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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:
sieglinde · 12/05/2011 08:15

Blush I don't JUST love Wagner. I like most opera. I like Britten, too, though I struggle with his folksongs; really prefer Vaughan Williams here, so we all have a thing. It's just that early posters were saying 'oh, I hate Wagner', and it's just my experience that people who say that mostly haven't heard much. (And yes, Lohengrin the character is meant to be a bit spectrummy, though Elsa is too so they form a little spectrum club, and yes to the idea that the Ring is in Ent-time; love it.).

GrendelsMum · 12/05/2011 08:23

I never 'got' Dryden, could never understand why his plays had been popular and well-respected, until I saw an amateur performance of his adaptation of The Tempest. And then suddenly I 'got' him, and it was fabulous. Same with rap - never got it, and then sat down with a friend who could explain all the 'rules' of the form in a language that I could understand, and suddenly I could see what they were going on about.

I think a lot of art forms are like this - baffling for a while, and then suddnely you can understand them.

HipHopOpotomus · 12/05/2011 08:28

The BBC recently broadcast an opera based on the life of Anna Nicole Smith, performed at Coventry Garden. It was rather marvellous and contained wide use of the 'c' word ad well as all the other swear words. But it was a "proper" opera. Check it out. Look out for it on BBC FOUR.

HipHopOpotomus · 12/05/2011 08:31

COVENT GARDEN!

Mucha · 12/05/2011 09:12

I am an opera lover and a trained opera singer as well. I think it's so sad that so many people don't see the beauty in opera music. Whilst I love all sorts of music, opera for me sends shivers down my spine and makes me spontaneously cry.

For anyone who thinks that Wagner is too heavy, watch this!

This is one of my all time pieces of music. I cry like mad listening to it. Just ignore the revolting 80's frocks!

A bit of baroque

And for a bit of silliness

mousymouse · 12/05/2011 09:14

yes, jockey, I find it incredibly fascinating that a voice can actually be heard above a big orchestra. and a wagnerian orchestra is full of noisy brass.
and aloiseb, yes I take earplugs to the cinema. I know classical music also reaches enormous decibel levels, but not all the time.
I guess my love for verdi and wagner comes from playing the trumpet. I like the complex brass sound :o

ReshapeWhileDamp · 12/05/2011 15:10

This has turned from an AIBU thread into a lovefest for opera! Grin Which is fine but in response to the OP - no, YANBU. People either seem to get, or like opera, or they don't. I quite like opera and love some in particular, but I can well see how (and why) it's just so much caterwauling to another person (who might enjoy a diverse range of music, incl. classical). DH doesn't get it at all, but then he also doesn't get classical music. At all. Sad He's introduced me to so much I wouldn't otherwise have listened to, but he seems very resistant to the musical tastes I brought to the marriage! Hmm

And one thing I absolutely do not 'get' is modern musicals. I can just about cope with ALW ones, but the rest? pointless, bland maundering. Confused

Laurarj84 · 12/05/2011 16:17

Hi, ChaosTrulyReigns, I would most definitely try Gilbert and Sullivan, it's very light, and most importantly for new listeners, funny. My parents took me to Gilbert and Sullivan plays when I was young and we have videos of me singing songs from them in the bath Blush! But that's how easy listening they are, a child could enjoy them and it gave me a lasting appreciation for good music.

oohlaalaa · 12/05/2011 16:26

Age 28. Not a cultural buff. Been to see Madame Butterfly, as a favour, with my mum, and loved it. I think it has to be live and forced on me.

Lucifera · 12/05/2011 16:42

It always surprises me when people say they don't like (or can't stand) Wagner. He has so many lyrical, joyful tunes, very easy to listen to IMHO.

I bet most of you are too young to remember the film Sunday Bloody Sunday when Peter Finch would gaze out into his back garden at night and would play. I was 17 when I first saw it and it tore into my heart.

SuiGeneris · 12/05/2011 16:43

I second the Magic Flute and would add Turandot and Rigoletto, if possible at the Royal Opera House. If you still do not like opera after seeing those two, then maybe it is not your thing. But beware: you might fall in love!

Mr SG has dutifully trotted along to operas with me for a few years (our first Valentine was spent watching the Magic Flute in very cheap seats at the ROH) but it was not until Turandot that he realise he loved it. He came to see to please me and the following day he could be heard humming the tunes (and then even singing). Since then he has been positively keen to join me. But then MasterSG came along, so we have not see the inside of the ROH since 2009.

