Opera for beginners

[cahn]

My family's reunion, in a couple of weeks, involves powerpoint presentations, because we are total dweebs that way. I figured my PPT this time would be on opera, because, well. (My other thought was making it on teaching Sunday School, and I'm still thinking about it, but I think I'd have more trouble making it work and might need more time than I actually have to think about it properly. Doing opera requires much less hard thinking and a lot more pretty pictures.)

Questions for you:
-If you are NOT an opera fan: what would you like to know about opera? What would make you more likely to watch it?

-If you are not an opera fan, would you be willing to watch and/or listen to a couple of clips and tell me which one was most effective at holding your attention?

-Opera fans: I think I could show maybe one or two clips. What would be thirty-second-to-one-minute clips that would (a) be intriguing to a non-opera audience and (b) that I would have access to? (I have a somewhat embarrassingly large library of DVDs after this last year.) And (c) have English subtitles, which unfortunately takes out a large swath of Youtube videos. I'm thinking of the Met's English Magic Flute (but what part? "Hm!Hm!Hm!Hm!" maybe? Or the part where Papageno plays the bells?) and maybe the auto-da-fe scene from Don Carlo where Posa takes the sword (probably the version with Hampson and Kaufmann, they're such hams). I also wonder about a bit of Restate with Keenlyside and Furlanetto, but I think the auto-da-fe is more immediately accessible. Also I wonder about Onegin. Or maybe the scene where Figaro's parentage becomes known? I also might look for "trailer" clips.

-Same question for audio -- I'll be using my Opera in English CDs. I'm thinking maybe the Catalog aria from Don Giovanni (though it may be too salacious -- there are kids!) or something from Marriage of Figaro -- but what? I'd like an ensemble bit if possible. Maybe the quartet from Onegin?

-I thought I'd have a couple of one-sentence/one-phrase synopses that might convince people to go see opera:
Eugene Onegin: The jerk who totally blew you off when you were a geeky kid regrets it all when you grow up to be beautiful and glamorous
La Boheme: Broke artist friends hanging out together have a lot of fun (but also sometimes tragedy) - see also Rent
La Traviata: Your parent really doesn't like you dating the wonderful person you fell in love with! (yes, yes, I know, seekingferret)
Marriage of Figaro: Men are dumb and the aristocracy is dumb; male aristocrats who don't want to keep it in their pants are a lot of fun to outwit
Don Giovanni: The pitfalls of attempting to seduce every woman who comes your way as a life strategy
Don Carlo(s): ???? I do not know how to summarize this in one sentence, or even two. Being a prince whose dad hates him and also married his fiance can be tough! (That's not bad, except what about Posa????)

I feel like those six are probably the best for beginners. (And Magic Flute, of course.) Any other crowd-pleasers I should put in? (I still haven't seen Aida -- saving it as a treat after finishing Nirvana in Fire!)

(Hmm, maybe instead of a longer audio clip I'll just have very short audio clips for each of those.)

Comments

[jenett]

Coming at it from 'my father was a massive opera fan, and I was a music major, but I have fallen out of the habit" POV....

I think a "Here's some ways to find stuff to watch" would be really cool if you had suggestions on that.

I am also a huge fan of the Magic Flute. I adore the "Hmm, hmmm." bit, but I think doing a bit of the Queen of the Night aria (for sheer musical scope and vocal demands) or some other equivalent show piece is awesome.

(I have had fun showing people the performance clip from 5th Element, as a compare and contrast. The first part is from Lucia di Lammermoor, and the latter part was written to be digitially constructed, and designed to be technically impossible for someone to sing. Jane Zhang since has.)

[seekingferret]

-Opera fans: I think I could show maybe one or two clips.

I don't have a specific suggestion, I can think about it, but a general observation is that one of the things I've repeatedly observed that gives non-opera fans joy is seeing a piece of music they've absorbed in the pop culture via commercials/movies/whatever, actually in context. That "I recognize that music!" moment is something I've seen really make people smile.

[melita66]

My partner loves opera. I can appreciate it technically, but particularly don't want to watch the tragedies so maybe options for people who are open for anything and those who would prefer happier stories.

Movies that include opera bits like Amadeus or Topsy-Turvy.

I'd also thought of the queen of night aria which is currently being used in a a tv commercial (not sure for what!). Other arias that have been used in commercials or movies.

[primeideal]

Noob questions:

Do all operas have subtitles/ways to read along? Only the non-English ones?

Are there any operas that aren't about romance?

[thistleingrey]

+1 jenett's suggestion re: ways to find stuff to watch. Am not opera fan but know Some Things (another taint, hurray, but mostly I don't really enjoy that particular mode of vocal ... to me it scans as distortion).

I don't think that English subs are crucial, actually. There are translated libretti? In the moment, the viewer should focus on the performance as conveyed, IMO; if they want to look up what the lyrics mean, great, but there's power in a solid perf without it. Reading along can distract, I mean. Just my two cents.

[thistleingrey]

Umm, I was never much for Italian operas (I realize they're not monolithic), but seconding Figaro and Zauberflöte. Are you thinking mostly in terms of whole operas or bits people might recognize? For example, the prelude + Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde is recognizable, though I wouldn't necessarily rec the whole thing.

[iberiandoctor]

On Don Giovanni, I’ve always thought Là Ci Darem la Mano was instantly catchy and accessible. I think I linked you to the Hampson version, but here’s Keenlyside and Schafer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xfti-KQoxXM The concert staging makes it less creepy, imo, and Keenlyside is a gallant delight <3 No subtitles, alas!

On crowd-pleasers, you can’t get more crowd-pleasing than La Donna e Mobile. Now on ST:Voyager! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pN0HwG8LTp0

And on Carlo(s), I’m seconding the auto-da-fe, and would probably go with something like: It’s tough to be a prince who’s in love with his dad’s new wife, and also with his best friend (whom he thinks only loves Flanders)?

[nineveh_uk]

I thought I'd have a couple of one-sentence/one-phrase synopses that might convince people to go see opera:

As an opera fan whose favourite operas have plots (I find The Magic Flute is 4 minutes of awesome Queen of the Night and three hours of snooze), I think this is a really good idea. Because it is about story as well as music.

Tosca as an easy crowd-pleaser with some great tunes? In terms of "may have seen it elsewhere" there's that brilliant bit in the James Bond Quantum of Solace.

Or just show act 1 of Figaro :-)

[dariaw]

Carmen is a crowd pleaser

[melannen]

The main thing that's stopped me from really enjoying opera much is that there seems to be this style that a lot of classic opera is sung in that I really dislike, where the singers seem to depend on the *music* to convey all of the emotion, and don't put any emotion into their *voice*? Which I guess makes sense if you're singing to a packed house without a sound system: "loud and clear" is more important than "emotive". (Maybe that's not even a good way to describe what I don't like, I dunno. I first noticed it listening to old musical theater records, where you can really tell who trained as an opera singer because they don't bother to put any voice acting into the vocals, and when it's a mixed cast of opera-trained and vaudeville-trained singers it really stands out that the opera people can sing but not act and the vaudeville people's voices aren't spectacular, but they emote much better.)

I don't know if that's still as much of a thing in modern opera because I haven't gone looking much. But maybe finding some tracks that are sung in various different singing styles (not even just the styles I like! But a variety, to show off the music and the plots and not just the voices) would be helpful to draw people in.