am not surprised that it is so very beautiful.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

Live yes, recorded no. Either way, I'd rather listen to orchestral music.


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## AeolianStrains (Apr 4, 2018)

I do have a couple opera CDs, but honestly like many here I'd rather watch it live or at least on DVD.


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## Harmonie (Mar 24, 2007)

I can handle some Baroque opera and bits and pieces from later operas, so I voted "a little bit". Overall, I'm not a fan of opera. When my local classical station plays operas (which they do on Saturdays around noon) it usually gets turned off. I'm very picky on opera.


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## howlingfantods (Jul 27, 2015)

Vast majority of my music listening for the past decade or so.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I voted No. Apart from lieder its my least favourite type of classical music.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

Sid James said:


> I voted No. Apart from lieder its my least favourite type of classical music.


I love opera - but try at all costs to avoid lieder except maybe a few Mozart songs I like.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

Yes for me - opera is the pinnacle of classical music. Wish I could spend all my spare time at the opera.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Yes I enjoy opera but view it purely as entertainment. It is after all a ridiculous art form where people sing rather than speak and where consumptive heroines manage to give forth mighty unlikely farewells. However, when it is well done and well sung, it can provide a great even of entertainment. Mozart and Verdi knew how to do it best. And I'm just discovering how good Handel is!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

DavidA said:


> Yes I enjoy opera but view it purely as entertainment. It is after all a ridiculous art form where people sing rather than speak and where consumptive heroines manage to give forth mighty unlikely farewells. However, when it is well done and well sung, it can provide a great even[ing?] of entertainment.


Opera is no more ridiculous than other art forms. If sung dialogue makes a play ridiculous then so does Shakespearean verse.

The word "art" is the root of "artifice" and "artificial." Art presents a parallel reality; it does not look like real life, and precisely by _not_ doing so is able to take us outside our everyday consciousness into a realm of great expressive intensity and, sometimes, profundity. Like other arts, opera has things, sometimes deeply stirring things, to say. It can be merely entertaining, or it can achieve a good deal more than that.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Do you like opera?


Definitely. I'm far from being an expert in music, and there are many famous works in the genre that I've never heard, or at least not in it's entirety, but still, some of the most powerful and expressive music I know come from operas. Most of the time I just listen to them instead of seeing them staged, for I like to stir my imagination and hate with fervor modern productions of non-modern operas.

Although I firmly believe that the "golden years" of the genre occurred in Romanticism, I can enjoy operas from other periods, including those from the Baroque era which, in my opinion, are somewhat underrated.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

stomanek said:


> I love opera - but try at all costs to avoid lieder except maybe a few Mozart songs I like.


I found one lieder that I actually like--Schubert's Winterreise.


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## samm (Jul 4, 2011)

It seems popular in the poll. I didn't expect that. I can listen to it as isolated works, single arias and so forth, but on the whole I do not like it. I also don't fall into line with the common claim that the voice is the 'greatest of all instruments'. I don't believe any other 'instrument' divides listeners more sharply than singing.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

I would risk the anger of non opera fans who prize live performances of orch concerts for example.

I find home listening perfectly satisfactory for listening to orchestral, chamber etc.

But nothing can even approach a live opera performance - being there and experiencing the opera, in my view - far more important than for other forms. It is a visual treat as well as the music. Watching rows of string players sweating and sawing away doesn't do anything for me - and pumping brass looks like just hard work. 

But opera is a real spectacle and top class art.

People get fed up with recitative on CD - I understand - but I dont think you would get fed up if you were there 5 rows from the front and you are following the dialogue - which then adds sense and meaning to the musical number coming next.

I never like paying big money to see orch concerts - like £80 to hear a big name performer - I begrudge it. But I dont begrudge paying £200+ for a top class opera.


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## Joe B (Aug 10, 2017)

When I was in 8th grade my music teacher asked me if I wanted to go on a field trip to the Met. This was in 1967 or 1968 (don't remember what time of the school year it was) and the Met in NYC was new (I believe it was their 2nd season). My teacher was going to take a dozen students, but only 8 students took him up on the offer.

