The commitment of opera maniacs - WHY?

[Philidor]

Inspired by Mischa's thread [ame="http://www.brightcecilia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2518"]here[/ame], can anyone explain? It's more than just pretty frocks and Claude Erskine-Brown* looking into Mizz Liz Probert's eyes in the champagne bar at the ROH...





* The opera-loving barrister and hopeless cross-examiner in [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumpole_of_the_Bailey"]Rumpole of the Bailey[/ame] who named his children Tristan and Isolde...

[Scott Good]

I would go for the most 2 most obvious reasons:

Story: Everyone loves a story. And that's what opera is - telling a story.

Spectacle: I mean, it costs something like $20,000 a day just to light the Ring when they did it in Toronto! (in other words, opera ain't green!) Let alone an army of highly trained musicians playing their best, another army of choristers in beutiful synchronicity, soloists who not only sing, but act and even dance sometimes (or have sex...). There's the sets, and the epic set changes.

It's a hell of a show! And you don't need a music degree to get that.
Music, theater, art, staging/choreography - science, philosophy etc etc. All sorts of right and left brain activity going on. Something for everyone.

[mamascarlatti]

Originally Posted by Scott Good

Music, theater, art, staging/choreography - science, philosophy etc etc. All sorts of right and left brain activity going on. Something for everyone.

Yes it's the combination of all that really pulls on my heartstrings, somehow it seems to make the human emotions and situations in a story more poignant when they are sung.

Other things I would add: I love the human voice as an instrument, and especially when there is a felicitous interplay between voices and other instruments (Handel springs to mind for me here)

When you get to know various operas, it's fun seeing and hearing them interpreted by different artists and directors. Sometimes you see something that really brings out a side to the work you hadn't thought of (like the Salzburg festival M22 Nozze, which whatever else you might think about it effectively explored the dark side of the play)

[Florestan]

I think I am beginning to get it. Opera is magic. Even when it's awful.

[Philidor]

I'm starting to get it too. I'm also beginning to understand the bitchiness traditionally associated with opera. It's not just the massive egos involved - perhaps necessarily large to fill those halls - but the massive stress associated with pulling gargantuan shows together.

[Scott Good]

Originally Posted by Philidor

I'm starting to get it too. I'm also beginning to understand the bitchiness traditionally associated with opera. It's not just the massive egos involved - perhaps necessarily large to fill those halls - but the massive stress associated with pulling gargantuan shows together.

Ya, some bitchiness...but the wrap parties kill orchestra parties! (I aint kidding) Singers are way fun to party with.