Opera and Ballet: How We Missed the Point Entirely 

Former ballet soloist here: Classical ballets were structured along predictable lines throughout the whole piece, most of which are to showcase the technique and artistry of the dancers and the choreography (in various but also predictable variations) to which the story was little more than a backdrop. The story creates and mood and esthetic but its importance is rare. Neoclassical (Balanchine and post-Balanchine) ballets take this even further, and the choreography is mostly technical and even more athletic, there is (mostly) no story, and the music, costumes, and backdrop only provide the mood for the brilliance of the choreography. Excerpts from story ballets (classical story ballets) are not ideal but seem almost originally intended (the audience anticipates the climax of the pas de deux of the étoiles couple at the end of the third act), and are not harmed by being taken out of context and may even inspire their viewers to go see the entire piece.

A few years ago I gave an introductory lecture on "Don Giovanni" to an audience of new opera goers. When I got to the duet "La ci darem' la mano" one woman in the audience recognized it as a piece of music she had had performed at her wedding because it was so pretty and sweet and it was even about a wedding. You can imagine her shock as I explained what was really going on in the story behind that duet...

Professional dancer/choreographer here -- I think this argument only works for Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky's narrative work because those pieces were composed specifically for the story ballets. A lot of other Classical/Romantic-era ballets were patchworked together from music written for other purposes, and so don't have the leitmotif structure to hang on to. Also--I've choreographed a feature-length story ballet! THE QUEEN OF NORI is an original story ballet that follows a Queen who turns to dark magic to save her kingdom from war with neighboring powers. It has themes, leitmotif and all of the dancing drives the story forward, as opposed to pausing the action as discussed here!

I remember watching with my mother a concert on public television celebrating the music of Richard Strauss. There was a performance of the final trio and ending scene from Der Rosenkavalier. I remember fondly having to explain to my mother why Frederica von Stade was wearing slacks instead of a gown, as worn by Kathleen Battle and Renée Fleming. After explaining von Stade was playing the man and a terse explanation of what the scene was about, she wound up enjoying it. The performance was incredible, which of course helped

I think this take is a bit harsh, I agree that listening to the whole work is elevating the experience and your understanding of the pieces. But enjoying them by themselves is nothing to be ashamed about. It’s not like only reading the last page of a book it’s more like you have a delicious sandwich but you can add butter and toppings to make it even better.

I like the way Tchaikovsky drops three notes (the theme of 3 Cards) everywhere in the whole opera. So simple and even a little bit primitive but very interesting and powerful.

I agree that one can gain from listening to the whole ballet or opera, but if one particular aria in Italian that you don’t understand speaks to you, then that’s great. This is one way to listen to music, but there are others. Never forget that the key goal here is your enjoyment. It’s possible that once you know the context and meaning of the aria, you might enjoy it less. That’s okay!

There's one opera where the sister is comforting the brother who is in the throes of going insane. It is the moment his mind is slipping away. Their vocal exchanges expand and crescendo in a supernova of a final stand of self awareness about to disappear. A brother and sister. It seemed to me they began shouting to each other, rather than singing, lost themselves in the experience. It caused me to burst out in tears silently. My family members at the time were startled by my sudden reaction. I was sent stunned for a whole month after watching this. It was aired on PBS about 2006. I will not ever forget this.

You don't miss 'the point' because there's not a singular point to get. There are many. If you enjoyed something, you got 'a' point. And there's no real hierarchies among 'points'.

I absolutely agree with this! When I saw Tosca live at the MET Opera it was unreal to me. Everything just came together. The set, live music, voices, translation, and the company. I love The Pearl Fishers, but then I read the entire Opera and it meant so much more. A beautiful duet is less when you are unaware that it leads to a person sacrificing himself for the true love of others.

I feel like this about musicals too. So many songs are excerpted and sung as solos but you miss so much of the intended meaning and the deeper nuances without the rest of the show.

