This item spins off from a discussion void, jiffer and krj were having in 
party this morning.  First, we have a question:  which are the best 
operas to introduce a neophyte to the form?
 
We'll also talk about upcoming operatic events in the Southeastern
Michigan area: the NYCO touring LA BOHEME, the Michigan Opera Theatre 
spring season, and the UMich School of Music spring production.
And from there, we'll see where we go.

221 responses total.

   (( Classical item #10 is linked as Music #21  ))

I would propose that Puccini's LA BOHEME is the best starter opera 
in the standard repertory.  It's massively melodic, yet mercifully 
brief.  Its love story and its characters, from an age and culture 
close to our own, are easy to identify with.  And the libretto has 
a great sense of wit: the dispatching of the landlord, Musetta's 
elderly date being stuck with the Christmas Eve dinner bill; 
the ebb and flow of love and breakup in Act 3.
 
Mozart's MARRIAGE OF FIGARO might be a good choice, but it's too damn 
long for a novice -- over 3 hours of music, I think, plus intermissions.

I second La Boheme. Madame Butterfly is a close second.

I'd say it depends on the person's tastes & background, but in general the
suggestions so far are reasonable.  My own first suggestion, however, would
be to ease people in with something less operatic but still sort of opera,
if you're really afraid it will be too big a shock.  I'm thinking of something
like _HMS_Pinafore_ or a couple of Offenbach's lighter works.  But again, it
depends.

Here's an outline of the spring schedule for the Michigan Opera Theatre.
All productions are at the Detroit Opera House, adjoining Grand Circus
Park.

Verdi's  RIGOLETTO  opens April 5
Mozart's THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO opens May 3
Wagner's THE FLYING DUTCHMAN opens May 31.

Tickets range from $18 to $95.  For information, call  (313) 874-SING.

We went to the Metropolitan Opera performances in Detroit until those
folded, but haven't begun again with the MOT. Are all performances
in-house, or do they have lots of visiting singers and orchestras? 

There is a standing orchestra.  The singers are almost all from 
elsewhere.  I would say that most of the singers at the MOT 
are solid performers from the second rank of international artists; in the 
eight years I have been going to MOT operas, the only singer I would 
count as world-famous would be Joan Sutherland.   Oh, MMaria Ewing
was here for something a year or two ago, but we saw the alternate cast.
(Might have been Salome?)
 
There just aren't enough Pavarottis, Domingos and Dawn Upshaws 
to go around.
 
One thing you should be aware of is that MOT double-casts all lead
roles, since some of their performances are crammed in close together
on weekends.

I alwasy wonder how these great singers go day after day singing! it is so
grueling!  Maybe i will treat myself to THE FLYING DUTCH MAN for my birthday.
thoughi much prefer THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO.  I must say that MOT has a lot
of very "famious" and common operas coming into twon.  Whcih can be good for
a novice spectator,  mianly cos you won't usually have to buy the darn book
(i forgot what theya re officailly called) to go along with the opera!  

RE #7 Who is Dawn Upshaw?

Libretta? We use the RCA Book of the Opera (ca. 1935) to review the story.
Nice pictures, too, of Caruso, Gallacurci, tc, in famous roles. 

Bruin:  Dawn Upshaw is possibly the leading American soprano; obviously 
her fame is not in a class with The Three Tenors, though!  
She appeared on the recent TV broadcast of COSI FAN TUTTE; we heard her 
in the offstage role of The Bird in Wagner's SIEGFRIED back in 1990.
 
Jiffer: do you know about supertitles?
 
rcurl:  I have two choice opera reference books: the late 1980s edition 
of KOBBE'S COMPLETE OPERA BOOK is my favorite for reading about plot and 
structure summaries of most of the operas one is likely to see staged.

The book is a mix with some essays remaining by the original Mr. Kobbe, 
who died in 1919;  most of the book is by Lord Harewood, who has edited 
about three editions of the book and who seems to know everything 
about opera.

