Tír Na HiFi

anything's possible Jared!

jaybee wrote:I look at my fear of opera like I would look at my fear of falling of a very tall building....! Perfectly natural and something I should probably trust my instincts about!

I think that you have to be very selective in your purchases. A few years ago Ciaran recommended Solti's recording of Bizet's Carmen to Fergus and me, I'm glad he did, it is a joy from start to finish; you can dip in and out as you see fit and you will not get vertigo from listening to it I can assure you.

I noticed that Sky Arts were showing Gotterdammerung last night. It started at 8:00pm and ended at 12:50am or something. That'll separate the men from the boys right there!

Diapason wrote:I noticed that Sky Arts were showing Gotterdammerung last night. It started at 8:00pm and ended at 12:50am or something. That'll separate the men from the boys right there!

Simon, I'm still breast-feeding...

(at least, I wish I was.... )

I'd like to stress that I didn't watch it, and I even wondered out loud to my wife whether I'd *ever* see fit to watch such a thing.

I actually do not like looking at opera believe it or not; I much prefer just to listen to it! I find the plot is usually so facile as to be meaningless and not worth the effort of trying to follow. An interesting parallel that I will draw is that given the type and amount of religious music that I listen to one would be forgiven for believing that I was a devout Catholic. There is in fact not a religious fibre in my body but that does not stop me from appreciating and loving the music. I once gave a piece of advice to another forum member who was struggling at the time with getting to grips with religious music and it was to listen to the voices purely as instruments. I have adapted my own advice in the case of opera and so far it has worked for me. Perhaps in time I too will also be buying heavy tomes to understand these operatic plots; for the moment, the liner notes are sufficient. I would also agree with Seán in that at an early stage it would be important to choose well. However if I walked into a charity shop and saw 6 operas at ridiculously low prices I too would snap them up no matter what they were!!!

fergus wrote:I actually do not like looking at opera believe it or not; I much prefer just to listen to it! I find the plot is usually so facile as to be meaningless and not worth the effort of trying to follow. An interesting parallel that I will draw is that given the type and amount of religious music that I listen to one would be forgiven for believing that I was a devout Catholic. There is in fact not a religious fibre in my body but that does not stop me from appreciating and loving the music. I once gave a piece of advice to another forum member who was struggling at the time with getting to grips with religious music and it was to listen to the voices purely as instruments. I have adapted my own advice in the case of opera and so far it has worked for me. Perhaps in time I too will also be buying heavy tomes to understand these operatic plots; for the moment, the liner notes are sufficient. I would also agree with Seán in that at an early stage it would be important to choose well. However if I walked into a charity shop and saw 6 operas at ridiculously low prices I too would snap them up no matter what they were!!!

Fergus, I really do agree with MUCH of what you say, and when it comes to Religious music, you and I are in every respect, singing from the same hymn sheet (as it were...)

There are two things which have always caused a personal barrier between me and most opera; firstly your point about the facile plot to many operas has historically put me off, and I certainly felt that about my first run through of Fidelio. Certainly I dabbled a little in my younger days when I was so very much into seeing Shakespeare performed at the theatre, and found the style and sustance to be not of my taste. I remember saying that I found 'The Magic Flute' to be rather silly, making our highly esteemed friend Pepe rather indignant in the process, and at present, I still hold that view, but I want to approach it all again with an open mind. I accept the criticism that thus far, my exposure has been too limited and to a large degree to Opera Buffa rather than Opera Seria, which might be more to my taste.

My second problem is that I would quite simply prefer to listen to a large scale religious choral work such as Klemperer's Missa Solemnis or an Oratorio such as Elijah on my stereo, than say Klemperer's Fidelio, and I don't think I'll ever see that changing.

I have however decided that I'm going to give Opera a serious go over the next 6 or so months, and keep an open mind about the whole thing. I feel I can only do that by giving a visual, staged performance my undivided attention and by reading up a little about it's background at the same time. My Uncle and Aunt don't listen to a great deal of classical music per se but are quite serious opera goers and I would like to understand what they get out of it. You hear stories of people attending their first opera, being transfixed and starting a lifelong love affair with the genre. I'm afraid that will never be me... if I ever get anything out of it, I'm going to have to work damn hard, but I'm going to give it a go.

Another point that hit me in the face very late in my attempt to kindle an appreciation of opera Jared is, once again getting back to picking your operas carefully, to choose works by composers whose musical language you are comfortable with to begin your journey with. You are then not battling against both a new composer/language and a new genre.

Happy listening and best of luck; I am with you all the way here!

fergus wrote:Another point that hit me in the face very late in my attempt to kindle an appreciation of opera Jared is, once again getting back to picking your operas carefully, to choose works by composers whose musical language you are comfortable with to begin your journey with. You are then not battling against both a new composer/language and a new genre.

Happy listening and best of luck; I am with you all the way here!

agreed completely... that's why I went for Fidelio, with Eugene Onegin up next. I really would like to invest in a small, select collection of high quality operas to enjoy, and for that reason, I intend to pick them very carefully.

But what about Boris?