There's a (very useful, IMO) corresponding idea in American Musical Theater (AMT), of book versus breakout numbers. One of the defining features of AMT is that critical plot development happens in songs (rather than in dialogue - unlike opera, AMT usually isn't through-composed). But some songs ("breakout numbers") are (often deliberately) still good songs outside of the play's context, and become independently successful, much like these highly visible arias, while others ("book numbers") really don't work outside of the context. I don't think this is a flaw at all. It's music that works successfully on two different levels, and which, if someone first hears it outside the piece, turns into a surprise bonus for the listener when they get its context.

Many people who listen to the most popular Opera Arias will never attend an opera in their lives. So if this is their way of enjoying it I think that is a good thing. Also the Opera world seems to have lost sight about what the world regards as a world class and world famous opera star. That's why a Pavarotti, Maria Callas, Renee Fleming or Dimitri Hvorostovsky are globally recognized and stand the test of time. The great numbers of people who would otherwise have no interest in opera at all will listen to these stars. High quality video and audio will assure their popularity for generations to come. Also I am delighted that Andrea Bocelli is so successful. His recitals combine many popular opera arias with great songs outside of the classical world. This provides exposure to audience members who would not otherwise consider classical music. This is a good thing.

In Italian operas, the arias can and does stand alone, as Wagner critiqued in his essay On Music and Drama. Often this was for the singer's glory too, as in bel canto. In Wagner's works The Ride of the Valkyries is misunderstood both as a piece itself and its meaning, and in its placement in Die Walküre.

Like quotes from a book can be quickly consumed and enjoyed but there is no comparison to reading the story or understanding it’s interlacing themes prepared with thought and richness. Both can strike inspiration but one weaves it with many aspects of life/depth. It’s just harder to make and takes more effort to consume/digest. Much like Living…😂

Thanks for the insight. ‘O mio babbino caro’ from Gianni Schicchi is one of the most well-known arias but the ironic story behind it is really interesting and not often known. Would have been a good one to explore too.

I think you can appreciate the entire art form and still listen to excerpts at the same time. I like to listen to tracks from movie soundtracks now and then, just for their own sake. Side note - have you heard "to die for" by Hans Zimmer on the Lion King soundtrack? Super epic. He riffs on Mozart's requiem

I like what you’re saying as a veteran opera and ballet goer (over 60 years); however, it’s Zurga and Gilda (pronounced with a soft g [Jilda]).

Thank you so much for including ballet on your channel! It's a beautiful art, not often considered by mainstream. I'd add as a general note that watching/listening the a full work maintains the overall balance of the excerpts everyone knows. For example, many times those excerpts are led to by a climax which gives them the majestic aura that they deserve, because everything else contributes to their beauty in the full work. In ballet, this happes with the pas de deux, usually the greatest moments of a ballet which lose a lot of their beauty and importance if taken out of their context.

My favorite repetition of the R&J conflict theme is when Lady Capulet does her over-the-top mourning for Tybalt. The quality of the movement emphasizes how performative and manipulative her expression of grief is, and the music representing the conflict helps reinforce that idea.

Yes and no. You paint kind of an idealized composer/artist vision of opera, but historically it's messier. The idea that the text should be "the mistress of the music" was thought of us as new at one time. Opera has been criticized for tropes like the soprano singing virtuosic runs in major keys before dying... then the audience applauds enough, and the story stops completely while the singer breaks the fourth wall and gives an encore, maybe even tossing in something from a different opera. Pearl Fishers has been criticized as having some of the best music set to the worst libretto in the repertoire. Even the librettists were quoted as saying something like "if we knew what a great composer we were working with, we would have tried harder." Modern musicals are sometimes put together all post modern from various songs that were not intended to match. Now some (me for example) might say a lot of these are bad musicals, but some are great successes. Opera that shows off the singer at the expense of anything coherent and plot related at times was likewise successful and important. It can also be important for shows to have "hits" that can stand on their own. Many composers go on to make suites out of parts of opera and ballet scores. Now maybe they'd say "if you like the suite, please go see the whole thing, you'll understand more!" but I don't know many would go so far as "when you go to my concert and listen to me conduct my the suite, you're missing the point."

