Recommendations for someone new to opera

[spikesebrog363]

Hi all

I am wanting to start listening to opera, but I find the more intense operatic vocals a little confronting haha. I was wondering if I could get some recommendations for some good places to start? I have recently been listening to the Marriage of Figaro if that helps at all, I would probably like something somewhat along the same lines as that to begin with.

Thanks in advance, let me know if I need to provide any more information! 

[karlhenning]

Welcome! I should suggest two short operas:

Stravinsky, Mavra (based on a comic verse-drama by Pushkin)
Britten, Albert Herring

[karlhenning]

Bizet's Carmen is fanous for being opera which non-opera-lovers can love, as well.

[Gurn Blanston]

Bizet's Carmen is famous for being opera which non-opera-lovers can love, as well.

It worked for me. I started with Figaro also, then Don Giovanni, then Carmen. It was a wonderful progression.

[mc ukrneal]

I always recommend two operas for those looking to get into it  (with the third being Figaro):
Puccini - La Boheme (already mentioned)
Humperdinck - Hansel and Gretel (simply glorious music)

Both are not overlong and have wonderful music/songs. Knowing a story before you watch can be helpful too (a plus for Hansel and Gretel).

[karlhenning]

I always recommend two operas for those looking to get into it  (with the third being Figaro):
Puccini - La Boheme (already mentioned)
Humperdinck - Hansel and Gretel (simply glorious music)

Both are not overlong and have wonderful music/songs. Knowing a story before you watch can be helpful too (a plus for Hansel and Gretel).

I need to hear the whole of the Humperdinck; I was at a concert performance of one scene, and it was ravishing.

And I agree that Puccini is for many an excellent introduction to opera . . . which fact (despite of the scorn in which some hold him) must, I think, testify to the power of his talent.

[Cato]

Richard Strauss: Elektra

Arnold Schoenberg: Erwartung

Two short operas (90 minutes and 40 minutes) offering beauty and intensity of emotion.

[Mood4Classical]

Puccini: Tosca !

consider opera arias, you will find some great material in this double disc:

[Mirror Image]

I'm not a big opera fan myself, but I have been able to appreciate the genre with a few that I've come to actually enjoy:

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
Wagner: The Ring
Wagner: Parsifal
Bartok: Bluebeard's Castle
Debussy: Pelleas et Melisande
Ravel: L'Enfant et les sortileges

[Superhorn]

    There are so many terrific complete recordings of so many different operas and a growing number of them on DVD.
    Be sure to use the English subtitles on DVDs, which you can access from the Menu.  Also, most, but not all  CDs of complete
   operas have a booklet with the synopsis of the opera and  an English translation of the libretto along side the words in the
  original language. 
      You can also download English translations of the librettos at the Naxos records website.  You should find any of these popular operas highly enjoyable : La Boheme,Tosca ,Madama Butterfly ahnd Turandot of Puccini,  La Traviata,Rigoletto, Il Trovatore,  Aida, Otello,
and Don Carlo of Verdi, Cavalleria Rusticanan of Pietro Mascagni and Pagliacci of Ruggero Leoncavallo, Carmen by Bizet,
Don Giovanni, The marriage of Figaro, and the Magic Flute of Mozart, Orfeo &Euridice of Christoph Willibald Gluck ,
Fidelio by Beethoven, Der Freischutz (the free shooter) by Carl maria von Weber, Les Contes D'Hoffmann(The tales of Hoffmann)
by Offenbach,  Manon ,Werther and Thais of Jules Massenet, Faust and Roemeo&Juliette by Charles Gounod,
Andrea Chenier by  Umberto Giordano, La Gioconda by Ponchielli,  Mefistofele by Arrigo Boito,  Lucia di Lammermoor,  Don Pasquale and L'Elisir D'Amore (The elixir of love) by Gaetano Donizetti,  Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Cenerentola (Cinderella) ,and  L'Italiana in Algeri
by Rssini,  Norma, I  Puritani and La Sonnambula by Vincenzo Bellini,   Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky, Yevgeny Onegin by Tchaikovsky ,  The Bartred Bride by Bedrich Smetana,  Rusalka by Dvorak ,  and Jenufa by Leos Janacek,   etc .
     Wagner is a must, but it's best to try  these other opera fist before you get involved with his music.  It can be very difficult for opera newbies  to get into.   
    Get CDs by such great singers as maria Callas,Joan Sutherland,Luciano Pavarotti,Marilyn Horne,  Placido Domingo,  Sherill Milnes,
    Birgit Nilsson,  Christa Ludwig,  Nicolai Ghiaurov,Montserrat Caballe,  Reanta Scotto,  Giuseppe Di Stefano,  Tito Gobbi,Leontyne Price,
   Mirella Freni,  Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau,  and others,  and conductors such as Solti,Karajan ,  Levine,  Muti, Barenboim,  Maazel,Mackerras,  Gergiev,  Carlos Kleiber,  etc.    You'll never regret becoming an opera fan !    Opera is as addictive as drugs, but a heck of a lot safer  !