The opera we would be attending was "Carmen". I was on a high just walking into the opera house, dazzled by its splendor. When the opera started I was blown away. It was the most magnificent spectacle I had ever witnessed. It was also the only live performance I have ever attended.

*Do I like opera?*

I think I do. I love listening to compilations of opera arias sung by various artists on CD. If I lived in a city with an opera house, I believe I would be a devotee of opera. I know opera performances can be purchased on blu-ray, but to date I have been a hold out. In all truthfulness, the musical highlights of various operas are enough to quench my desire.....at this time.


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## Duncan (Feb 8, 2019)

_Non mi piace l'opera...

Mi piace un sacco!

Tuttavia, dopo aver detto che...

Registrazioni d'opera con libretti? Sì, certo, sono affascinanti.

Registrazioni d'opera senza libretti? No, certo che no, sono troppo frustranti.

Chi diavolo può dire cosa sta succedendo?

Chi è?

Dove siamo?

E così via e così via...
_

Or put another way -

_Ich mag keine Oper...

Ich liebe es!

Allerdings, nachdem sie gesagt haben, dass...

Opernaufnahmen mit Libretti? Ja, natürlich sind sie faszinierend.

Opernaufnahmen ohne Libretti? Nein, ganz sicher nicht, sie zu frustrierend.

Wer zum Teufel kann sagen, was los ist?

Wer ist das?

Wo sind wir?

Und so weiter und so weiter...

_


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I voted "A Little" which doesn't mean I go for highlights or Aria compilations. I prefer the full story but I'm not interested in vocal gymnastics and shrieking sopranos, so I choose carefully before I make a purchase.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

starthrower said:


> I voted "A Little" which doesn't mean I go for highlights or Aria compilations. I prefer the full story but I'm not interested in vocal gymnastics and shrieking sopranos, so I choose carefully before I make a purchase.


Then Wagner, Janacek and Strauss are for you.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

Joe B said:


> When I was in 8th grade my music teacher asked me if I wanted to go on a field trip to the Met. This was in 1967 or 1968 (don't remember what time of the school year it was) and the Met in NYC was new (I believe it was their 2nd season). My teacher was going to take a dozen students, but only 8 students took him up on the offer.
> 
> The opera we would be attending was "Carmen". I was on a high just walking into the opera house, dazzled by its splendor. When the opera started I was blown away. It was the most magnificent spectacle I had ever witnessed. It was also the only live performance I have ever attended.
> 
> ...


after such an experience I am surprised you never attended another live performance


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## Gallus (Feb 8, 2018)

I'm a fan. There are very few other forms of art which are so passionate or so overflowing with emotional affect for me. I only regret that I haven't seen or listened to as many operas as I would like, finding them a significant commitment to sit down and go through with attention (moreso than say a symphony).

I think everyone should watch Carmen at least once.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Itullian said:


> Then Wagner, Janacek and Strauss are for you.


Except possibly _Elektra_, which has _two_ shrieking sopranos.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I have several operas by Wagner, Janacek, Britten, and a number of Russian operas.


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## Guest (Jul 29, 2019)

The results so far in this poll show that a little over 60% have answered "Yes" to the question. 

It could be that some people say they like opera but it may not be their favourite genre. I'd be surprised if more than about 20% of typical respondents would say that opera is their favourite genre.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Woodduck said:


> With great singing, I love it. With mediocre singing - which it usually gets - I can still enjoy it as theater but don't care to listen to it on recordings. The human voice can be the best of all instruments, or the worst.


I was thinking of this comment last night and wondering about it. There seem to be a lot of very affordable recordings of most of the top flight operas with excellent (I don't know if I would often say "great") singers. It is true that a 100% good cast is not that common, though. Maybe you are setting the bar very high? I love great singing, of course, and there are some voices that I just can't take but in general I may not be that fussy. Could you give some examples?