was just listening to La Callisto today, and this upload hits my notifications, crazy

Another good example is Ode an die Freude, from Beethoven IX. It is so much stronger after so many emotions of the previous parts

I enjoy operas but it also means I have to do extra readings on ones not sung or written in English, my native language. So I do enjoy excerpts for favourite pieces from whole opera works. Yes, the whole work matters, but we should still be allowed to enjoy the MUSIC from favourites. People vary and same with musical tastes.

A little hard to take you too seriously when you can’t get the names of the characters correct! Rigoletto’s daughter’s name is pronounced with a soft ‘G’ (i.e. Jilda), not a hard ‘G’. The character in The Pearl Fishers is Zurga, not Zunga! Please do just a BIT of research before you send things out into the world on the internet - mistakes like this just make you look a little silly.

I would suggest that rather than merely listening to the completes score of a full ballet or opera, if you want the full effect, you'll need to go see the full production, or at a minimum, a good video of a full production. Once you've done that for a given work, you can listen either to the full scores or even to excerpts and may be able to bring back that memory to enhance your appreciation of them.

“Pieces that aren’t well known” what are your favorites? Mine: “Nous avons en tête une affaire” in Carmen. Also the way the overture transitions into the crowd scene the first act opens with. But also, how that famous opening motif works its way into the score so that when it finally fully appears, it’s more foreboding than celebratory. Also, the doom motif at the end of the overture. Recommended: Met Opera 2010 recording starring Garança and Alagna. Donizetti’s Don Pasquale and Roberto Devereux. Also, L’elisir d’amore is actually really funny and the characters are interesting.

I disagree with the premise that a score/soundtrack must complement the movie. I have heard it so many times before. That view is wrong and dangerous. The score is an interpretation by a composer. It can stand on its own if the composer wants. It can complement the piece if the composer wants. But we need to stop saying things in the imperative, that scores must complement movies🛑It is causing great harm and is devaluing composers work. Especially when these movies flop.

I saw Rigoletto at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland and the operas are performed on an island so everyone (audience and performers) have to leave via a bridge. Well at the end of the opera Rigoletto says he is cursed and discussing the opera on the bridge going to our hotel I said that the curse of the Duke is that his role is performed by a short fat tenor. My interlocutor then pointed out that the short fat tenor who had sung the Duke was right behind us LOL Another version of Rigoletto they used the assassin, Sparafucile as a silent foreshadowing "spectre at the feast" character who hangs around the action. That worked so well.

I think the listener's context is important to consider. Thanks to my father, I've been a life-long classical music lover and have attended several operas, symphonies, and ballets over the years. Unfortunately, between work and family, it's been years since I've had the time and attention to participate in close listening of whole works. Excerpts and arias are my compromise between not listening and listening to whole works. Also, I believe that excerpts are a good "gateway drug" to help new listeners into the experience.

Yesss!! What an excellent point and I appreciate the way you applied it to different situations. "La Donna e Mobile" was just one of those catchy tunes until I saw the opera on PBS (I think it was the same production shown here). I had the captions on. Not only did I finally see the whole opera but reading the words and having them sink in really made me appreciate the story and the implications of the characters actions.

It's a question of whether to engage the mind or the emotions. In classical opera, even native speakers are hard-pressed to understand the words, much less follow the plot without doing a lot of prep work. I listen to arias/songs if I love the melodies/harmonies, and rarely pay attention to the words. I'm quite happy just listening to the highlights.

Idk about y'all but I love listening to complete operas lol. I listen to opera all the time. I love the music the text honestly doesn't matter for me too much I find it distracting when following along with the opera.

