I don't get Opera.. will you explain ?

[m1469]

It's a deep confession from somebody who "is" an Opera singer  .  Here's what I don't get.... why are they always singing ?  I mean, I relate singing with things like elation or deep, deep despair.  Because I am a musician, I will sing around the house for fun and sometimes I do funny little things (to get a laugh out of hubby) with it all.  But who in real life actually goes around singing everything (maybe I came pretty close when I was little, but I was more just singing my own little stuff... not everyday conversation) ?

I just don't get it... unless there is a far deeper layer involved that I can be enlightened on.  And anyway, I think this is my problem with Opera music... I just don't get why they do it.  I mean, why not just have a play where they just speak as in normal life ?  Or the occasional scene where music is truly needed.  It can be pretty good music, I admit that... but still.

I understand the purpose of art songs... but not opera so much.  Please enlighten me.



m1469

[m1469]

hmmm... just finished the 1st act of Le Nozze de Figaro.  I think I am starting to get Opera... but only if I think of it in terms of piano music  .

I realized that it's about the music not the acting (maybe a bit of a duh to other people).  And then, music has a story to it.  So, I imagined it was all one big piano piece... and I sometimes imagine different characters in piano music, and this is just an enactment of that, it's something I can actually see.

So it is about :

Music with characters.

NOT

Characters with music.


I find myself transcribing all of the music and voice parts for the piano in my head  ... I just can't quite figure out what the piano is doing just kind of winding around during the recit parts (what role does that have in the structure of the composition ?  I guess some sort of releif)....  But I am also starting to understand why it's helpful for me as a pianist to listen to Opera (whether I am singing it or not).


Okay, act II coming right up.



m1469 -- this is only the second Opera I have every watched  (at least Carmen was live)

[mephisto]

Are you joking?

[pianistimo]

part of the enlightenment was openly mocking aristocracy and making the commoners just as smart.  look at figaro and suzanna.  they are getting the upper hand sometimes of the count and his wife.  even the wife gangs up on the count.  and the plots are so thick.  there was a lot of intriegue to all this.  lorenzo da ponce was quite a writer and a sort of 'renaissance man.' he ended up in new york with a corner store as an old man.  would have been interesting to talk to him about mozart.

for some reason, this stuck in my head (don't know where it was from) 'immanuel kant, like mozart, had a curiously ambivalent attitude toward the intellectual atmosphere of his time (he didn't revolt as much as beethoven - is what i think they are trying to say) embodying it's principles.  kant even wrote an essay 'what is enlightenment?' yet mozart set the stage for those who would go beyond those principles.

voltaire came up with the saying 'those who are noble in birth are not always noble in character.'  i tend to not just enjoy and appreciate the history, but also the classical nature of mozart.  you kind of already know a little of what to expect.  the characters are 'stock' characters - but he puts different twists and turns on them.  take a look, too, at some classical paintings.  jacques-louis david (the oath, the subine women) and francesco de goya (may 3, 1808).  the first always uses classical themes - light and dark - balance into three sections - pillars (equally dividing).  you have some of what makes up the 'golden mean.'

the golden mean was thought to be used in mozart in his music as well.  dividing things up so that the aesthetic pleasure of the whole is in the classical form of it's parts.  as i read in one article by fx shea - 'the romantic movement relocated reality.  before romanticism, men lived in a tradition of rationalism.  they believed that in the achievement of clarity, definition, and abstraction they attained the truth of things.'

'the chief articulator of this centuries-long tradition was, of course, plato; but the tradition itself precedes and continues after his seminal work.  probably its emergence is properly dated with the beginnings of writing and with complex urban civilizations.'

as mcluhan and walter ong point out - 'the rational tradition is fundamentally spatial and visual.  to identify reality with the contents of acts of understanding is to emphaisize definitions.  behind definition lies a metaphor of visual diagram.  the modern evaluation of full reality and the significance of feeling is a heritage from the romantic rejection of the rationalist's belief in the supremacy of sight.'

anyhew - what i get from all this is that visually and aesthetically - the classical era is about 'beauty.'  now, bach had a certain element of this 'golden mean' as well - but it is covered with ornamentation.  by mozart's time and beyond a bit - there was a simplification of a melody.  becoming singable.  simple.  easy to understand for the common musician or common person.  you didn't have to be a nobleman or woman to understand the music or appreciate it.  and, i think there is an element to bach and mozart's music that is worshipful to God as well.  you have composers that wrote religious as well as secular music.  when you get into the romantic era - there were less composers (i think) that wrote religious music for the sake of the church - and more for just random ideas 'oh, i'd like to write a requiem.'  they weren't commissioned - i guess is what i mean - so they did things with composition that the church didn't earlier allow in some instances.

