sothatshowtheydoit replied to your post “sothatshowtheydoit replied to your post “Id say that was the dumbest...”
do you have a favorite "so you've never listened to opera before" opera?
“listened to” is not something I recommend at all—just listening to opera is a bit like just reading Shakespeare. Sure, it’s fine in a pinch, but it’s meant to be watched.
However, if you’re interested in diving into opera, here are a few I recommend:
Rossini - The Barber of Seville and/or Mozart - The Marriage of Figaro (they are based on plays number 1 and 2, respectively, of an immensely popular French play trilogy. Between the two, I’d recommend The Marriage of Figaro for first-timers, but it does add an interesting layer of understanding to watch both!)
Rossini - La Cenerentola (Cinderella as a comedy!)
Offenbach - La belle Hélène (based on parts of the Iliad but, like, hilarious)
Prokofiev - The Love for Three Oranges (French absurdism at its finest like I can’t even explain the plot except that a witch accidentally shows her knickers to the prince, the Jack of Clubs, and so she curses him to fall in love with three oranges... which he then goes on an epic journey to find and save)
Johann Strauss - Die Fledermaus (a bunch of rich people get drunk at a party and make fun of everything. It’s often updated so that the jokes reflect current events.)
Puccini - La Bohème (the opera RENT was based on, which adds another easy entry point)
Puccini - Tosca (powerful woman kills her would-be rapist to save her helpless lover! yaaay smashing gender roles!)
Richard Strauss - Salomé (based on Oscar Wilde’s play)
Gounod - Faust (man sells his soul to the devil. it does not go well.)
Dvorak - Rusalka (essentially The Little Mermaid, but taking place in a landlocked country)
Poulenc - Dialogues des Carmélites (omg don’t watch this but definitely do... it’s about nuns condemned to death during the French Revolution and the last scene is one of the most chilling I have ever seen)
Humperdinck - Hänsel und Gretel (the children’s story, but an opera, lol)
Mozart - The Magic Flute (crosses many genre boundaries; both comedic and super serious and a lot of people have a lot to say about Masonic imagery in it)
I think that’s enough for this list, lol. I know people are going to yell at me for not including Verdi but... I don’t like his most popular operas, especially the two that almost always involve blackface. If you’re gonna watch Verdi, I’d say watch Don Carlo[s] (YES I’M STILL WIGGING OUT ABOUT IT) but it’s kind of long so if you’re just starting out I’d say choose something shorter or at least more consistently exciting.