Some of my non-ballet friends thought that the movements were as specific as something akin to American Sign Language, rather than grasping the whole picture expressed by the choreography.

I agree, but the fact is that it was almost impossible to see very much opera before the internet, and video formats before that. For most opera goers, you might have seen a production of The Pearl Fishers 2 or 3 times in a lifetime. Now you can see as many versions as you can find, and you might not even like what you find.

If I'm going to engage in an entire opera or ballet I need a lot of help, including an audio description (particularly for ballet where I wouldn't have access to the visual element without it). Fortunately, RNZB and RNZO both provide these, together with touch tours where we get to see pieces of set and costume and sometimes talk with cast members. You've no idea what a difference that makes to some of us.

Imo the most ridiculous example is using Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen as a supposedly joyful soundtrack in commercials

You can re-watch a famous scene from a movie you like, but it's just not the same. Or maybe show it to a friend, who might be intrigued by it or say 'that's pretty cool', but still, not the same as watching the whole movie. The fact that most people in the comment section say you can do both is a bit troubling, in the sense that some people are a. completely divorced from the live theatrical experience and b. think of arias as 'songs' ... the fact that most people now stream music with ease doesn't help, it encourages skipping and shamelessly going back and forth between genres & artists. It's not the end of the world, but it's a bit sad to be honest, like losing the ability to fully appreciate something

With such classy informed and lofty comments one must think nothing can be appreciated un-nitpicked and undressed, but indeed it can be, given an audience whose intelligence doesn't exceed their ability to use it in good taste.

The backstage of the Met’s Pearl Fishers where the tenor Polenzani was asked about the song and he said he’s always sung it in concerts and had no idea “he was lying the whole time!” And just, the way he says it- So, um, the three of them totally run off into the forest together, OT3 is canon. Productions can have Zunga die in the fire he set to help them get away, or run after them, or anything else, but running after them is clearly the best choice.

Don't forget how Verdi also uses La Donna to great dramatic effect at the end. Rigoletto is celebrating having finally killed the Duke when suddenly he hears the Duke singing in the distance. At first he tries to brush it off as mind games, but once he cannot take it anymore he throws open the sack to find his daughter stabbed and dying instead of the Duke

The most basic mistake we make with regard to opera is imagining it's music to be listened to. It's not: it's drama to be watched. Remove the visual aspect, the stage action, and you're missing an essential part of the experience.

I could saw this as some ost for videogames or movies/series that make some invitation to watch/play the entire thing, for examples in my life could be the theme of Howl moving castle, i listed that composition a lot before i watched the movie, but i watched the movie only because the theme made me curious about it, in my case i don’t think the context of the movie give more pleasure to enjoy more the OST but i still like the theme. In other hand the the first ost of doom (i think it is) give me a motivation to play thoses games i haven’t played any yet, is more about what title play first that make delay the opportunity to play the saga, but i pretty sure i will play doom in the future. Other example but about Music only, with the caretaker and they “It’s just a burning memory” and “everywhere at the end of time” is pretty popular that theme and i used to listen it, so knowing that it from an interesting concept i tried to listening complete i failed 😅, i listed like almost two hours before i fell sleep 😅, i was exhausted before listening so it was my bad, i will try listening again when i have more time because i still curious (also when i awake i was in the last stage and that was scary af). With Liszt’s transcriptions, reminicenses, fantasys, etc. about others composer make me want to listening the music that he cited and alos the composer, but also want to listen more about Liszt, so is a conflict of interest between listening to Liszt of others composers 😂 I want to the put the last example and i think is the most important in my life, in the game of Saints rows 2 also gta san andreas (also posteriors game in the saga of SR) has when you’re driving the option to select some music in the radio in my two favorite radio stations are in second place the dubstep one, and in first place the classical music one, in the time i was playing SR2 at my 8-13 years old (i think it was at that age idk 😅 don’t ask) so with those games my passion to listening classical music began, listening to arias and pieces in those games is a pretty amazing thing and even is other games or series/movies i listened to some excerpts os classical music before those games i think that GTA SA and SR2 are the most important because are the only active and direct to put classical, playing the games and put that music was my election and in whatever time i want to listen that music over and over so later it make me to listen more classical music and know more about it, and returning to play thoses games is pretty lovely for me because i can enjoy more to that radio station 😊 In conclusion even if is not that good to only listening the aria or the popular one about some set of music it can be helpful to want to listening more to the people interested to that type of music, is an invitation to listen the whole work or in other examples to play some game or watch a serie/movie so i enjoy those arias/pieces are popular because are from an amazing work that anyone can enjoy when they has the opportunity to listening and watch the opera or ballet ^^