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

Partita said:


> The results so far in this poll show that a little over 60% have answered "Yes" to the question.
> 
> *It could be that some people say they like opera but it may not be their favourite genre. I'd be surprised if more than about 20% of typical respondents would say that opera is their favourite genre.*


I wouldn't be surprised at all

Could be as high as 35%


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

_But nothing can even approach a live opera performance - being there and experiencing the opera, in my view - far more important than for other forms. It is a visual treat as well as the music._

Because the forces are so great for opera this is most meaningful -- but I think it is true for everything else too. In a concert performance the music is being made for you regardless of the number of players or type of music. It is created in your presence.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

larold said:


> _But nothing can even approach a live opera performance - being there and experiencing the opera, in my view - far more important than for other forms. It is a visual treat as well as the music._
> 
> Because the forces are so great for opera this is most meaningful -- but I think it is true for everything else too. In a concert performance the music is being made for you regardless of the number of players or type of music. It is created in your presence.


yes but the presence and actions of the performers conveys little compared with opera. Wear and blindfold and the effect would be little different - unless you get something from watching a conductor jump up and down and wave his arms


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

It's a pretty small portion of my listening. I rarely listen to recordings of operas. I've seen all of Mozart's major operas at least once, _Tannhauser_ and _Das Rheingold_, _Lulu_, _Carmen_, _Die Frau ohne Schatten_, and _Satyagraha_. I may be forgetting one or two. There hasn't been any particular design in my choices.

My hot take, which I don't voice often because it can only anger people, is that insofar opera is an attempt to meld drama and music into a greater whole, the entire art form is mostly a failure. But the music often is really great!


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

Oh yes! When my beloved Attila is starting, I turn the volume all up and I try to imitate Christina! :lol: It is the time the police comes to pick me up! :lol:


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Enthusiast said:


> I was thinking of this comment last night and wondering about it. There seem to be a lot of very affordable recordings of most of the top flight operas with excellent (I don't know if I would often say "great") singers. It is true that a 100% good cast is not that common, though. Maybe you are setting the bar very high? I love great singing, of course, and there are some voices that I just can't take but in general I may not be that fussy. Could you give some examples?


Examples of great singing? Sure.


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## NightHawk (Nov 3, 2011)

Re Art Songs - suggest: Schubert _Wintereise_, with Matthias Goerne, baritone and Christoph Eschenbach, piano.


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## Swosh (Feb 25, 2018)

Wagner has opened an entire new world to me...


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

51 % says yes, so the yes have it.


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## KRoad (Jun 1, 2012)

It is easily my favourite genre!

I prefer to listen on CD having first read through the libretto two or three times and researched into the background to the opera. I also read selected commentaries and critiques of the opera in question both from a musicolgical perspective and also about the qualities (or lack there of) of the particular recording.

The the more effort you put into becoming familiar with an opera, the more you get out of.

Live opera is always a treat (Berlin being a city providing many such treat opportunities) though not always a delight, unfortunately. I must say that I find the minds eye infinately more powerful than many stage renderings I have seen - hence my preference for CD recordings _with libretto_.

On the subject of libretti, while these days one can purchase many good box sets of opera by composer at a reasonable price, a significant number do not include libretti either "e" or on paper. Avoid these. An opera recording that does not include a libretto is not recommended under any circumstances. Generally, only a limited number of the better known opera libretti can be found on the internet - so no solution here.

The down side, I suppose, to opera is the significant amount of time all this requires.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I don't "like " opera . I freakin ' love it !


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Not much of a fan.

While I can completely appreciate the immense skill that is required, I am not a fan of the genre.

However, I do like a fair amount of classical with vocals and chorus.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

Simon Moon said:


> Not much of a fan.
> 
> While I can completely appreciate the immense skill that is required, I am not a fan of the genre.
> 
> However, *I do like a fair amount of classical with vocals and chorus*.


Thats as irrelevant as me saying I love opera but cant stand lieder or madrigals.

the question relates to opera


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

I used to dislike it years ago as a listening experience, until Lalo, Bellini, Offenbach and F. David changed my mind.

It is best served live, where you can actually _see _the story. I recently saw _Die Tote Stadt_ and it was a lot of fun.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

^
^

I'm the opposite - as with ballet I prefer to sit at home and imagine the action in my mind's eye. One advantage I find with this is that I can avoid the more ridiculous trappings of _regietheater_.


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## asiago12 (May 2, 2019)

Most of the times operas have beautiful music ...........and don't forget that a nice voice is music


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