As a supplement, I like The Penguin Guide To Opera Recordings, 
which includes very short synopses for nearly every opera ever 
released on compact disc, including many we are unlikely *ever* to see
on stage.  This is, of course, also useful as a CD shopping guide, 
when you want to pick one recording of TURANDOT.

-----

some topics I want to get to:  travelling to see operas elsewhere; 
local regional opera, starting with Lansing and Adrian; operas on 
videotape and laserdisc; opera in English translation

Carmen is a cool opera for beginners.

Second Carmen. I got started in opera with Mozart's Magic Flute.
I think that's also a good one to start with.

Michael is back!  I've been wondering and asking and downright
fretting over your absence.  Don't you *ever* do that again.

Yes, Carmen is good. I got started with Rigoletto. It was at a time when I
was also indulging myself in Greek tragedy, so the impact was enormous.

 Krj:  SUpertitles?>  uhm... not that i am aware of. I enjoy opera but don't
usually get a chance to be educated or see it often.  I started with _Mdme.
Butterfly_  and then saw a fw others.  Mainly listen to the CDs and yearn to
actually get to go to more!

Carmen is good.  

Supertitles are a translation of the libretto which are projected 
above the stage.  They function like subtitles in a foreign film.
They were invented by Toronto Opera in the early 1980s, if I remember
correctly.  They were quite controversial -- musicians and directors
felt that they distracted from the stage experience, and James 
Levine was quoted as saying, "Over my dead body," when asked if the 
Metropolitan Opera would adopt titles.
 
But audiences loved titles, and they have rapidly spread to become 
standard in North American opera productions.  The Met capitulated to
titles about two years ago, and at last report Maestro Levine was 
still breathing.  I think that Santa Fe is the last major holdout
against titles.

I don't like them, and put them out of my visual perception. The next
generation of opera goers will acquire a head-nod - sort of a vertical
tennis match syndrome. If they could be projected so it required special
glasses to see them, then everyone could enjoy themselves. 

Except those of us who *already* wear glasses?

Clip-ons.....

Is th4ere anyone out there who could tell me where I might get a biography
of James[A Levine. I have heard some things that he has conducted on the
radio, and I would like to know more about him. Thanks in advance.

Ack!  Puccini's LA BOHEME, presented by the New York City Opera 
National Company, opens Wednesday February 19 at the Power Center
in Ann Arbor.  (That will be, um, today, for many readers.)
It runs through Saturday.  In response #2 I discussed LA BOHEME's 
attractiveness as an introductory opera.
 
U.Mich's School of Music presents Mozart's MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
beginning Wednesday March 26.  This will be in the small 
Lydia Mendellsohn Theatre;  Mozart at Mendellsohn is a guaranteed 
sellout.  In the past, this has usually meant that the school will 
sell tickets to the dress rehearsal at a very low price.

I've never found clipons tolerable (*any* kind).  The racks of clipon
sunglasses you find in drugstores shows that some do, but I suspect I'm in
the majority.

In answer to John Tisinger, there is a James levine (unofficial) home 
page at http://www.opera.it/FreeWeb/Domingo/Levine/HOME.HTM

They plan to have a biography posted there, but it is currently just 
marked as under construction (don't you just hate that?).

There is a videotape you can buy on his life. It was done as a TV 
documentary. See 
http://www.unitel.classicalmusic.com/ucatalog/portrait/173_5.htm

There are short pages about Levine at:
http://www.hqe.com/SHOWS/3tenors/levine.htm
http://www.unitel.classicalmusic.com/uhilites/061596.htm
but they may not have information you don't already know.

Thanks for the help Steve. I'll look into those. By the way, I amalso
interested in some info on Robert Shaw, (since I do live near Atlanta). Feel
free to respond here, or send me E-mail to jdtstu@westga.edu. 
By the way, what do sunglasses have to do with classical music?

The idea is that one could use flip-up sunglasses to block out 
one's view of the titles projected over the stage.

