Opera Newbie: An Intro To Opera From A Non-Expert

Trivia, Facts, Clips, Etc.(What's Opera, Doc? image propery of Warner Bros.)

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Io t’abbraccio from Handel’s Rodelinda, sung by Lucy Crowe and Bejun Mehta.

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Current wallpaper: interior of the Royal Opera House, London

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Amore, amor è palpito dell'universo intero…

Anna Moffo, La Traviata telecast from 1960[x]

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Kiri Te Kanawa & Bryn Terfel | Don Giovanni Sextet

Metropolitan Opera Gala 1996

Video

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Opera ABCs

E is for... Enrico Caruso (Italian pronunciation: [enˈriːko kaˈruːzo]; 25 February 1873 – 2 August 1921) was an Italian operatic tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles from the Italian and French repertoires that ranged from the lyric to the dramatic. Caruso also made approximately 260 commercially released recordings from 1902 to 1920.

Here’s a recording of him singing "Vesti la giubba" from Leoncavallo's Il pagliacci

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Alban Berg by Emil Stumpp

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Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (21 March 1839 – 28 March 1881) 

Russian composer, one of the group known as “The Five”. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period. He strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music.

Many of his works were inspired by Russian history, Russian folklore, and other nationalist themes. Such works include the opera Boris Godunov, the orchestral tone poem Night on Bald Mountain and the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition. (Wikipedia)

From our stacks: Cover detail from Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Its New Version By Victor Belaiev. Translated from the Russian by S. W. Pring. London: Oxford University Press, 1928.

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1954.

Maria Callas and Luchino Visconti.

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View from the stage of the Met Opera, 1937

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Opera ABCs

DA CAPO ARIA (DAH CAH-poh): An aria in the form ABA. A first section is followed by a shorter second section. Then the first is repeated, usually with added ornamentation.

Robert Kingston, Portland Opera’s historian and lecture gives a nice explanation, with a short example here:

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Review: The Desdemona in This ‘Otello’ Spits Fire

LoftOpera, which brings opera to industrial spaces, presents a different “Otello,” this one by Rossini, with a more fully fleshed-out heroine.

“The comparison to the Verdi is one reason Rossini’s “Otello” is so rarely performed. Berio departs from Shakespeare in sometimes drastic ways, resulting in a more diffuse plot. The character of Cassio is cut altogether, replaced by Rodrigo as the object of Desdemona’s suspected infidelity. Iago still pulls the strings, but has none of the dark charisma of Verdi’s villain. Otello, Rodrigo and Iago are all tenor roles — difficult ones, full of fast runs and ornaments — making the opera tough to cast.” 

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Opera ABCs

C is for COLORATURA: Elaborate ornamentation of vocal music written using many fast notes and trills.

The word Coloratura (Italian pronunciation: [koloraˈtuːra]) is originally from Italian, literally meaning "coloring", and derives from the Latin word colorare ("to color").[1] When used in English, the term specifically refers to elaborate melody, particularly in vocal music and especially in operatic singing of the 18th and 19th centuries, with runs, trills, wide leaps, or similar virtuoso-like material.[1][2] Its instrumental equivalent is ornamentation. It is also now widely used to refer to passages of such music, operatic roles in which such music plays a prominent part, and singers of these roles.

Some things you need to hear...

“Der Holle Rache..." Die Zauberflote - Mozart

Sung by Diana Damrau

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Current Mood. 

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Portrait of soprano Mattiwilda Dobbs as Queen Shemakhan in Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera, “Le coq d'or.” Stamped on back: “Photograph by Helga Sharland, 40 St. Margarets Rd., Edgware, Middx. Phone: STO. 7864.” Handwritten on back: “Mattiwilda Dobbs.” 1954.

Courtesy of the E. Azalia Hackley Collection of African Americans in the Performing Arts, Detroit Public Library

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                                              Decadent Volume

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John Eliot Gardiner and English Baroque Soloists - Overture to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro

I dare you stay still while listening

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Betty Allen (17 March 1927 – 22 June 2009) 

Renowned American operatic mezzo-soprano who had an active international singing career during the 1950s through the 1970s. Allen was part of the first generation of black opera singers to achieve wide success and is viewed as part of an instrumental group of performers who helped break down the barriers of racial prejudice in the opera world. She was greatly admired by Bernstein and the conductor notably chose her to be the featured soloist for his final performances as music director of the New York Philharmonic in 1973. After her singing career ended, she became a lauded voice teacher and arts administrator. (Wikipedia)

Portrait of mezzo-soprano Betty Allen. Stamped on back: “Betty Allen, mezzo-soprano.”

Courtesy of the E. Azalia Hackley Collection of African Americans in the Performing Arts, Detroit Public Library