Why should I like opera?

I always thought it was so boring...



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Wonder why some people listen to a lot of operas, like it has been forced to, that goes around telling it's wonderful, and continuously singing opera arias while walking, under the shower etc?
Is opera so beautiful?
Why someone deeply loves it and others deeply hate it?
Who's right and who's wrong? Wish I knew...
I think it's impossible to answer any of those questions, but I'll try to write down what opera means to me. Having another point of view you can compare with yours, it will be easier to find your answer to those questions.

One of the most frequent exceptions (and one of the older) made by those who can't bear the opera is lack of realism: for example, what does an opera character do if one of his kins dies, or if he is deserted by his lover or in short something bad happens to him? why, he starts singing an aria!
Maybe someone would prefere to see him striking the wall with his head (violence...) or tearing his hair, or flooding the stage with tears.
The fact is that in the opera realism is stylized. And opera itself, even verist opera, isn't realistic.
The main advantage given by music insertion in the opera is that music allows some sort of continuous comment to the text (and vice versa). There's another meaning line, that we can't find (or that we can find in a different form) in everyday's life.
While I'm angry, happy, desperate in real life, all sort of thoughts keep whirling in my head - and nobody can see it except me. But it's there, and an opera's musical part serves also this need: it makes it visible.
When Pamino enters on stage chased by the dragon at the beginning of Mozart's Magic Flute screaming "Zu Hilfe! Zu Hilfe! sonst bin ich verloren" - "Help! Help! I'm lost", in reality there wouldn't be about thirty musicians playing while he's fleeing (the dragon would leave Pamino's pursuit for a more sumptuous meal...), but those arpeggios, those fast descending scales that introduce this aria - even more effective because it starts ex abrupto - paint all of the excitement that makes his leg shiver, all of his accelerated heart beat (the couples of tied notes and the tremolos, in musicians jargon) that would not exist in a theatrical show.
"But even prose theatre has music..." Yes, but Pamino wouldn't be supposed to be singing! And we would lose that desperate scream in the middle of the line, rather it would be there, but it would be shouted, not sung on those precise notes Mozart chose on the basis of the ensemble of meanings that age's musical conventions set at his disposal.

Another exception is: opera is slow. That's only partly true, partly false, it depends on the point of view.
First of all not alla operas are "slow" - take any opera buffa between XVIII and XIX century (il Barbiere di Siviglia - the Barber of Seville, le Nozze di Figaro - the Marriage of Figaro are good examples) and you'll see an excited action, jokes following one another, cunnning, pranks and so on. Only to sum up Nozze di Figaro's plot a page wouldn't be enough!
Opera slowness - when it is present - can be cleared up because historically opera born as a series of recitatives and arias. I'll explain myself: a recitative is a dialogue, that serves the purpose of taking on dramatic action, while an aria is a sung piece where a character concentrates on one of his feelings.
Explanation is a little schematic, and this way of writing only lasted till XVIII century (also with a lot of changes), to become gradually less rigid with Verdi and mostly with Wagner. But when Verdi started composing this pattern was already tripartite - scene, aria, cabaletta - instead of being bipartite...
Anyway, this approximation makes evident that in the opera there are periods where, regarding drama, nothing happens: arias, cabalettas, but also preludes, overtures, orchestral interludes etc.
If you listen to an opera just for the plot, like you watch an action movie, then saying that opera is slow is perfectly right most of the time.
Opera becomes less slow when you start to guess that even where nothing seems to happen something indeed happens. The author comments, gives us clues - even false clues, elaborates, prepares. Even the sole musical comment should suffice - an aria is often only a few stanzas long, but can last for many minutes - it's only necessary to know how to understand it. And that's not an ability that can be gained instantly.

Briefly, a final point: often people that doesn't like opera has no idea of what he's talking about.
Maybe they think that, being operas fairly old stuff, they talk about things we can't be concerned about, that we cannot possibly find interesting.
They couldn't make a bigger mistake: opera mainly talks about human actions and passions, same things that movies those people loves talk about.
An example? La Traviata talks about a man who fell in love with a prostitute and how their love is inhibit by society. Doesn't that remind you Pretty Woman? I think so, and I also think that the director knew it, because when the two main characters in the movie go to the opera, they watch La Traviata.

I could keep on talking about impossible lovestories, perfidious jokes, enchanted castles, magical objects, magical spells, wars, battles, duels and more, but I think You'll want to uncover thos things all by yourself...
Good listening!

Paolo Del Lungo


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