[jochanaan]

Hi all

I am wanting to start listening to opera, but I find the more intense operatic vocals a little confronting haha. I was wondering if I could get some recommendations for some good places to start?...

Anything by Mozart, as you're already discovering.  The two other big Mozart operas are Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute.

Rossini's operas generally call for lighter, less "confrontational" voices.  The Barber of Seville is probably his best-known.

And if you like slightly more "contemporary" classical music, Stravinsky's Le Rossignol is really lovely.

Anything by Verdi is probably okay, but I'd suggest leaving Wagner's "music dramas" until you're already heels-over-head in love with the medium.  Oh, and "The Medium" by Gian Carlo Menotti is very nice too. And anything by Benjamin Britten is more than worth hearing--and seeing.

[bigshot]

Ha! A thread on operas to introduce someone to opera that includes Parsifal!

[jochanaan]

Ha! A thread on operas to introduce someone to opera that includes Parsifal!

Yeah, Parsifal is definitely "hard-core" opera.

[Brian]

Just chiming in to agree with the consensus: Carmen! Don Giovanni is a fantastic introduction too. Those are probably the top picks, REALLY easy to love them both, along with Puccini - my first opera ever was Madame Butterfly, but then I don't listen to opera very much so maybe it doesn't work

Two other suggestions people have made, L'enfant et les sortileges and Hansel und Gretel, are pretty much operas for kids which just happen to be gorgeous and very funny and happy-making and not at all intense or hard to follow. I wouldn't make them somebody's very first opera, though, as L'enfant has lots of goofy stuff like singers pretending to be cats and Hansel has a couple fairly dry scenes before the totally stunning heart-overflowing music Hansel and Gretel sing in Act 2...

[Mirror Image]

I'd suggest leaving Wagner's "music dramas" until you're already heels-over-head in love with the medium.

I'm not a huge fan of opera and I love Wagner's operas in particular The Ring, Parsifal, and Tristan und Isolde. I don't think a person needs to be completely in love with opera to enjoy Wagner. I'm proof of this notion.

[karlhenning]

I'm not a huge fan of opera and I love Wagner's operas in particular The Ring, Parsifal, and Tristan und Isolde.

But, neither were you new to opera, see thread title.

[mc ukrneal]

Two other suggestions people have made, L'enfant et les sortileges and Hansel und Gretel, are pretty much operas for kids which just happen to be gorgeous and very funny and happy-making and not at all intense or hard to follow...

I've highlighted the part that makes, in my opinion, for an ideal introduction to opera for most people. Opera in itself is a big adjustment for most people, so the easier and more fun it is, the more they are likely to return to it. The other element I would add is that is should not be an overlong opera.

Also, Hansel is not dry at any point - it is a fairly continuous movement. When you watch it, it is not static (if done well at any rate).  And just because the story is a kids story does not make it an opera for kids. I think that is entirely the wrong way to think of this opera.

[Mirror Image]

But, neither were you new to opera, see thread title.

Actually, I'm still completely a novice when it comes opera. The first opera I heard was Bartok's Bluebeard and prior to that, I had heard nothing. Wagner was my second going at opera. He made me appreciate the music as an art form. Bartok's, while incredible in it's own right, wasn't that far removed from a work like his Cantata Profana, but Bluebeard obviously doesn't have a choir.

[Daverz]

My favorite opera is The Cunning Little Vixen.  It's out of the "mainstream", but, well, mainstream schmainstream.

And I prefer the recording below the more usually recommended Mackerras.  And the DVD/Bluray shown is a very good production.



Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle, with only 2 characters, is an opera perfect for recordings.

[bhodges]

My favorite opera is The Cunning Little Vixen.  It's out of the "mainstream", but, well, mainstream schmainstream.

And I prefer the recording below the more usually recommended Mackerras.  And the DVD/Bluray shown is a very good production.

Having just become acquainted with this opera in the past year, I think The Cunning Little Vixen would be great for someone new to opera. And of the others mentioned, L'enfant et les sortilèges would be a good choice, too. But then, recommending something would also depend on the new listener's hesitations about the genre (if any). I have some friends who just hate sopranos - no matter what they're singing. (I don't get it, but there you go.) 

--Bruce