Revealed: Why You Can't Understand What An Opera Soprano Is Singing

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 1-8-2004 | Roger Highfield

[bcoffey]

The "text" is irrelevant in opera

Why?

[muawiyah]

Noted your comment on the high prices for opera tickets ~ Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington Indiana has had opera going for over half a century. There are not just several performances per year, they have several different operas performed several times per year.

The ticket prices are quite reasonable and after I retire in the area I intend to attend as many performances as I can as long as I can.

[oldtimer]

This old oxymoron NASCAR redneck loves Opera, and there is only one real American/British language opera which is Porgy and Bess.

Italians wrote the book with Opera, with the frogs and finally the Germans following.

I read the text, and watch the captions...and when it is La Boheme, get tears in my eyes every time.

[muawiyah]

Give me a break. Everybody knows why the text is unimportant. This is even more the case when you've seen the same opera 25 or 30 times! Then there are those times when you just "listen" to an opera for a couple of days.

I've even stood in the seats.

[RightWhale]

The "text" is irrelevant in opera.

It is hard to move the drama along without some verbiage, perhaps in a poetic form.

[onedoug]

In the mask and from the diaphragm.

[novacation]

"Italian's wrote the book with opera". No argument there.Don't forget that Mozart wrote operas in German and Italian.

[Maigret]

This old oxymoron NASCAR redneck loves Opera

I didn't know there were two of us on the face of the earth and to find us both here on FR!

[supercat]

I don't understand most opera lyrics- but I never, never have trouble understanding Gilbert and Sullivan.

Indeed, some of their patter songs can move at a truly amazing clip while remaining quite understandable. Well, intellegible anyway.

[novacation]

Hey wait! I'm a redneck too!

[onedoug]

Try Don Giovanni, Tosca and Wozzeck.

[Hon]

Everybody knows why the text is unimportant.

Everybody but the Met and all the other opera houses that have spent a fortune installing various captioning equipment.

[Seeking the truth]

What's your better half think of this?

[Maigret]

Did you know the Life of Verdi is now available on DVD? 4 discs and about 7 hours running time, it aired originally on PBS years ago, then on Bravo and 4 hours were added to the DVD. You can get it for a great price at deepdiscountdvd.com, though our new sealed copy did have some annoying skips and pauses on some of the discs it was well worth watching.

I've just ordered the newer DVD of Don Carlos sung in French as he evidently meant it to be sung, can't wait to see it.

[Agnes Heep]

This can't be half as bad as trying to distinguish pop lyrics over the din of the percussion.

[Frohickey]

Can't these sopranos just use loudspeakers? ;)

[VadeRetro]

It was kind of stunning to realize that Charlotte Church was singing in English ("Tell Me What Love Is") in her treatment of Mozart's Voi Che Sapete. Must have listened to that CD four times before I realized I was hearing my native language on that cut.

[VadeRetro]

... there is only one real American/British language opera which is Porgy and Bess.

The Mikado deserves better than this. So does The Pirates of Penzance.

[Hon]

Did you know the Life of Verdi is now available on DVD?

No I didn't. Thanks. I saw it the first time around. Great photography. Amazing that so many places from his life remain unchanged.

I don't think most people realize what an important political figure Verdi was to the Italians. He did as much to bring about the Italian Republic as anybody.

[muawiyah]

Those fortunes were wasted if the purpose was to make opera more understandable.