Opera Everyone Can Enjoy

[Abraham]

Flower duet - Anna Netrebko & Elina Garanca

Do yourself a favor, access the above on Youtube.

Listen.

The first minute or so starts off with a soprano solo that may not appeal to all, until they both, the mezzo soprano and the soprano both sing. When that happens, you'll feel transported to heaven.

Then, do yourself a favor and listen to Pavarotti sing Nessun Dorma.

Again, the first part of this piece isn't going to appeal to all, but hang in there for a minute or so, and man, you'll be enraptured.

[Abraham]

I forgot to request your favorite aria.

Surely, I'm not the only opera fan here...?

The two previously mentioned are my favorites, but you can't go wrong with almost anything by Puccini.

While I confess I'm a knuckle dragging, gun totin troglodyte, I do appreciate a few of the finer things.

[Songbird]

Love that duet! My two favorites (I've sung them both) are Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix from Camille Saint- Saëns's opera Samson and Delilah, and "When I am laid in earth", from the opera, Dido and Aeneas, by Henry Purcell.

[chasfm11]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1woH96ROG-c
Tebaldi is one of my all time favorites.

While I'm not a great Wagner fan, this one is a standout
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mOA8pZ_I4M
I've played just the orchestral part (minus the soprano) and found the music moving.

And not to drift the thread too far since it really isn't opera but here is another favorite
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdc5n562zZg Start at 50:37 From there there to end of the movement is just one incredible piece of music. I like the whole work but the segment I selected is the best part for me. You really need to read the libretto as you listen to the music.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_ ... 8Mahler%29 The English translation of the 5th movement
If you cannot stand all of the orchestral lead up, 1:16:20 is a good place to start, too.

[Abraham]

Thank you both very much!

I think most folks who are unfamiliar with Opera think it not for them, when in fact there are particular arias that are so beautiful anyone can instantly love them.

Sadly, most don't take the time to explore...

To miss "The Flower Duet" is to miss something exquisite!

[chasfm11]

Thank you both very much!

I think most folks who are unfamiliar with Opera think it not for them, when in fact there are particular arias that are so beautiful anyone can instantly love them.

Sadly, most don't take the time to explore...

To miss "The Flower Duet" is to miss something exquisite!

Sadly, the time spent in our schools in music education has not really exposed many of our kids to the beauty of opera. It gained a reputation for being stuffy. I admit that it takes more to appreciate it than just casual listening unless someone just happens on a excerpt like the Flower Duet. But the same could be said for many of the aspects of "classical" music.

For me, one of the all time most beautiful pieces of music is the Barber Adagio for Strings and one of the masters at conducting it was Leopold Stokowski. I love listening to this rehearsal because you get a real sense of the power of the music by the way that Stokowski conducts the rehearsal. You can hear him shaping the sound of the music from a very good professional orchestra. You don't have to understand the Italian musical terms that he uses to instruct them to understand the results that he gets from them. I'll never understand why so many find it hard to be moved by such a beautiful piece. The same can be said for much of Puccini.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDrm809p2u4

[Keith B]

I forgot to request your favorite aria.

Surely, I'm not the only opera fan here...?

[Said in my best redneck hillbilly voice] "My favrut aria is Aria 51. Thut's whar them aliens an their spaceships is stored. An my favo-right opra is 'The Grand Old'!"

Seriously, I am not an opera fan. But I do like 'The Phantom of the Opera'! And I admire those that can sing opera well as they have tremendous voices.

[The Annoyed Man]

I can listen to specific recorded pieces of operatic music and enjoy them, but the actual performances themselves are so tedious to me as to put me right to sleep. My mother once gave my wife and me tickets to go see a supposedly highly acclaimed performance of The Marriage of Figaro at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown Los Angeles. It was a weeknight, and I had already worked downtown all day. We made it all the way through the first two acts and intermission by stapling my eyelids open. Intermission was over at 10:00 p.m., and we tried watching a few minutes of Act 3 and then finally just got up and left. It was just TOO painfully tedious and stuffy.

I've never been to see a live performance of opera since. There's not enough beer in the world.....

[Syntyr]

I like opera IF the following conditions are met!

1. Must have a driving beat and tempo
2. Lots of them big kettle drums (syntyr likes Taiko)
3. Have been used in TV and movies
4. Lasers!
5. Fireworks

Carl Orff
Carmina Burana
O'Fortuna


[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=EJC-_j3SnXk[/youtube]

[chasfm11]

I can listen to specific recorded pieces of operatic music and enjoy them, but the actual performances themselves are so tedious to me as to put me right to sleep. My mother once gave my wife and me tickets to go see a supposedly highly acclaimed performance of The Marriage of Figaro at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown Los Angeles. It was a weeknight, and I had already worked downtown all day. We made it all the way through the first two acts and intermission by stapling my eyelids open. Intermission was over at 10:00 p.m., and we tried watching a few minutes of Act 3 and then finally just got up and left. It was just TOO painfully tedious and stuffy.

I've never been to see a live performance of opera since. There's not enough beer in the world.....

You would NEVER make it through Der Ring des Nibelungen (4 Wagner operas each as long and more tedious than the Mozart one that you attended)

But many are surprised at the influence of opera on music today. The Lietmotif or music the reoccurs when various characters appear is used by John Williams in almost all of his film scores and that technique came from Der Ring. In fact, some of the familiar music from movies originated in operas. The Ride of the Valkyries is widely recognized but few know that it came from Act III of Die Walkure. The bridal march often used in weddings is from Wagner's Lohengrin. It also hasn't helped that excerpts from operatic music are used as background music in cartoons.

You need to go to Bayreuth. And yes, they do have enough beer there to get you through at least one Wagner classic.

[G26ster]

Great taste Andy - Best of both worlds - Canto Della Terra with Sara Brightman and Alessandro Safina. He accompanied her on her album and video special. It's my favorite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzP2lZwjlGg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Abraham]

Andrea Bocelli is one of my favorites, but what I'm hoping is that folks who've never experienced opera will hear "The Flower Duet" or "Nessun Dorma" as something to open their ears to something that can be found exquisite by anyone's musical taste.

A pal of mine, who happens to be a maestro, composer and symphonic conductor and I were smoking cigars one day and I asked him what his favorite aria is and he responded "Nessun Dorma". At that time it was my favorite too, until I heard "The Flower Duet" and then I changed.

This particular friend is also a gun guy.

Go figure, especially since he's such a theatre guy.

His wife is Italian, elegant and extraordinarily beautiful, and significantly older, keeps him on track...

[mojo84]

I've never been to see a live performance of opera since. There's not enough beer in the world.....

I'm with you on this; I doubt I'd be able to sit through a full opera again, ever.

However.... I worked on Pavarotti's protection detail in the early 90's - it was torture (in many respects), being forced to be around that all the time.

2nd however... I stumbled across Andrea Bocelli - and the man is flippin' AMAZING. Here he is with Sarah Brightman - you'll know this tune:

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=khznWuH3VTs[/youtube]

My personal favorite of his, though, is this one (I bellow happily along with it in Italian and usually end up in tears):

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZmWvdrdm7VE[/youtube]

Were you working his detail when he was at the Summit in Houston? It was in the early to mid 90's. My wife and I took my mother in law to see him. It was awesome.

[The Annoyed Man]

Andrea Bocelli is surpassingly great. I think we've got a couple of his CDs laying around here somewhere. "Mellifluous" is the term that comes to mind when I think of his voice. Like I said previous, I can listen to and enjoy certain specific recordings...it's just the live operatic performance that renders me both catatonic and angry at the same time.