Verdi is using irony...he is trying to say that men are fickle selfish heartbreakers and that they project their own faults onto others.

I, too, disagree with Oscar’s premise. Some listeners enjoy less than all songs in a Broadway musical and I think it’s natural for some people to like less than all songs in an opera. It’s also possible to love one song and not enjoy the story or the entire musical performances. What one appreciates in music is personal. Clearly, there’s no harm if one is exposed to an entire score. However, it does not follow that hearing only one or two moving and memorable pieces is, in any way, “wrong.”

The Swan Lake theme appears in its full form three times and all together with its variations six times and it always just notes: "it's a swan". In No 9 Flight of swans; no 10 a lake with swans as well in end of Act 2; and it also highlights when Odile arrives that Siegfried thinks it is his Swan-Odette and when then a swan is at the window. In the final scene it appears when Odette tells Siegfried that she has to fly away as swan and finally, it's the last sad swan song...

Great take! There is a lot of depth in these artworks that gets missed when you abstract the "greatest hits" and isolate them from the greater context. You know what else is like classical ballet and opera in this regard? The traditional religious rites of Christendom, which gave birth to much of western classical music through its ancient Gregorian chant, medieval organum and Renaissance polyphony. A lot of the works of Palestrina and the like are not appreciated in full without also being plugged in to the liturgical cues, and the religion and piety that undergirds them. Like ballet and opera, these pieces get taken out of their intended context, and thus aren't sufficiently appreciated for their larger-scale function.

Could you do more stuff with “Discovering Classical Music” (podcast)

@Sunny Island: What is the name of the opera?

Quite enlightning.. 🤧

Performing a single piece taken from an opera or a ballet is NOT a problem. In fact, people who elevate ideology over music IS the biggest problem the music industry faces today. Take the Waltz of the Flowers for example, the piece itself is complete and there's nothing wrong with performing it independently. People are making a mistake when they obsess over the storyline and disregard the music itself. Ultimately, music CANNOT be about anything. Music is a unique art form, completely different from art forms such as novels and films, and we must treat it as such.

Wonderful video, thanks

As a classical composer here that is intending to write some operas in the future who is currently studying the Opera genre in school in History I don't agree with your take. I would be delighted, as a composer if 1 or more parts of a piece I write are so popular with the audience that they perform it on it's own. I don't see how that would be a disservice to the opera as a whole. If anything it sounds like good advertisement for the larger work, it makes the composer more famous and it might bring in some extra cash. With 1 Aria you can reach an audience that normally wouldn't go to an Opera or watch any large piece, you won't reach this audience with a big piece. This way you might get some of that group of people to come and see your work just of the excitement they feel on the 1 aria. Also most of the people in the group who aren't into large works won't ever listen to a full opera or go see one, so making a little bit of money because they stream or buy 1 Aria is not bad. A composer usually doesn't make much bank so any income is more than welcome. Also I think it's a bit problematic if we as a genre start acting like people should take our work more serious and invest energy into listening to large works. Yes the pay off is much bigger, but for most people nowadays it is too intimidating or looks like too much work. Acting like they are being in the wrong for listening to small pieces instead of the full work can make it worse. Since those people already think it's all too serious we would be playing into that and repulsing more people than we already do. Don't forget, the world doesn't owe us their attention, time, money and energy. We can do our best but ultimately it's up to them.

