If you want to go the G&S route, I’d just as well suggest Pinafore over Pirates. I think it’s a far better show. Even better, Trial By Jury. It’s short, sweet, and musically brilliant.
If you want something meatier, try (Verdi’s) Otello. It’s quite possibly the most perfect opera. And it has the perfect operatic plot. Boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl,
then everyone dies.
A “greatest hits” CD might be a good idea, if it has selections from Die Walkier. That’s what originally drew me in to opera.
Which is why I think G&S don’t qualify as opera. Loads of fun, yes, and classics in their own right, but I don’t think they make it to the level of opera. Not meant as a slam on G&S: They’re just a different art form (with puppy love!)
RALPH. I am poor in the essence of happiness, lady – rich only in never-ending unrest. In me there meet a combination of antithetical elements which are at eternal war with one another. Driven hither by objective influences – thither by subjective emotions – wafted one moment into blazing day, by mocking hope – plunged the next into the Cimmerian darkness of tangible despair, I am but a living ganglion of irreconcilable antagonisms. I hope I make myself clear, lady?
It depends on the person you’re introducing to opera, of course.
For just a generic starter opera, I’d go with “Marriage of Figaro” or “Die Fleidermaus.”
Thanks for all the responses. Keep in mind this is not for me, but rather for a random newcomer with earnest intentions.
Is there no love for my idea about starting with a Strauss shocker? Don’t make me go back to the friend I mentioned in the OP and say that not one person backed up my bid!
Carmen seems to come out on top- I can see why. But I guess I STILL think Elektra would be a better starter…Maybe I’m nutz.
Can anyone comment on the (in)appropriateness of Elektra or Salome as a starter opera?
It’s been a while since I heard anything from either, but they just seemed so damn noisy! I think they’re very much either love’em or hate’em kind of pieces. I would think that there would be a good chance that they would turn a newbie off opera entirely, if they didn’t happen to appeal to said newbie.
Strauss was composing in an art form that had been under development for two centuries by then, and his solution to “been there, heard that” was shock value of the music. I’m not sure that’s the best introduction for a newbie.
Bu-bu-but! Rosenkavalier! Elektra! Salome! Ariadne! Cappriccio! And don’t get me started about the NON-opera music of Richard Strauss! Glories and Riches!
This thread comes to mind:
Well what can one expect from a Gorilla Man?
It takes Diff’rent Strokes to move the world, I guess, as the song goes…
It opens with “Oh help, oh help, a giant snake is chasing me!” does it not?
The Reisenwurm in Wagner is toast.
I was listening to Das Rheingold on my MP3 (coolness in itself ) and reflected on the humanness of the gods if you will. Fricka bitching and then cajoling her husband when she finds out about the gold; Loge advising Wotan “to steal from the thief what he stole” the testosterone poisoning of Donner and Froth. Alberich beating up on his brother. Your basic screwed up families. There are relatively short scenes, there are of course motifs for characters and concepts.
Did I mention no arias?
I do feel compelled to add though, that the music of Strauss is not a reactionary “been there, done that” kind of deal. It is a clear extension of the Late Romantic Era, as you point out.
Noisy yes, shocking at times, yes (but hey- this IS theater, right?)- but also almost unbearably beautiful at times, menacing at others, it runs the whole gamut of emotion writ large, IMHO.
It still seems to me, though- (and this is EXACTLY how the argument with my friend went!) that all the operas mentioned above, the ‘good’ starters (Puccini, Verdi, Bizet, Mozart, etc) - they certainly possess winning qualities; I can see WHY one would choose them to start with. But- to ‘crack’ them beyond just being able to sit through the music, one needs to see through a kind of veil of style/genre- which requires much pre-knowledge or at least some natural intuition, or something. Strauss’s brand of Expressionism, IMHO, is just so coherent, so lucid and convincing, that he seems to remove that veil and the music is the emotion itself rather than a representation of the emotion. Of course it ISN’T; I know that- it’s still just music- but…I hope I made my point!
Oh- and don’t worry- when asked the question the OP concerns, I usually say “Well, it seems MOST people think you should start with Puccini, Mozart, Verdi, Bizet, I can see why and they’re probably right, but you might also want to try…”
I also love the Peter Grimes suggestion someone made up there. What do all the nay-sayers to Strauss (which I guess is EVERYONE who chimed in!) say to Britten/Peter Grimes? If Peter Grimes is “legal”;), I would actually push for The Turn of the Screw which is one of my favorites. I guess I think the ghost story angle is a good sell and very compelling. Chilling!!!
Oh and lastly- Wagner? Really? That seems almost…cruel to a newcomer! I love Wagner, and I’m not disparaging his work- but I just don’t see that as newcomer territory at all!
I became interested in Classical music through 2001: A Space Odyssey and then Wagner. The Ring is much more like a film or a novel to me than other opera, of which I admit I’ve not heard much. You’ve got your basic Dragon, your Flying Horse, your Warrior Maidens, Magic Sword, Treacherous Elves…this is cool stuff for the new guy!
I took three hours of German in college so that I could find my place in the librettos.
I think it’s just too weird. Gorgeous music, dialog so it’s not too monotonous (so I hear), gorgeous music, spectacular coloratura arias from the Queen of the Night, gorgeous music, sure. But it’s just TOO weird. I have seen it and played it and know it backward and forward (musically), but I really can’t say that I feel I understand it. Why the switcheroo of the antagonist? Also, and many of my friends would want to crucify me for saying this, but the initiation scene in Act II when they undergo those trials or whatever is kinda boring.
If I were going with Mozart, I think I would choose The Marriage of Figaro (which is a little long) or Don Giovanni before the Magic Flute. Maybe even the Abduction from the Seraglio, which has fantastic music (as so all of the mentioned), but is a little dry on stage.
How cool that you put in that serious investment of time studying German to understand the librettos more directly! I really admire that.
Just out of curiosity, what other operas are you familiar with, and which ones appealed to you? Which ones didn’t?
And since you find a lot of appeal in what I have come to think of as the D&D aspect of the Ring (no offense meant!)- dragons, magic rings and swords, Elves, sleeping maidens, etc- if you went to a production and found out that it was set in outer space or in the Vietnam War or something, would you be crestfallen? This happens to me all the time, BTW and only on rare occasion do I enjoy the change from the norm. I’m just wondering how someone like you would greet something like that.
