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Smetana's Bartered Bride could be added to the list. Recently this was performed in Munich in German translation as a high speed comedy and the audience was enthusiastic.
Where should I sit? I heard it in the middle or balcony. The tickets show from the stage: Orchestra Pit, Orchestra, Orchestra Terrace, Orchestra Rear, Rear Floor, Loge, Mezzanine, or Balcony. Please help lol
I know it's not really an opera, but my first experience was Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) as a kid, and I loved it, and kept singing songs from it. I think it can be a good idea to move gradually from musicals through singspiel to opera. After that it was la Traviata with Andrea Rost, and it was beautiful, but I think I needed the gradual introduction. I haven't seen Carmen as a real opera yet, but turned into a skating film, Carmen On Ice with Katarina Witt, Brian Boitano and Brian Orser (world champions, Olympic champions and silver medalist), three of the greatest skaters of their time). It was a passionate performance and brought the music closer to me, as it was connected to my favourite sport.
This music had a significant influence on the music of Steve Reich. Apparently he listed his choices for the five greatest composers as 1) Pérotin, 2) Bach, 3) Stravinsky, 4) Bartók, and 5) John Coltrane.
I saw both Barber of Seville and Zauberflote as my first operas and they were poorly done and I did NOT enjoy them, though I do now. The opera that got me hooked was a student production, with no sets at all, of Don Giovanni. I think was the heightened emotion of all the characters that drew me in; whereas the comedy of Barber of Seville didn't attract me and the oddball plot of Zauberflote didn't interest me either.
I always tell people to start with the operas Mozart wrote with Lorenzo da Ponte--Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Cosi Fan Tutte. Should dispel the notion that Wagnerian screaming is all there is to opera.
The effect is even better if the major thirds above the root are tuned purely (i.e., to around 386 cents) rather than as 400-cent 12-tone equal tempered "piano thirds," with their jarring beats.
Tchaikovsky was a musical and melodic genius. His attempt to hide his sexuality led him into deep depression and concern for himself. He doubted his own talents despite the evidence otherwise. His Sixth Symphony perfectly represents his torment and depression. Nevertheless his music lives on. I wish he had been born in a more enlightened age. He should have had a happy creative life with a loved partner. I’m straight, but I love the man and his music dearly.
The first and fourth opera got my attention love the voices but the others just seemed pretty awful at least to me but of course we've all heard the fifth opera especially if you grew up watching tom and Jerry and yes I did find it funny but not interesting
I tred to predict what your recommendations would be and came swiftly unstuck! I had ‘Figaro’ rather than ‘Zauberflöte’ (which is let down by acres of spoken dialogue, especially once the trials get underway), ‘La Bohème’, ‘La traviata’ and ‘Flying Dutchman’ (reasoning that if you have Verdi, you have to keep the Wagner faction happy) and, so it’s not all pre-20th century and to show opera isn’t all romance, ‘The turn of the screw’.
The birth of notated polyphony in Western Europe anyway - of course, humans singing and playing polyphony is many thousands of years old, as Jordan Jordania demonstrates.
Interesting take on the subject. Surprising sometimes. I´ve never thought of Hildegard as being historically significant for example and you don´t mention monasticism in connection with chant.
I remember playing saxophone at a church Christmas concert. When it was my turn to play, I gave a brief speech about the theme of my performance. I then asked the audience to hold their applause until the end of the performance. The audience didn’t understand the request and applauded anyway. After the concert I did an “Elvis has left the building.” I had to go to work the next morning.
9:50 Petrarch is NOT the author of Le Lagrime di San Pietro. The poems were written by Luigi Tansillo (1510-1568). Lassus set to music 20 Madrigali spirituali, not 21; the last one being a motet
Thank you for this. BTW, it’s pronounced uh-GUSS-tin when you’re talking about the saint. The city in Florida is pronounced AW-gus-teen. Don’t ask me why.