Unfortunately, Rossini is played far too little. Just recently discovered his other opera's, and what a discovery. If you want opera and ballet, give Guillaume Tell a try. Not only the Sinfonia, the whole thing... You will not regret it.

Thank you for the context, it's so impactful!

Yes yes yes da si si da I get the point, you're Mr. British classical man, I know your every word, maniacal laughter followed by fake crying.

Who has heard the wealth of music that Tchaikowsky wrote for ballet but eliminated? It's beautiful and every bit as good as the completed ballet.

Great video as always Oscar ! Please, make a video about Arvo Pärt, he's so little known despite he's great music. He's carrying classical music respecting the formats and rules of it and sometimes innovating so much and so good you cannot dislike his music.

Thank you for saying this! It's why I hate seeing CD's that are "Selections" or "Highlights" from various works. (The one I see most often is "The Messiah", which admittedly is neither an opera nor a ballet.)

I mostly tend to try discovering the whole piece after listening to a part from somewhere

not exactly the same but goes for mvmts in bigger works as well

But "ballet" are also on pop music videos ... for absolutely no reason. Or most rock music videos has just the band on playback with no consideration of the song lyrics. The ONLY music and videos that go side-by-side are ONLY the parody and comedy (music) videos (... and usually are also the songs that stick to a subject with no word salad fillers).

I don't think we missed the point. We're just seeing a part of it.

Completely disagree. Nowadays, a movie has to be PRODUCED. The Audio Order is 1) speech 2) noise 3) music. An opera or ballet was created by a composer. The music is the initial thought. With me, for the most people it is much to hard to concentrate on a dominating music action which is not musical fast food and the duration is more than 3 min.

The music needs to complement the story. So I vehemently oppose performing opera untranslated.

If I am enjoying an abstract painting without understanding why the artist made it or what it means to them does that negate its relevance to me? It’s effect on me? Doesn’t a work of art exist independent of the artist and their intentions after it is made public? And how do you define the limit of the larger context of the work? Do I need to make a review of all of their proceeding works? Do I have to have an understanding of contemporary artists and their works so that I can appreciate the context in which the artist worked? Do I have to have an education in art history so I can grasp the relevance of the artist relative to those artists whose shoulders he stood on? At what point does it become enough that I appreciate the work by itself?

Wonderful video thank you! There are such beautiful ballets that swan lake comes in only 4th or 5th. Hard to imagine this hey?

This is a brilliant video. Thank you.

I was surprised that you didn't mention Pagliacci, seeing as Vesti la guibba (and yeah I did look it up, I am not musically trained and i forget names!! my bad) is always used as a song to describe some huge revelation or breakthrough. Uhhhh. Yeah, it's more like a realization. IMO I think it's the most egregious example I can think of because it literally gets the emotion completely wrong. Once you find out the plot, nothing about it is amazing, it's just incredibly heartbreaking.

It's not as complex aas your examples, but one aria that I find people always misunderstand is "O mio babbino caro". People always focus on the title and think its a sweet song, which is very misleading. I always find it funny and also slightly horrifying when I see young girls performing it or people singing it to their fathers. If they knew the meaning and context of the aria, they most likely wouldn't do that!

Listening to an excerpt from a ballet or opera is different from sitting through an entire performance of a ballet or opera.

You're right, you're right, stop being Mr. right, cause what you're saying, in my knowledge of this kind of stuff, I'm more than familiar, I know everything even without a formal academic education of music. I was born to love acoustic music and it drives me mad but in a good way more often than not.

There are a lot of operas in which there is only one song worth hearing. I'm talking to you, Dvorak.

No pointing out that the temple theme also intones the 'Dies Irae'!

Thank you so very much

Chopin deserves a video in this channel.

