Fall And The Return Of The Opera

By Author: Gianni Truvianni
Total Articles: 32
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Now as summer is about to use up its weeks and days, the fall is approaching bringing many a joy to those of us who await its annual return but to me out of all the wonders that are to be offered by the fall; it is without much room for doubt the return of the opera season which is amongst its greatest delights. As some may not be aware most opera houses are closed by summer's brutal heat, perhaps because there none that have air conditioning or least as far as my knowledge stretches. I however feel that the heat in the auditorium is not the only thing that leads to opera houses being closed but the fact that most operas extend over the one and half hour mark; some going on for four hours with music that in all sincerity is not light as are the delicate strings of for instance Vivaldi.

Quite the opposite of being easy listening music as some might like to consider it, the music to be heard in operas is very heavy at times; to match any other kind in not only volume, (this considering that none of the music is being amplified by the use of electricity in any form) but in passion as well that goes beyond the sounds which ...
... are produced by orchestra and to the singing which is more then just words that are sung as opposed to spoken. In opera singers are required to act as well; making their ability to bring to live those characters just as important as their ability to sing notes in key. It is the music along with the performances being so intense that has guided me to the conclusion that opera is the sort of music which is not suited for the months of summer.

Of course I am aware that this may be an overly personal point of view on my part for the cause that leads opera houses to close down during the summer as it may also be the need of the performers to go on vacation and what better time to do so then when most of their audience are doing likewise. I however will say for my part that I find summer to be so intense in its zapping me of my energy that it does not even encourage me to want to play my opera DVDs but rather concentrate on listening to symphonies or sonatas or other such music that is not opera. To many music may express different people's mood but to me it also expresses the atmosphere to be found in different seasons of year, for instance summer's months are ideal for symphonies and other such orchestral music which is what prompted me to write a poem called Summer As A Symphony while fall's months are the same to start the opera season which goes till the start of summer. Fall on the other hand with the vitality it gives me allows me to enjoy the energy that comes from opera, where in summer's heat the same feelings would simply exhaust me. At the start of my book New York's Opera Society, the main character Bill Albert also finds his strength to attend a performance of Wagner's Gotterdammerung from all that is the fall, from its falling leaves to the holidays that come at this time of year.

Bill however is fictional as are most of the characters in my book New York's Opera Society however as for myself there is one thing that I found strange about opera when I first started listening to it and that was how though many of the people who are opera fans are perhaps people of means who dress up in suits or intellectuals, though some may say snobs the stories connected to opera for the most part are about simple people. By simple people I have in mind not those who are of the upper social classes but those like the foot soldier who falls in love with the gypsy; whose name Carmen is that of the opera she stars in. It is precisely stories of people like this who give opera that feeling of passion as theirs are everyday stories of love, jealousy, anger and need that can even be found in many a film but in opera take on perhaps a more sophisticated tone given the background in which they are presented or the music and singing that make those lines so vivid. For instance when it comes to this sort of people we might take in to consideration the characters from the opera La Boheme who in poverty live the arts as it is bassically all they have to keep them company in the hardship life imposses on them.

I naturally am aware that many will always see the opera as perhaps being boring and stuffy but I believe that if they could just read the stories behind most operas they will see that a lot of them if not most of them are about people whose lives are not so different then those seen in many a film. In opera there is action as in Wagner's Sigfried which depicts its main charact Sigfried doing battle with a dragon after which he takes on and defeats his grandfather (though unkwon to him at the time) Wonton, who had killed his father. As for drama what more could one ask then the story of Othello which is also portrayed in one of Verdi's operas that could match Shakespeare's version of the same story for all its tension which has filled many an auditorium through out the world. There is as one might understand much more to opera then meets the eye and for he or she who is willing to give it a try I sugest that he or she do the following. First that he or she before going to see an opera read the story of the opera as to know what is happing on stage and prefably where ever possible to see it at an opera house that offers subtitles so he or she might follow the words. In my opinion seeing an opera without understanding what is being sung is as senseless as seeing a film without understanding what is being spoken.

As for the music, this I do strongly recomend any perspective opera spectator to get hold of it beforehand in order that he or she might become familiar with it. It is dificult even for someone like myself who has seen many an opera to hear an opera for the first time. The music is more complicated then popular music, therefore it is not so easy to pick up on the melodies and harmonies let alone apreciate them. It is this the cause of why I suggest going out and buying a CD of the music and prefably not the whole opera at first but highlights as knowing the music to the whole opera will not be a real advantage over knowing just one hour of the music.

Another reason for this recomendation is that it often happens that people do not like a song after hearing it for the first time but perhaps after having been forced to hear it many times on the radio or on TV they start liking that song that at first they did not like. This in my opinion would apply more with opera as the songs which in operas are called arias are longer and slightly more complicated not only in melody but in harmony then the average popular song so perhaps those who have visited an opera and walked away with boredom should try my sugestion and who knows perhaps next time they will not feel so disapoited after the opera. This is also the strategy I sugest parents to follow who are taking their child to an opera to see a performace for the first time which I have expanded on in my story The Little Opera Singer which can be found on several websites through out the internet.