Am 36, did not like opera much until 19, then had opera-mad boyfriend and fell in love (with opera).

SuiGeneris · 12/05/2011 16:44

sorry "it was not until Turandot that he realiseD"

Katisha · 12/05/2011 17:44

I was brought up on G&S, as some may be able to tell...

Trinaluce · 12/05/2011 19:05

Katisha How's your right elbow?

MissMarjoribanks · 12/05/2011 19:22

Fascinating, I believe. Grin

MissYamabuki · 12/05/2011 19:33

I have always loved opera and I don't understand why more people don't like it!

I would recommend that you go and see it live as that was what operas where made for - and you can't compare the sound of a live orchestra to a CD, it is so big and powerful in a theatre. It can be a very moving experience. I will remember watching the Walkyre or Tristan or the Mastersingers till the day I die.

For a starter I would choose operas with popular arias and pretty tight storylines, like La Traviata, Carmen, The Magic Flute or The Barber of Seville as others have suggested. Go and if you love it, enjoy it. If you hate it, don't beat yourself up about it - there is nothing to "get", it's just another music genre.

Katisha · 12/05/2011 19:40

You should see my left shoulder blade.

southofthethames · 13/05/2011 02:24

OP, NU - it's a bit of an acquired taste. There are some operas more accessible than others. Carmen and Tosca are quite good to start with. Try this for starters:

Piggles · 13/05/2011 04:25

I like a lot of classical music and always loved going to the ballet, so I was quite willing to give opera a try when I was taken to the arena in Verona to see Carmen.

Alas, I hated it. I found it very screechy and have never been so bored in all my life; I think I definitely missed out on the opera-appreciation gene. I can't say I have ever really listened to it since then though, so maybe I should give it another try as I was only about 20 at the time of that trip - over a decade ago now.

laptopwieldingharpy · 13/05/2011 05:49

There is no age. I started with carmina burana at about 8 and am not from a musical family. Introduced at school.

You talk of lif skills, i would say maybe an inclnation for contemplation?

Really not sure a live act is the best way to enjoy opera. I only ever enjoy live acts that i know well. And it can be totally counterproductive if you are a novice as you are stuck there trying very hard to apreciate.
For me the context is very important. Its a solitary pleasure, very intimate, totally contemplative.
I strongly recommend downloading a piece and listening with headset. Low volume in a confortable position or full blast on a walk in an open space.

laptopwieldingharpy · 13/05/2011 05:50

Oh and not in english, just looses a bit of magic

lljkk · 13/05/2011 06:15

Opera is alright, it has grown on me, at least you can admire what they achieve.
But for true caterwauling... go to Country and Western. I don't think I will ever find any aesthetic value in C&W.

Katisha · 13/05/2011 08:14

I suspect open-air performances are never going to be the best introduction - too much else to worry about - apart from the temperature, hard seats, distant sirens, planes going over and insects, there is also the dodgy amplification and distance from stage etc.

Same with open air theatre - to me somehow it's never that enjoyable, and probably not usually done with the tippest toppest performers.

NetworkGuy · 14/05/2011 00:14

Feel free to consider me a Philistine (*). Mozart's Requiem - OK, but then again, it was forced on me when I was away age 8/9 at boarding school and there was no avoiding it, being an important 'for the parents' thing with months of rehearsals, and there were other pieces done in collaboration with the Masonic School for Girls, so they had to be 'perfect' as it would not just be letting our school down, but the 'sister' school, too.

I switch all opera off - even when they play 30 seconds in some quiz show I switch off. Just awful noise, to me. Happy to listen to (instrumental) Mozart to Madonna, Bach to Bowie, but add voices and "classical" gets switched off.

Age 50+ but under 55 :) (and listen to 6 Music, 1 Xtra, electronic, new age, smooth jazz, dubstep, drum'n'bass, etc, etc, etc, but not Country, must admit!)

(*) Although I've been in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and galleries in Chicago (free entry days), history, art, opera, and even 'classic literature' are generally areas where I don't tread. Computers, music, technology / gadgets, and warfare (OK, about 60 years of history) are of interest.

MirandaGoshawk · 14/05/2011 10:31

"Same with open air theatre "

Katisha, my one experience of open-air opera wasn't good (see above), and you are right with the reasons you give, but A Midsummer Night's Dream at Regents Park open air theatre for me was truly sublime. In summer, it started off in the evening in brilliant sunshine, then as the story became more complicated, the sun went down & the birds in the trees went to bed, and the atmosphere became more intimate. Fab-u-lous.