87% of the people going to any opera house know fully or care about the plot of the work. They go for the Artist and the music. The dance sequences in Opera are often used as cues to go to the 🍸 bar. Can anybody reading this tell us what Mozart's IDOMENEO is about without looking it up?

Counterpoint: While you make an important point that the aria is only a part of a larger whole. Yet it is not possible for one who does not speak the language to appreciate the whole. Yet the arias have the musical strength to stand out on their own, even without the words. In the same way that a composer may write a really outstanding work, and yet still produce some that are mediocre, this should not prevent us from enjoying the best they have to offer. So one has a dilemma; shall I purchase libretti, or study Italian, French and German, then spend a boatload of money to purchase either an album or a ticket, or shall I simply listen to ¨King of the High Cś¨? And maybe even try to sing along in the privacy of my own home? I may live long enough to accomplish the first choice, but I can enjoy the second right now.

Well I believe it’s the same as listening to a singular movement of any piece, not to ridicule this as long as you can concentrate on the importance of the thing you are listening to.

I'm working on composing an opera, and coming to it as a playwright (although it's not an original story, which could prove ots downfall since the copyright holder ios ignoring me), serving the story is really important.

Never buy a "suite," It's music that has been excerpted from a larger work- look for the complete work. For example, if you're dopey enough to buy the Nutcracker Suite, you're gonna miss the must beautiful music in the entire ballet, the act 3 grand pas de deux

120 'When the listener applies these rules'. What!! I know these things as facts. I don't apply them a rules. Beethoven may have used motifs as a unifying feature across movements in his symphonies. Listen to them I aware of his using that technique, but I am not applying that technique. Talk of the lister 'applying: your three points is rot. Please write better. Cheers! :?

Can you do Why listen to Tchaikovsky?

Half the reason I love undertale is because of all the leitmotifs

Can you do a Why listen to Shostakovich

I think opera is very much NOT meant to tell the story. It is about giving arias, and the emotions they express, meaning and power. But still strong nonetheless.

NOOO. Opera is not a play with singing. It’s singing in a costume. Ballet is not a play with dancing. It’s dancing in costume.

"J" ilda ( pronunciation)

That’s why I hate when they upload only audio from an opera to RU-vid Opera is meant to be heard and seen at the same time

An interesting but ultimately a narrow and gatekeeper-y way of looking at things. This is not one of your best takes on subject.

The reason I became infatuated with Wagner's entire 15+ hour Ring Cycle operas was wanting to know more about the story and how 'Ride of the Valkyries' and 'Siegfried's Death and Funeral' music fit into the whole story. I was learning the story but also all the leitmotifs that comprised the music to better understand why those small themes were chosen at every given moment.

What about the rite of spring lol

🖒

well given that the modern mind has the attention span of an amoeba it is either excerpts OR NOTHING AT ALL sorry, but that is the way it is. i know your point. The Ride of the Valkyries in context of the whole opera IS UTTERLY ELECTRIFYING and i have listened to entire operas in single sittings ( hey, I even played in pit orchestras for live performances of opera. but modern audiences do not care. they want not only cheap thrills but quick ones

IThe character's name in the Pearl Fishers is "ZuRga", not "ZuNga",,,, also you pronounce the name "Gilda" incorreclty. It's pronounced with a soft (not a hard)"G"

One problem with opera is that even if you go and watch it, you still don't understand it, because quite often it's in Italian, and even if it is in a language that you understand, the words are still distorted by vibratos and hard to pick up. Of course you can read up on it, and lots of opera houses provide subtitles, but this also doesn't give a satisfying experience. I wish, someone would modernize some operas, like translating the lyrics into modern English, and have it sung by pop singers (with amplification), but keeping the melodies and harmonies from the original.

Also, please get the Character names right....

It’s “ZuRga”, not “Zunga”

Why should I listen to Chopin???????????????????

haha, who made these "rules" of how people must listen to us?