21 April 2010

A Night at the Opera

Photo courtesy of itsmarx.com

This post isn't actually at all about The Marx Brothers, though they do indeed hold a special place in my heart (except that Zeppo, he wasn't very amusing). This post is about... opera.

I have a wide and varied interest in music. Yes, some forms of music still sound like nails on a chalkboard to me -- the oxymoronic Christian rock, for example ("abstinence, tea-totaling, and rock 'n' roll" just doesn't have the right ring), or most music created by teenagers (Miley Cyrus, Justin Beiber, I'm looking at you. Pointedly.)

At any rate, I always wrote off opera as one of those pretty but totally-not-my-thing-as-I'm-not-old-and-moneyed kind of genres of music. It always seemed like something pretentious and well-schooled individuals listened to, and I often got the impression that even opera fans didn't actually like it, they just went and listened to it because they thought they were supposed to, which is all rather gauche, to be honest. And it was judgmental of me, but ya know, I stick with what I'm good at. I never "got" opera. 

I mean, let's break it down a little. It's in Italian (mostly), I don't know what the hell they're saying, the story lines are often convoluted, and it's sing/acting, which always seemed like a really intellectual form of breakdance-fighting (not Capoeria) to me. I mean, singers just standing there, belting it all out, often in octaves not necessarily the kindest to one's ears, never seemed my thing. This prejudice, of course, may be a direct result of overexposure to the aforementioned Marx Brothers and classic Loony Tunes as a child, and my innate dislike of musicals (a la Rogers and Hammerstein) since I was a toddler. (I believe I one told Julie Andrews to shut up in Bugs Bunny voice at roughly the age of 4. Not to disparrage the lovely Ms. Andrews, as my appreciation for her has likewise grown, but something about those Von Trapps always bugged the heck outta me. No one likes their siblings that much, okay?)

At any rate, I never paid opera much attention. Until recently. I can't remember where or when I heard it first, but it was immediately like a switch was flipped. 

Ladies and gentlemen, my gateway drug:



From my limited research, it seems that Pavarotti's version of Nessun Dorma was widely seen as his song, and that it is often a person's first opera love. Also, it's from Puccini's weird-as-hell opera Turandot, the plot of which is so convoluted and bizarre, I won't go into it. Oddly, Turandot is (apparently) not considered one of Puccini's best works, but Nessun Dorma seems to remain a widespread favorite. If you've seen The Phantom of the Opera, as I have, it's really easy to hear where Andrew Lloyd Webber pilfered bits of the song for his own purposes, though the exact moments in his play where this happens escape me. 


I never knew what I was missing. Something about this song, and there are better recordings of Pavarotti singing it, but none on YouTube, boggles my mind. I've looked up the translation of the lyrics, but they don't seem nearly as beautiful or meaningful as when he sings them as they were written. I can listen to it repeatedly for hours on end (which I can do, as I apply for jobs for hours on end.) Cheesy as it sounds, I literally get goose bumps every time I hear it. Yeah, yeah, I'm a big pile of mush. Blah.


And it really was a gateway drug. I've started downloading opera, researching the story lines of operas, the different composers, the different performers. My current obsession is a more recent opera by Patrick Cassidy, based on Dante's La Vita Nuova. You might recognize it from the films Hannibal (the freakin' creepy scene at the opera) and Kingdom of Heaven, but it stands on its own damn feet, Orlando Bloom and Sir Anthony Hopkins aside.




And I can't help it. I'm hooked. Maybe it's a sign I'm getting older, or softer, or maybe even a little nuttier than usual, but I do love it. The melancholy and joy that can be heard in opera is unlike any popular music, and certainly, if more Emo kids could listen to it, Fall Out Boy would no longer be annoying me via the airwaves.


Sure, a newfound love for opera may make me dorky, or elitist, or pretentious (seems to be a thing with me lately), but I am totally in love with it. Opera singers' voices have a purity and beauty that you cannot hear anywhere else - it's no wonder it takes a zillion years of training to make it as a professional. I don't profess to be an expert, or even a diehard fan, but I am really surprised how much my musical tastes have changed to include this form. And, even if you do find it akin to taking a bottle-brush to your eardrums, I hope you at least give it a try.

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