The most accessible genres of classical music are those which combine music with drama – namely ballet and opera. These forms combine pure music with a storyline and a visual feast.
Operas are quite peculiar things. They can be thought of as plays set to music (“musical drama”). But seen as plays, they really don’t stand up – wild gestures, simple and unbelievable plots, caricature. We have to suspend disbelief. Puccini’s “La Bohème” traces Mimi’s consumption as it sets in and kills her by the end of the opera, though she sings at the top of her voice throughout. As the Bluffers Guide to Opera points out:
“A very large percentage of opera plots depend upon somebody not knowing somebody else, even someone as close as a wife or husband, because he or she is thinly disguised by a tiny mask that would not fool anyone outside an opera for one moment.”
As music they are composed of a series of arias, and all the padding between them just helps push the story forward, quoting the leitmotifs of the whole opera to maintain the mood and keep the audience looking forward to the next memorable aria.
The history of opera
Operas are generally either comedies (happy ending) or tragedies (sad ending). The Italian opera back in the 1700s were based around story lines of the classical myths and they were by nature tragic – “opera seria” (or “serious opera”). Handel and Gluck were the best of the hundreds of opera composers writing at that time. By the 1800s we were getting both tragedies and comedies – Verdi’s “La Traviata” and Puccini’s “La Bohème” are tragedies, Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” and Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” are comedy. Wagner mixes both, but don’t expect to have sore ribs from laughing after an evening of sitting through an instalment of “The Ring”. As the twentieth century progresses, Musicals replace Operas, and songs replace arias.
Preparing for an evening at the opera
Before seeing an opera, it is best to prepare yourself to get the most out of the experience. Read a detailed account of the storyline in a guide like “The Opera Lover’s Companion” by Charles Osborne, so that on the day you can concentrate on the music and not worry about understanding the plot. And perhaps find a good version on You Tube in advance, preferably with subtitles in the original language. You are not spoiling anything – operas are meant to be watched over and over again! Perhaps best to avoid Pavarotti though. He was just too good, and even the dullest passages become golden in his hands – other performances don’t stand a chance in comparison!