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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not 'get' Opera?

176 replies

ChaosTrulyReigns · 09/05/2011 22:56

I like all sorts of music, but I really can not learn to appreciate the genre that I perceive as caterwauling.

Blush

Is this a life skill to be able to appreciate all things cultural?

Or am I just too young, and it's something I'll learn to enjoy as I drift slowly to my twiglet years?

Confused

Is there a starter for numpties?

OP posts:
IShallWearMidnight · 09/05/2011 23:24

My problem with opera is it's neither one thing nor the other. I like a good tune and I like a good drama, but when you have to have expositary (sp?) dialogue sung, it just makes me laugh and spoils the storyline. I took Mr IShall to see the Marriage of Figaro for his birthday one year, and still can't get over the length of time the characters spent "singing" to each other "who's in the wardrobe, shall we look in the wardrobe, where could he be, perhaps he's in the wardrobe, shall we look in the wardrobe...." in order to make it fit in with the music, when the whol "whos in the wardrobe" business could have been over and done with much quicker, and we could also have had a decent song.

In the interests of balance I also loathe the oratoria my choir does (religious opera without the acting and costumes).

I do enjoy musicals though which gets round the having to sing all the dialogue business.

But don't get me started on warbly sopranos - I thought I had found a sporano who's voice I liked, then discovered she's been developing her vibato Angry

MardyBra · 09/05/2011 23:25

Blush Mid 40s but I've loved opera since my 20s.

In fact, I got together with DH after I invited him along to a performance of Madame Butterfly. The performance was a little disappointing but DH wasn't!

MercurySoccer · 09/05/2011 23:27

Have you ever seen a live one, Chaos? By one of the top few professional opera companies in one of the best venues? Very different to hearing amateurs or recordings.

By the way, the singing technique developed so that the singers could be heard above an orchestra, because there were no microphones when opera was first invented.

FriedSpamButty · 09/05/2011 23:28

Thanks sleepingsowell I can remember sitting there and thinking 'this is so beautiful'. Sounds cheesy maybe but it just made me realise how much thought had gone into that production. It does sound cheesy but it really was beautiful.

I'm an opera convert now but Der Holle Rache will always be my favourite aria. I would possibly kill do bad things to be able to sing like that!

MavisEnderby · 09/05/2011 23:29

I qualify this by saying I have a very dramatic and eccentric French DGM who is a HUGE opera fan and my very happy childhood memories involve watching her cook spectacular dishes and talk nineteen to the dozen whilst listening to her favourite operatic pieces.I always thought it was screechy noise but have begun appreciating it recently and it always makes me think of her:)

lesley33 · 09/05/2011 23:30

My parents love opera and tried to foster a love of it in me as a child. I did enjoy going to operas as a child as they tended to take me to ones more suitable for children - so lots of fancy costumes and good set design. But as an adult, although I like small stretches of opera, I have no desire to ever go to or listen to an opera again.

YANBU as there are some things that as individuals we don't enjoy.
But YABU if you have haven't listened to or watched any operas. After all if you don't try something, you don't know if you will like it.

46 chaos

FriedSpamButty · 09/05/2011 23:32

Oh and I've no idea about regional opera - shameful as I'm in the same city as Opera North - but in the ROH they have subtitles above the stage for all operas sung in a foreign language.

MortenHasNiceShirts · 09/05/2011 23:33

FriedSpamButty - if you like Der Hölle Rache listen to one of the soprano bits from Thomas Adés' "The Tempest". The same kind of thing, but on steroids.

Age:21...

FriedSpamButty · 09/05/2011 23:34

Oooh I will Morten thanks

43

maighdlin · 09/05/2011 23:37

Opera is a very "marmite" thing. If you go to one there are two groups those enthralled and practically drooling and the fidgeters looking at their watches. I am in the former group. I have loved opera since i was a child. My parents don't like it I just remember hearing it on the radio and falling in love. I'm 23.