[arbisley]

You got the picture better the second time: it's about music with a story. But more than that it also is a way of describing emotions happening on stage through the music. The operas more often than not represent an event or something not part of everyday life, like theatre, otherwise there wouldn´t be any interest. The music is a way of drawing out the emotions and stretching them, but when it comes to the talking, I see what you mean. Why couldn't they just say it if it isn't particularly important to the emotions? Yes, but the music gives the background atmosphere and meaning to the whole thing, like an actor would have to do more with body movement, language etc.

I actually find some bits quite extroardinary, like the part at the end of Figaro where the count asks forgivenes from his wife. It's extremely simple music, but Mozart just uses this to make it sound even purer, deeper than what the person is merely saying.

I have had great privilege recently to see four operas at glyndebourne for free! i have a friend at school who knows someone at Glyndebourne who always gives them rehearsal tickets, and I often get to go. More next year I hope!

[timothy42b]

Yeah, the acting is a bit wooden, and frankly the special effects are pathetic.

I like the overture.  It's a disciplined but exuberant attempt to concisely summarize the music and wake up the sleepers. 

After that I go back to sleep, because I can't get sleep like that at home.  Seriously, they are not tunes, they are songs.  Songs have words and meanings which fit a plot.  However, even when the language is one I understand, I can't follow the words because they sing all vowels and no consonants. 

I played in the pit orchestra for one once (Mozart's Magic Flute) and I never understood the plot until I rented the cartoon version at Blockbuster. 

[arbisley]

I love opera and would maybe like to be an opera singer one day, another hope apart from the piano, and I understand the concern about not getting the plot.
My way is just to make sure to read the summary beforehand, since it0s usually not that long, and it makes it much clearer. I really enjoy the magic flute, possibly because it's the first opera I ever went to. But when you say

Yeah, the acting is a bit wooden, and frankly the special effects are pathetic.

I like the overture. It's a disciplined but exuberant attempt to concisely summarize the music and wake up the sleepers.

are you talking about a particular video you've seen of it? and why special effects? it's not supposed to be like a film with all it's bits and bobs around cameras, 3d graphics etc.

[timothy42b]

I should have put a tongue in cheek sign!  Yeah, they just stand around, there's no decent fight scenes, car chases are lousy, and mostly they have painted canvas instead of a set! 

But really, if I could follow the words, most of that complaint would go away.  Microphones?  Allowing them to sing softer, reduce the formant, and increase the enunciation? 

[arbisley]

You should really go to an opera house if you want to get the real thing. They basically just tape what you'd see if you went to the theatre, so no mikes, no special effects, it's not meant to be a film!
Anyway, it's more about the art of singing, projecting your voice etc. than being able to hear the words, although people who hear opera often (live) probably get to understand what they´re saying easier.

[gonzalo]

Have you heard of Singspiels? They mix normal dialogue with singing.
From Wikipedia:

Singspiel ("song-play") (plural Singspiele) is a form of German-language music drama, regarded as a type of operetta or opera. It is characterized by spoken dialogue, sometimes performed over music, interspersed with ensembles, popular songs, ballads and arias (which were often folk-like and strophic in nature).

Mozart's "The abduction from the Seraglio" is a singspiel.

Take care,
Gonzalo.

[pianistimo]

with singspiels they used to use puppets and someone had to do voice-overs for about 4 puppets at a time. 

musicals are also kinda cool.

[burstroman]

I don't take life too seriously, maybe that's why I like opera.

[m1469]

.

[ako]

You should really go to an opera house if you want to get the real thing. They basically just tape what you'd see if you went to the theatre, so no mikes, no special effects, it's not meant to be a film!
Anyway, it's more about the art of singing, projecting your voice etc. than being able to hear the words, although people who hear opera often (live) probably get to understand what they´re saying easier.

Yes, it's really wonderful going to the opera house. I think a good singer is able to enunciate clearly in the language s/he is singing. However, we are taught to modify the vowel and drop the consonants for ease in singing very high notes. Opera is a wonderful art. A good singer should be able to combine the singing and acting. 

Back to why everyone goes around singing...it's really funny m1469. I sing opera but I never thought of that before. But I prefer singing recitatives rather than speaking in Singspiels. Maybe I am not comfortable with the pronounciation and having to switch to my speaking voice.