We went to the Friday evening performance of La Boheme at Power Theatre.
It was fabulous. One thing that made it extra enjoyable was that we
changed dates at the last minute, and could only get seats in the 2nd row,
orchestra. I've always been a cheapskate and sat in the middle-price
sections. What a difference! Everything was much more 'immediate'. The
two roomies, Corrine and Schaunauer (sp?), suddenly came across as great
parts (from a greater distance, one concentrated on the principles). The
small orchestra was just below us, and the conductor just to our right. The
direct interactions between the conductor and performers could be seen.
And, in final scene, Mimi seemed to be singing directly to *me* - I was
tempted to leap upon the stage to try to comfort her. We think we will
always get front row seats hereafter (may see fewer operas, but enjoy those
we see more).

I would encourage you to look for relevant web sites either at
http://yahoo.com/ for a topical hierarchy o organized data, or
http://altavista.digital.com/ for a search engine.

I scanned altavista for Robert Shaw, and got a number of false hits, which
is common for search engines, but these two appear to be relevant:

http://kennedy-center.org/explore/honors/html/1991/shaw.html
http://www.musicfan.com/ecd/details/134.html 

Learning how to do reasearch on the internet is easy and fun, and a useful
skill. You can do it all from grex with lynx, even if you do not have access
to a browser.

(now back to the topic)

(I think lynx *is* a browser. Perhaps you meant "graphical
browser"?)

I meant that even if you think you do not have access to a browser, you have
access to lynx on Grex, so you should be able to do all this searching
yourself. Graphical is irrelevant, as it adds nothing to the process of
finding useful things on the net this way.

(Except when lynx shows you only a page consisting of something like this:
[image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][
image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image]
)

Use your imagination....

(I've tried that.  I've also tried "clicking" at random.  At least once that
got me somewhere more useful.  At least once each choice brought me back,
apparently, to exactly the same page.  Wonder what things would have looked
like with a graphical browser ...)

I'd say, a montage....

The Michigan Opera Theatre has a web page at:
http://www.detnews.com/mot/
Perhaps someone would like to tell us how it looks with lynx?
 
I'll agree with Rane on how wonderful opera is from a close-in 
seat.  For Rane, this has the added advantage of putting those pesky 
projected titles out of the field of view.  
 
One of my favorite opera experiences was a UM student production of 
LA BOHEME, in Power Center, in English.  I had a seat in the second row.
Yes, it's a very immediate connection to the drama.
 
We found that close-in seats could generally be had at the Masonic 
Theatre for $40-$50.  Once, for CARMEN, we found ourselves almost 
a part of the orchestra.  The augmented bass section had spilled out 
of the pit, and the last three bass players were to our immediate left.
 
I'm not yet sure, but I think that the close-in seats at the new 
Detroit Opera House are the one priced up in the $95 category, so 
we're unlikely to be sitting in those anytime soon.
 
The UM student opera tickets have just one price, so you can get your 
ticket early and sit as close as you want.  Or, you can wait and maybe 
get lucky.  A lot of patrons don't like to sit way up in the front, and 
we have often gotten front-row seats when we buy tickets at the last 
minute.
 
However, as I think I mentioned already, I do *not* recommend waiting 
until the last minute to get tickets for the spring production of 
MARRIAGE OF FIGARO.  The Mendellsohn Theatre is very intimate, and 
for a popular opera like this one a sellout is almost guaranteed.

Yes, it was rather difficult to look at the projected "super-titles"
(I admit to having tested them a couple of times - but mostly not. I
was glad that they were not in my field of view, to distract attention by
flashing from one image to another.)

 who wants front row seats?  singers' spit?  i rather have middle row... far
enough not to be shouted at and spitted on, but close enough to apprecate the
scenery and costumes!

I don't think spit would have made it past the orchestra pit - of course, some
of the musicians also have spit problems. Music is like making sausage....

 i was making a jest actually about the spit, but i do usually find the front
row seats to be too close to singers  and orchastra..... so i really don't
enjoy it that much.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss