What is Opera?

[Crankie Avalon]

Poll question: What is Opera?

Embarrasing?



Lofty?



Both? Neither?

[LiberalVoice]

1. I dont think its either...

Just music...I dont really place any one type of music on a pedestal or in the garbage can...Well, except for most country...:shrug:

[Debi]

2. You place country music on a pedistal?

Yee Haw :bounce:

[LiberalVoice]

3. garbage can actually. nt

[sui generis]

4. you . . .you. . .. you're an OPERA BIGOT?!!

alert the mods.

I love opera. Unlike soap opera and real life where when you get betrayed by your best friend or lover and you have a bad day, in opera you usually die. Tragically.

It's big, it's emotional, it's mostly tragic, and it's a form of art. If you stack hip hop next to opera I'll pick opera any day.

And surprise, if it didn't have SOME merit, it wouldn't be a part of the arts culture or have the following that it does.

Can't wait for the hip hop thread. Be sure to use the word embarrassing . . .

[Crankie Avalon]

8. I'm not really taking any side...

...sometimes, opera has made me feel embarrassed. Other times, I've been in awe. I guess I'd say "both", then, but since I set up the poll, I haven't voted in it.

I probably am slightly more familiar with opera than the average person, but I was still hoping to read from people who really know about it and could speak knowledgeably from both sides of the fence.

Talking about hip hop would change the subject of this thread. I happen not to follow hip hop, but I don't think one needs to put it or any other type of music down in order to build up opera.

[sui generis]

11. fair enough

also they don't really compare - (just kidding about being an opera bigot -- mock outrage is fun since there's so much apparently real outrage everywhere else)

opera is a story form, like theatre with music. Most other music forms lack a three hour back story to frame the music, so it would probably be more appropriate to compare opera to greek tragedy (complete with chant/response) or American musicals (some of which are also embarrassing).

And you're right - like all art forms, they can't all be unqualified gems. You gotta have some duds to figure out what's good.

:hi:

[Squeech]

5. Is this a trick question?

It's the Macintosh browser, isn't it?

Seriously, opera was originally intended as mass-market entertainment, and it always moves me to outright and prolonged laughter to see people take it as high art.

Although now that you can study TV sitcoms in college, maybe I should re-think my aesthetics...

[latteromden]

9. Hey now! It's cross-platform. I hate Macs. I use Opera. ;)

[Crankie Avalon]

10. Yes, I've heard that before...

...about it being the pop entertainment of its day. Sometimes, it really shows, too.

Still, Shakespeare played to the groundlings, as well, yet his plays are today considered probably the highest achievements of the English language.

[Dukkha]

6. I thought it was a web browser

http://www.opera.com

[ulysses]

7. other: annoying

although Pavarotti in a frilly clown outfit might be worth the price of admission...

[skygazer]

12. Depends on the opera

Like anything else. Some of it I find very beautiful and moving - some of it does nothing for me.

As an aside, I used to work in a dog kennel and we always left a radio on - it seemed to soothe the dogs. On Sunday mornings, there was a two hour opera program on the particular station we played and the dogs loved it! For two hours, they would sway and howl in their crates along with the singers - it was very cute.

[sui generis]

14. that's funny

I had a marvelous big old marlboro eyed alpha diesel dyke of a great dane who loved to lay in front of the speaker and drool if I had opera on the stereo, and would occasionally be so moved she would hoo hoo along; she hated male vocals though.

[mcscajun]

13. Opera is thrilling and transcendent...when it's done well.

When it's done by hacks, it makes you want to cringe, crawl under the furniture and stick your fingers in your ears.

Pavarotti at the height of his powers would send shivers down my spine. Like many stars, he hung on too long, unfortunately.

I still remember my first opera at the Met in NY; it was Carmen. Wow. I was hooked from that point on.

Then you have operettas like Die Fledermaus, which is full of Strauss waltzes and happy endings.

Any art form, any, has its fair share of garbage in it. I don't personally care for hip-hop, or rap, but "Gonna Make You Sweat" is still something to "make you Move" :)

And I do the 'bone dance' at Dead shows, and rock out at Allman Bros. concerts, and dance like crazy to good Cajun and Zydeco music.

It's all good.


(nothin' much wrong with Opera the browser, either.)