MadamDeathstare · 09/05/2011 23:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MortenHasNiceShirts · 09/05/2011 23:41
jellycat · 09/05/2011 23:43

I have been to lots of different operas (with an ex who was a fanatic) and couldn't bear any of them. The least bad was Handel's Xerxes. I just can't bear all the wailing. I am a singer and love choral music, particularly Anglican church music but operatic warbling? Bleurgh!

PaisleyLeaf · 09/05/2011 23:45

ewwww! at that youtube link. I couldn't sit through a performance of that squeaking.

FriedSpamButty · 09/05/2011 23:47

Thanks Morten Wow that really is the modern day version! Such awesome vocal skill and control. Amazing!

Rohanda · 09/05/2011 23:48

Opera can demand patience, if you don't get it immediatley. It can take a little actually listening to it (rather than just hearing it) and seeing how the voices can be fighting or blending in with the music to create a picture.

and just the acheivement of getting voices so trained to maintain notes and cadances for long times with no loss of power.

Big frocks, big voices. Love sex and death. What the feck more do you want??!!

TalcAndTurnips · 09/05/2011 23:50

How about starting off with some opera choruses, which may feel a little more approachable?

The sublime Humming Chorus from Madame Butterfly; Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Verdi's Nabucco; the Anvil Chorus from Verdi's La Trovatore are good sing-along examples.

It's always more interesting too if you know the story behind the opera and, more specifically, what they are actually singing. There is a production of Tosca with Placido Domingo, filmed on location with full subtitles:

Primlico · 09/05/2011 23:51

If you don't "get" opera, don't worry, very very few people do. You could say it is a dying artform, which is a shame, but time and culture move on. Having said that, it is fundamentally "music" and if you hear the right piece for you (a certain over-popular Pavarotti number come to mind) it can be incredible.

MortenHasNiceShirts · 09/05/2011 23:53

Even if you don't like opera, you have to agree that these sets are incredible:
presse.bregenzerfestspiele.com/en/kategorie/hauptmen/bregenz-festival/history?i=l2

MardyBra · 09/05/2011 23:54

Look at you not lurking, Talc!

By the way, I've noticed that you are a very proficient user of semi-colons - which I enjoy (having never really mastered the buggers myself - I do get the rules).

Sorry for the hijack.

MardyBra · 09/05/2011 23:54

Sorry, I missed out a bit of the last post. I get the rules, just don't apply them!

MadamDeathstare · 09/05/2011 23:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Rohanda · 09/05/2011 23:57

and here's a beautiful one sung in English, with the benefit of a young dancer/acrobat performing in a ring representing the moon.

It's called

samels001 · 10/05/2011 00:01

hi Chaos, as a previous poster said opera is so broad ranging from 16thC - upto yesterday so there will be at least one opera out there that you like!! I love opera but am not musical, but I love the theatre so for me I like really dramatic well staged opera.

I go to the English National Opera in London, where they sing in English (with surtitles still). They often do joint productions with Welsh National Opera. I love Handel (1710-1740-ish) - great arias, in fact so great that they sing them 5 or 6 times which is why handel operas can be quite long! I also love Verdi (Italian, mid-19thC) - Jonathan Miller (modern renaissance man) set Rigoletto in mafioso 1950-s New York and gosh does it work as a staging.

I got my Glyndebourne membership last year and love the whole occasion of posh picnicing, long dresses and great atmosphere! I've also been to see opera in a pub, so perhaps find a local company?

I don't like Puccini (far too fluffy) or Britten (tuneless to me!). I've been going about 15 years now and am 45.

mylovelymonster · 10/05/2011 00:01
may or may not knock your socks off. Always been one of my absolute favourites. Makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up (fine feminine downy ones, natch)

I am 42, but have loved opera since I was 18 - as well as most other types of music. Not all opera - never got into Wagner, but never given it much of a chance.