Can any of you understand Opera music?

[icame]

I was dragged to one recently and i could not understand a single thing anyone was saying.
I was ready to classify it as the same as most epic music in movies where they aern't really saying anything but then i heard someone say it was a well told story...

So fellow escapists, can any of you understand opera music.

 

[Lt_Bromhead]

Not as a story unless I happen to know the opera in question.
I am perfectly happy simply sitting back, eyes closed and listening to the beautiful music however.

 

[icame]

Not at fucking all. I don't get it, classical music is grand but some fat women or fat man or what ever screaming notes is not appealing to me at all.

 

[Queen Michael]

I watched that one... what's it called? The Magic Flute?
Anyway, I watched it on Dutch TV. Didn't understand a thing, just enjoyed the music and the eccentricity of Papageno.
(Okay, since it was in German there's no way I could have understood it even if it had been really straightforward.)

 

[LogicNProportion]

I can!

German and Italian, mostly.

 

[brainfreeze215]

Not at fucking all. I don't get it, classical music is grand but some fat women or fat man or what ever screaming notes is not appealing to me at all.

I'd say that's a very narrow view of what opera is.

Sometimes when you go see ones that are in foreign languages, they'll have subtitles projected up in English. Other times you can either familiarize yourself with the storyline beforehand, or try to follow the story by paying attention to the actions of the performers. A combination of these has always worked for me.

 

[Substance-E]

I think as long as you get the jist of the emotion they are supposed to be conveying you pass.

 

[Zyst]

I'd like to think I do. I hardly do though, probably.

 

[icame]

Not at fucking all. I don't get it, classical music is grand but some fat women or fat man or what ever screaming notes is not appealing to me at all.

I'd say that's a very narrow view of what opera is.

I agree, but the premise and what I've heard is so un appealing I've never wanted to expand my horizons and get a broader view of it.

 

[icame]

I've never been able to understand it, mainly as I don't speak Latin, Italian or German, which most operas seem to be in.

I do like a bit of opera though. Some of it's pretentious rubbish, but there's a lot of brilliance too.

Especially Esclarmonde.

 

[procyonlotor]

It takes some getting used to. But it's not as hard as you think if you know the language the libretto is in.

 

[monstersquad]

Every Opera is actually a story that's driven by narrative song, so each one is written in it's own particular language ie. French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian etc... So, yeah they are all actually technically comprehensible providing you understand the language they're written in.

 

[Declaro]

Yeah, though to be fair it helps to have read a summary of said opera beforehand if you don't speak the language. Otherwise, I don't struggle with it. There's good and there's bad opera, so some will suck, and some won't.

I like La Cenerentola and Verdi's MacBeth, of the few I've seen. I didn't like the English-language one I saw (Hansel and Gretel) because it just seemed silly, but that could've just been the production...

 

[Croaker42]

I caught Mozart's Arias at the Estates Theater in Prague. I for one am not huge into classical music, however I consider the experience well worth the time.
Now then for tose too lazy to look it up and would like to know. An Aria is (usually) a self contained piece for one voice. In my experience they are the most intense (in feeling and sound) part of Opera.
If anyone would like some form of introduction to Opera, finding a showing of select Arias would be a good way to start.

 

[bojac6]

I have enjoyed a few operas, but I also tend to avoid them unless I know I already like it. Was the problem that it was in a different language? Many times a proper production will have a booklet that describes the action and everything, it really helps in enjoyment. Finally, I think it helps that I'm fluent in German and have some knowledge of Italian, so I can, sort of, follow the words (sometimes, maybe).

 

[Exterminas]

To understand an opera you don't have to understand the words, you just have to listen. Many operas tell simple stories about love and despair, basically, that can be understood just by the mood of the music.

I know some things about the music itself, that i can share.

- At the beginning they play some sort of openning, i believe it's called ouverture, where the story of the whole opera is told. This happens in the way that certain fragments of melody, that will appear later in the opera in extend are played in a short version. So you get a little taste of the whole story/the whole music

-In the middle of the opera is usually a turning point, like in grrek tragedy, that's where things are the worst, when the problem reaches it's climax, the situation is the most horrible.

-I think they alternate within the opera between parts that are largely orchestra and parts that are laregly sung, but I don't know the eglish words for them.

 

[Alex Cowan]

One thing a lot of people don't get is that operas were originally written as mass entertainment. Stories such as 'The Magic Flute' were never aimed at aristocracy, and were never aimed to be more "cultural". The only barrier of understanding comes through language.

 

[CarpathianMuffin]

I somewhat understand it. My grandfather's trained me to do so.

 

[aschere van she]

ummm... I can if it's in english...

 

[SimuLord]

If I have a handy English translation (since I don't speak German, Italian, French, or Spanish), Opera's fairly easy to "get". Keep in mind that opera was written for the uneducated masses of the time as popular entertainment as well as being for the rich (which is why European opera houses have seating arrangements like they do, really a distant ancestor to luxury boxes in American sports stadiums.)

A little familiarity with the culture of the time goes a long way as well.