I recently started seeing a professional opera singer. He’s an ensemble member. I don’t know anything about opera and he seems pleased enough to talk to me about it, but do you have any recommendations for where to start with operas?
For the record, his favorite opera is called Daughter of the Regiment. And he described it as “French soldiers find an orphaned girl on a battlefield and decide to raise her. Years later when her partner wants to marry her she’s like “okay but you have to impress my 40 French fathers” and that sounds like a great opera to me. Love a silly story.
Ah yes! La fille du régiment, which is a silly story about how to impress your girlfriend's 13-25 dads, and also some woman who technically gave birth to her, I guess. It's a riot! I can recommend the Met Opera's version, which is fun and charming, and doesn't try to get too complicated with it; I watched it with a friend a couple years ago.
(Akhnaten, which I also watched with that friend, is....not that. Wildly impressive! But Philip Glass doesn't know how to write music that's 'not complicated'.)
The point is that if you are taking your first, tentative steps into opera, I encourage you to start with whatever jives with your taste. Some people love a harpsichord and a plot that only vaguely makes sense, in which case there are many, many baroque operas to enjoy. (I particularly like this production of Camdus et Hermione, and this delightfully staged production of Hercules---the Handel opera I saw this weekend falls into this category too.) Other people want some musical heft, but aren't willing to travel too far down the path---Mozart is great if you're in this category, there is a wonderful version of The Marriage of Figaro on youtube; there's an English language Die Zauberflote or The Magic Flute. Donizetti, who wrote Daughters of the Regiment, showed up just as this chapter of musical history was closing.
Or hey, maybe you want something with real weight---this is where you get into the Romantics with a capital R, your Verdis and Puccinis, your Tchaikovskys and Wagners. This is when opera starts to sound like opera, whether it's high drama and slightly scandalous (Bizet's Carmen, when it first premiered was considered wildly naturalistic and shocking) or a warmly comedic journey (if The Tales of Hoffman has a moral, it's 'Poetry Is Better Than Sex'). If you have a robust library nearby, they probably have at least a few filmed operas from this era in their catalogue. If you don't---youtube is lousy (really) with (yes) options (so many options).
And....well, honestly, this is the point where I tend to tap out; past the Romantics you get into modern or contemporary operas, and I connect a lot less. (I just can't hang with Britten, I'm so sorry.) That said, I ended up loving this double bill of Gilbert & Sullivan + a contemporary opera about sex and politics, and I have a weak spot for The Exterminating Angel, which is deeply inexplicable and fascinating. I've seen a few others on stage that I could suggest---but I would reserve this category for when/if you've tried out the others and decided you absolutely love opera.
Or hey, maybe you're the kind of person who listens to skrillex music on repeat! In which case, please find your way to a Philip Glass opera immediately. He wrote them specifically for you.
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